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This certainly happens all over the place with debit cards. Gas stations (as mentioned) checking into hotels or resorts that allow you to charge things to your room, rental cars, and online purchases.
Part of what it is with online business' is how they report revenue and sales post SOX laws. If they recognize the sales the day the preorder is made, they have to preauth the entire ammount (which with a debit card puts a hold on the funds). Some vendors will only pre-auth a dollar to be sure the card number and the address are valid. I've used the same bank for checking for 15 years, and due to my average balance and my history, I've called and had the bank release back holds when I'm balancing my checking online to get it to match up in quicken. The bank certainly can release the hold if they want to, but they may be liable to the biller when they do because they've already authorized it, and want to ensure they're not out their money.
Being familiar with online commerce and credit card gateways, this is certainly common to Debit cards, and not B&N being villains.
As I was building up my financial stability after college, i would never pay online with a debit card in case there was an error or issue because i'd be tying up real funds vs a credit line. Cash is king.
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