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Barnes & Noble’s digital stumbling block: customer service

Chris Walters — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:09:02 +0000

In the past few years that I’ve been writing about digital publishing, I’ve always been able to count on the blog An American Editor to be pro-Sony or pro-Nook — or at the very least to always present a non-Kindle point of view. So I was surprised last week to read his post “And Then There Was One”, although not surprised by the story he shares in it.

The one paragraph summary is that Barnes & Noble hasn’t been delivering his daily digital issue of The New York Times early each morning — you know, the time period when most people who traditionally subscribe to a daily paper expect to get it. On good days it arrives at an acceptable if not ideal time, while on other days it arrives around noon or even later. Despite selling the subscription to their own customers and accepting their money, Barnes & Noble won’t take responsibility for the problem or provide any refunds; B&N’s customer service reps say it’s the newspaper’s fault.

From Barnes & Noble’s perspective, this should be both a huge problem and a simple one to address: huge because the company is failing to provide the bare minimum level of service expected for a daily subscription, and simple because it should be ridiculously easy to give the customer refunds for undelivered or late issues. A refund won’t solve the bigger mystery of why a digital copy isn’t making it to the customer’s Nook at least as early as the print copy made it to his doorstep, but it would help make the customer feel better. It would also be the right thing to do ethically, since Barnes & Noble is failing to uphold its side of the subscription agreement.

An American Editor has what I think are very good reasons to want a company besides Amazon to succeed in the digital publishing space, so his frustrations with this issue are made even worse by the fact that he’s witnessing first hand B&N’s failure to provide the bare minimum value required to compete effectively.

I have made no secret of my dislike of Barnes & Noble for their lack of decent customer service for ebook buyers. I think their customer service is terrible, and their no-refunds policy should be a deal breaker for anyone who takes consumer rights seriously. But like An American Publisher, I want B&N to succeed at ebooks. Amazon needs the competition, and the company’s Nook product line has forced Amazon and even Kobo to raise the bar on hardware quality and pricing.

But to succeed, the company has to rethink its position on customer service. Its executive team seems stuck on the idea that customer service is a cost center that must be controlled, but as any retailer that feels steamrolled by Amazon should understand by now, it can also provide a competitive edge and — believe it or not — help lead to that most elusive of marketplace creatures, customer loyalty.

The cringeworthy coda to An American Editor’s post is in the comments following it, where a reader tweeted about the story and attracted the attention of a B&N social media person who offered to help. Never mind that it has by now become a sad trick of big companies to ignore private customer service issues but pounce on the ones made public; what really made it comical was that An American Editor went ahead and emailed the B&N rep as instructed, and got this reply:

Your feedback is very important to us at Barnes & Noble and we appreciate your taking the time to send us your opinion/request. We assure you that we have reviewed the issues you have raised with the appropriate department. We truly value your patronage; your online shopping experience is extremely important to us.

And Amazon’s power grows.

Update

After I wrote this post but before I published it, An American Editor posted an update to the story this morning. A day after receiving that pointless auto-response, a human at B&N did contact the blogger to apologize. She told him that they were investigating the call logs and looking into retraining their CSRs, and she offered him a $50 gift card which he declined.

An American Editor says B&N deserves acknowledgment, perhaps kudos, for finally trying to solve the problem. But the truth is, it’s not good behavior when a company publicly apologizes to only the most vocal customers and then attempts to bribe them. It’s merely another example of a company taking the laziest, least innovative path to customer service: wait for a public exception to occur, then make a great show of stomping it out.

Yes, I know I’m a cynical bastard. I have reason to be. I blogged at The Consumerist for a few years, and I saw this game played out repeatedly. Someone would write to us with a complaint about a company — typically a retailer, bank, cable or phone service provider, or restaurant — and we’d post it. Then the company, which up to that point had privately stonewalled the customer and left the issue to die in CSR purgatory, would reach out to us to offer help. Meanwhile, we’d get three other customers emailing us with “me too!” stories that we didn’t publicize and who weren’t helped; or we’d get a nearly identical complaint six months later, which indicated that the problem hadn’t truly been resolved. In other words, publicly performed customer service is almost always really a PR move, not a sincere attempt to improve service. (The only company I can think of right now that acted with full sincerity was Domino’s Pizza, because it actually tried to address its entire customer base instead of just cooing at the individuals who were directly affected by some bad employee behavior.)

Okay, I apologize for straying so far off of pure ebook coverage. It’s just that for nearly a decade I’ve repeatedly seen technology companies — which B&N has now become, to a certain extent — release innovative hardware and services, then drop the ball when it comes to follow through at the customer level. Amazon and Apple have figured out that this is important; if B&N wants to stay alive in the ebook space, it had better do the same.

(Photo: Keoni Cabral)

Five reasons NOT to get a Nook Touch

Chris Walters — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:28:10 +0000

The new Nook Touch looks sweet, right? It’s smaller and lighter than a Kindle 3 but with the same bright E Ink display, and the touchscreen is a far superior way to navigate than a d-pad that looks like it escaped from a Nokia factory.

I finally got to test drive a Nook Touch yesterday, right after sitting in a coffee shop reading my Kindle 3 for an hour, and I have to admit I was instantly in love; I wanted to leave my Kindle 3 behind at Barnes & Noble and bring home a Nook Touch instead. Even anchored by a security cable, it felt lighter and easier to hold while reading.

But that was only a brief infatuation, and this morning I’m glad my Kindle is still with me. Because as much as I loved playing with the Nook Touch, I’m not willing to come on board until Barnes & Noble fine-tunes some issues with the device and its customer service.

Two notes before I begin:

These won’t be dealbreakers for every consumer, but they’re real issues that you should be aware of.
If you’re savvy with computers and/or consumer technology, the Nook Touch can be rooted and you can do all sorts of fun things with it, so some of the limitations below won’t apply to you.

1. There’s no way to email yourself documents or web pages

If you want to sideload personal documents or ebooks, you have to do it via USB cable while the Nook Touch is tethered to your PC, or load it onto a memory card and insert that into the Nook Touch.

By comparison, every Kindle is assigned an email address upon purchase, and you can email various documents to it from anywhere. Lots of third party developers have taken advantage of this to provide easy ways to send your Kindle web content, including Readability (my new favorite), Instapaper and Read It Later. You can also set up Calibre, the free ebook library manager, to email RSS feeds or ebooks to your Kindle.

2. The browser is hidden and may not be as functional as the Kindle browser

Although Amazon has always called it an “experimental” feature, every Kindle model so far has come with a web browser that you can access directly. The Kindle 3′s browser is in fact fairly advanced and does a great job at HTML rendering.

You can access the browser from a Nook Touch, but not in an obvious way—there’s no menu option, so instead you type a URL in the search field. (The Kindle 3 offers this shortcut as well, but it’s in addition to the menu option. Amazon also advertises the web browser as a feature, whereas B&N makes no mention of a web browser at all in its Nook Touch marketing.)

I’m pretty sure the Nook Touch demo unit I played with was set up to kick me out of the browser after a short period, but I was never able to get beyond a Google search page using the search field shortcut. On Google, I could then search for another page, but inevitably the browser would quit and I’d be redirected to the Nook’s home page.

3. Activating the Nook Touch is a pain

Teleread has published a detailed review of the Nook Touch by a blogger named John Schember, and while it’s mostly positive, his description of the mandatory First Run Wizard shows just how far B&N still has to go before mastering the “it just works” design philosophy.

First, John says, you have to be online so the Nook Touch can be activated by B&N’s servers. If you can’t get online at home, you have to go to a B&N store or somewhere with free public Wi-Fi. By contrast, Kindles bought from Amazon ship pre-registered, and in fact you can still use your Kindle to read ebooks even if you never register it or activate the wireless connection.

Next, you have to agree to a 178 page Terms of Service document. Most of the legalese is for the B&N account that you will use with the device, but it’s still an unsettling experience to pay for a device outright and suddenly be forced to agree to a lengthy list of things you can and can’t do on it. As John writes, “It’s my reader, I bought it, I’m not renting it from B&N, they should not be dictating anything to me about the use of my property!”

And finally, you have to have a B&N account. John sums up the problem with this pretty clearly:

Again I do not want my Nook connecting to the internet. I do not want to download books using the Nook. I do not want to register it with my B&N account. I do not use the connectivity features nor do I want them. The Nook does not make this an option. You must sign into a B&N account which registers the device with B&N before you can use the device.

Certainly most people will expect and want the Nook to be able to easily connect to B&N, but if you’re not one of them, you’re out of luck.

4. Barnes & Noble uses the home screen for advertising

One result of the forced registration, notes John in his review, is that B&N loads samples onto your Nook at the end. You can archive them so they’re removed from your Nook, but again, by comparison Amazon treats your Kindle as your Kindle and doesn’t put any ebook on it without your permission.

Worse than that, in my opinion, is B&N reserves nearly 50% of the home page to market new books to you in the context of “expert suggestions.” B&N doesn’t make it clear how this section will work—in some shots it looks like your friends’ recommendations will appear there (assuming you have extroverted friends with Nooks), and in other shots it looks like the company will suggest titles. Either way, it’s outside content that’s intended to get you to buy more books.

Amazon does include advertising on special discounted Kindles, but the difference is you have to essentially opt-in (by choosing the “special offers” model), and Amazon compensates you with a $25 price cut. If you just want to compare where book recommendations appear, on the Kindle they show up when you visit the store on your device. Otherwise you don’t see them.

It’s true that at least Nook’s ads are for books, not (as with Amazon) credit cards or special sales. Still, this means that every time you activate your Nook to start reading, you’ll be hit with the E Ink equivalent of in-store advertising from Barnes & Noble.

5. Barnes & Noble customer service is awful

Amazon offers a refund policy for Kindle purchases. Barnes & Noble does not. To me, that alone is enough of a differentiator to make me want to shop from Amazon, but it won’t sway everyone.

Here are a couple of more subjective examples that I think illustrate how crummy B&N is with customer service:

First, in John’s review, he mentions that by default B&N sometimes pushes his Nook files to him in PDB format. PDB files work on the first Nook but not on the Nook Touch. When John called customer service to find out what he could do, he was told he simply couldn’t read those books on his Nook! After some online searching, John found that he was only receiving PDB files because he was using a Mac, and in Safari you can fake a different browser’s identity (e.g. Firefox or IE) and receive the EPUB format instead.

The point is, B&N’s own customer service was useless, and in fact essentially told John he couldn’t read the Nook ebooks he’d paid for, without offering a solution. John writes:

B&N support is terrible and will often make you more confused than help you. I am not confident in B&N support and there is quite a bit of miscommunication throughout the company.

Second, my own recent personal experience with B&N’s customer service was hands down the worst I’ve had with any company in at least five years. I’d purchased a Groupon offer and gave the code to my sister, who then applied it along with two gift cards to a big order of books for her sons. Everything we did was within the rules of both Groupon’s and B&N’s fine print (believe me, I quadruple-checked), but B&N’s overzealous fraud department flagged her order and canceled it without explaining why. The easiest thing would have been to walk away and buy the books elsewhere, but we now had two gift card balances and a Groupon purchase invalidated, so we were forced to deal with it. It took—no kidding—ten business days and over twenty phone calls, along with at least three order reversals from active to canceled to active again, before B&N sent the books. And then they left out two of the titles. Their fraud department still thinks my sister is some low-rent con artist, I think.

Although that concerned physical books and not the Nook, it soured me on B&N for a long time, especially since the problem wasn’t with physical inventory but with payment types (meaning it overlaps the Nook space). I’m not surprised at all to see that John couldn’t get any useful information about the format problem when he called.

For my needs, the first issue—not being able to email myself content—is a huge problem. I use my Kindle as an extension of my desktop, shooting web pages and articles over to it so I can read them later when I’m not at my desk, and I like the fact that I can email ebooks to it from Calibre.

I’m guessing the online/registration issues are less bothersome for most consumers. After all, the Nook is designed to work with the cloud, and to do that it has to be online and registered.

I think customer service is a big deal, though. My personal experience with B&N is an extreme case, but I also hate the lack of a refund policy, and as John discovered you may not be able to trust B&N with even basic technical support if a problem arises.

There are plenty of well-documented reasons to buy a Nook Touch, so I’m not saying it’s a bad choice. Just make sure you know what you’re getting into before you commit to it.

Nook Color gets new update, inches closer to iPad

Chris Walters — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:07:30 +0000

Today Barnes & Noble won the Press Release war against Amazon, with the announcement of a significant OS udpate to the Nook Color that along with subtle improvements brings this handful of splashy new features:

a custom App Store that includes games, productivity apps, and content apps like Pandora;
an IMAP/POP email client that works with Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail and AOL, and that supports push notifications on the home screen;
Adobe Flash and AIR support; and
LendMe service that lets you list your shareable Nook titles for friends, and see their lists as well.

While an app store is a huge deal for the Nook Color, you might want to temper your expectations: PCMag.com writes that currently there’s only about 150 listed. B&N says 5,000 developers are on board to produce apps for the store, but even if they all deliver it’s clear the selection is going to be modest — somewhere far above what Kindle can offer, but far below what’s available on iOS or even Android Market.

Still, the fact remains that this is a $250 Android-powered tablet that can do an awful lot. If your main reason for wanting an iPad is to read books and magazines, Nook Color is worth serious consideration, especially if Apple moves ahead with its threat to ban competitors’ ebook apps in June.

Barnes & Noble says it will be pushing the update out to current Nook Color owners starting today, but if you’re impatient you can visit www.nookcolor.com/update and do it yourself.

Refurbished Nook Wi-Fi on sale for $80

Chris Walters — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:35:58 +0000

Barnes & Noble is offloading a trailer full of refurbished Nook Wi-Fi devices, apparently, because the price has been slashed to $80 with free shipping. By comparison, a brand-new Nook Wi-Fi costs $150, and a “certified pre-owned” version usually costs $120.

The refurbished model comes with a 1-year limited warranty and a 14-day return policy (you pay return shipping).

On page speed and usability, this older Nook model will never compete against the Kindle 3, but on the other hand: $80! That’s a great price.

Barnes & Noble eBay Store [via eBookNewser]

(Photo: allaboutgeorge)

American Airlines giving away 30 Nook Colors this month

Chris Walters — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:47:16 +0000

American Airlines is promoting its new Android app by giving away one free Nook Color every day this month until April 28th. To enter, install the free Android app and launch it, or visit AA’s website and submit your email address and name.

There’s lots o’ fine print as always, but the main rules are you have to be a legal resident of the U.S. or Puerto Rico, and be 18 years or older. You can enter twice.

“Mobile Million Sweepstakes” [via Android Community]

Expect more educational Kindle apps soon, hints developer

Chris Walters — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 20:48:27 +0000

AppleInsider wrote today that the developer for an iOS periodic table app was invited by Amazon to port it over to the Kindle platform:

[The developer] contacted AppleInsider to note that Amazon had invited him via email to bring the app to Kindle, noting that the company was especially interested in educational apps.

As AppleInsider notes, Barnes & Noble recently announced that it will release an update to the Nook Color in the coming weeks that will give it many more tablet-like capabilities — including, I imagine, the ability to play immensely popular casual games like Angry Birds. You can already do this on the Nook Color if you hack it, but the point is, the B&N update will bring this functionality to the masses.

The Kindle clearly can’t really compete with that sort of tablet whizbangery, but it’s great at less processor-intensive content like reference works and study aids.

It’s not clear from the AppleInsider post whether the developer is speculating about this or whether Amazon said as much to him in its email, so like most Kindle-related news, don’t take it too seriously until there’s proof.

“Amazon inviting Apple’s iOS developers to port apps to Kindle” [AppleInsider]
(Photo: -ajp and Atomium)

Free coffee this Saturday when you demo a Nook Color

Chris Walters — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:47:27 +0000

For a single small coffee, I’m certainly not suggesting you make a special trip to your nearby Barnes & Noble tomorrow for a guided tour of the Nook Color. However, if you were planning on dropping by a B&N soon anyway, Saturday the 26th is free coffee day.

Refurbished Nook Wi-Fi on sale for $99

Chris Walters — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:51:51 +0000

Barnes & Noble sells refurbished Nook Wi-Fi units for $119, but right now Buy.com is selling the same thing for $99 with free shipping. Both stores say the device comes with 90 days complimentary tech support and a 1 year warranty. By comparison, new Nooks are $149.

I’m not a big fan of the Nook Wi-Fi myself — I never warmed to the LCD touch panel at the bottom — but it’s got some great strengths, the biggest of which is that it uses the ePub format. This means you can read Kobo and Sony ebooks as well as most library ebooks on it, which just isn’t possible on the otherwise terrific Kindle.

Nook Wi-Fi refurbished for $99 [Buy.com]

(Photo: AMagill)

Groupon offering $20 Barnes & Noble gift card for $10

Chris Walters — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 13:32:20 +0000

Update: The deal ~~may or may not have expired already~~ is still on, but Groupon is still having traffic problems. If you buy into the deal but can’t log in, try http://my.groupon.com/login instead to get to your account and print the PDF coupon.

Original post:
Remember that $20-for-$10 Amazon deal that LivingSocial offered a couple of weeks ago? Now Barnes & Noble is offering the same thing, only this time through Groupon.

The offer is good for three more days, and the credit expires on April 10th.

$20 for $10 Barnes & Noble Offer at Groupon [via GalleyCat]

Amazon and Barnes & Noble push apps to more device platforms

Chris Walters — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:53:22 +0000

Both companies have been rolling out or announcing new versions of their reading apps over the past several days. First, Amazon promised that it plans to release Kindle apps for future Android and Windows tablets that come to market (this week is the annual Consumer Electronics Show, where such devices usually first appear). Then it announced a new app for Windows Phone 7 at www.amazon.com/kindleforwindowsphone.

Barnes & Noble counter-released an announcement that it’s now offering a Nook Kids app for free on the iPad. Actually, the app was released on December 23rd, but I suppose B&N wants to get in on the CES coverage as well.

If you’ve got kids, the iPad Nook Kids app is a perfectly fine replacement for owning an actual Nook Color. It pretty much replicates the bookseller’s custom read-along titles exactly–and it’s a vast improvement over anything iBooks is offering right now. (Although version 1.0.0 seems to have a bug where it crashes if wireless is turned off.)