Barnes and Noble financial news

[John F]

"Barnes & Noble's Stores Provide Relief as Online Sales Plunge"

http://fortune.com/2016/03/03/barnes...=yahoo_fortune

[bgalbrecht]

I'm not surprised their online sales have been lagging. Although I don't think I've seen it happen in the last couple weeks, for years I would have to do things like try a dozen times or more to log in, add something to my cart, or pay for a purchase, only to have it pop up a message saying a server error occurred. If I weren't buying books for my Nook, I probably would have switched to Amazon a long time ago.

[Connallmac]

I tried to order a gift card for my nephew a couple of months ago. They wanted to charge a several dollar delivery fee and they wouldn'the be able to deliver it for over a week. My nephew received an Amazon gift card two days later.

[FatDog]

My Mom bought a Nook so for her birthday I tried to purchase a e-gift card so she could buy some books. This was done a few days before her birthday.

I spoke to my mother and discovered she had received no notice by her birthday.

I eventually was able to contact someone at B&N. "Oh - we had some server problems so a bunch of orders did not go through." So I asked "You had my email address - why didnt you contact me?" Her answer: "We figured people would contact us when their orders did not arrive."

We have gotten spoiled by companies that started with the internet. Barns & Nobile is probably going to be a case study on how NOT to go from a brick and mortar to becoming an etailer.

B&M bookstores are usually pretty good about customer service and helpful in finding what you are looking for, unlike a Best Buy or Walmart. It is surprising that B&N didn't apply that customer service approach from their B&M bookstores to their etail store. When companies have such terrible CS, I think they deserve to go belly up.

[fjtorres]

B&N customer service?

Here, exhibit 665:

http://the-digital-reader.com/2016/0...still-no-clue/

[shalym]

Originally Posted by jswinden

B&M bookstores are usually pretty good about customer service and helpful in finding what you are looking for, unlike a Best Buy or Walmart. It is surprising that B&N didn't apply that customer service approach from their B&M bookstores to their etail store. When companies have such terrible CS, I think they deserve to go belly up.

In my opinion, the Customer service in the "etail store" is no worse than the customer service in their Brick and Mortar store. They don't actually service any of their customers, no matter where they come from.

Shari

[GreenMonkey]

I resisted the Kindle empire for years (prefer the concept of epub, liked instore reading, preferred the Nook itself).

I gave up on B&N when they started the obvious crackdown moving towards ebooks in their app / nook only (not being able to download ebooks from the site any more, etc). They should be making it easier for folks to get their ebooks, not harder.

Other bad misplays (in general) included trying to get their own appstore going for the Nook Color instead of going with Google Play (they had a decent little tablet at a bargain price at a time tablets were all like $400 devices). They could have had a very competitive little tablet as an e-reader but people didn't want yet another appstore.

I don't order physical books from B&N either at this point. Like the story at the digital reader posted above (about the pre-order price guarantee). I pre-order hardcovers at Amazon where I know I'll get the best price up until release.

[Froide]

Originally Posted by jswinden

B&M bookstores are usually pretty good about customer service and helpful in finding what you are looking for, unlike a Best Buy or Walmart. It is surprising that B&N didn't apply that customer service approach from their B&M bookstores to their etail store. When companies have such terrible CS, I think they deserve to go belly up.

I second everything you wrote, except two points:

• BN's designated in-store NOOK Support staff's woefully unhelpful servicing NOOK devices (not for lack of trying, but because they lack proper training). All they seem to know how to do is turn devices on and off, or perform soft or hard resets, tasks I could perform myself.
• I have always received great customer service at both Best Buy and Walmart. In fact, my preferred place to buy electronics and appliances is Best Buy. Not only do they match brick-and-mortar competitors' prices and encourage customers to try out the display/demo devices onsite, but Best Buy's staff is well-informed, technically proficient, patient, and informative about the products they sell.

[murg]

Originally Posted by jswinden

B&M bookstores are usually pretty good about customer service and helpful in finding what you are looking for, unlike a Best Buy or Walmart. It is surprising that B&N didn't apply that customer service approach from their B&M bookstores to their etail store. When companies have such terrible CS, I think they deserve to go belly up.

I think the difference is that for the stores, B&N hired retail management. Retail management understands customer service.

For the eStore, they hired call centre management. Call centre management is all about getting people off the phone as quickly as possible.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by murg

I think the difference is that for the stores, B&N hired retail management. Retail management understands customer service.

For the eStore, they hired call centre management. Call centre management is all about getting people off the phone as quickly as possible.

Call center *performance* is all about the scripts.
And the B&N scripts are known to be short and inflexible.

[murg]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Call center *performance* is all about the scripts.
And the B&N scripts are known to be short and inflexible.

Yeah. Two Words: F*** Off