Quote:
Originally Posted by downeaster59
". . . if marketed intelligently."
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That's B&N's problem in a nutshell. A good example is my recent experience with B&N. I preordered, months ago, Brandon Sanderson's Edgedancer in hardcover. This year alone, I have bought more than 100 hardcovers from B&N, many that I preordered. When Edgedancer was released, instead of sending me my copy, B&N sent me an email telling me that my order was being canceled because
Quote:
Your order contained an item that is no longer scheduled for
release. This may be because the item was discontinued or replaced by a newer version.
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Yet the book was available on its website for instant purchase. The difference was the price. The preorder price was lower than the release price. It appears that B&N simply didn't want to honor the preorder price. I wrote customer service and asked about this and received a response that made no sense. B&N did give me a coupon for 20% off one item, but refused to explain why the preorder wouldn't be fulfilled when the book was clearly available.
B&N simply doesn't understand the concept of the customer comes first, nor does it understand the obvious reasons why it keeps losing business to Amazon. Although people like to say it is because Amazon's prices are lower, often that isn't the case; many times books I have bought at B&N have been the same or lower priced than Amazon. The real difference is in how Amazon handles customer relations and built a mythology around itself.