I received an email from B&N last night claiming that I hadn’t paid for three Nook books because my credit card wasn’t valid. The thing is that I ordered the books and they were downloaded to the device in early September. The card I used then was deactivated a few days ago because of a fraudulent charge, but it was fine in September when I was charged for the purchase the same day I made it. So they are attempting to charge me twice for a purchase made three months ago.

The B&N site seems to be having some problems because when I click on links for contact information I get error messages. I became suspicious that all this was some sort of phishing effort, but without going into all the rigamarole with a rep at customer service, I received an email confirming I’d canceled two books that were pending on the same order, so everything seems legitimate, at least from the standpoint of dealing with the actual company.

Any similar experiences or comments?

I'd still call B&N. Something just doesn't feel right here.

All I can tell you is that they run the hands-down crappiest website in online buisness - to the point that I'll ask the local store to order in books for me whenever I have no other source for them. They essentially put together a sorry site years ago and have been trying to patch it together ever since instead of going back to zero and putting in a website that works from one end to the other. It doesn't help you much, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if you're on the receiving end of multiple instances of bad programming in their system.

The particularly frustrating thing for me is that it seems nearly impossible to get a phone number to someone who knows what they're doing. It may not be much of a suggestion, but if you've got proof of payment (they must've emailed you something like a receipt), you may be able to talk one of the store managers in the nearest brick'n'mortar into helping you find someone in the system to talk to on the phone. If nothing else, the people in the physical stores around here are very familiar with complaints about the online system.

B&N made me start using Amazon.

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
All I can tell you is that they run the hands-down crappiest website in online buisness ....

That I know, and as I told the rep this morning, if they are having financial difficulties, their online site and service are probably in no small part the reason why.

I will probably call back in a day or two, but was curious if anyone else might have noticed anything, especially as I can't get to parts of their site.

And they named their digital book a Nook e-reader.