Kaplan Publishing is giving away free eBooks starting 1/4

[Ken Irving]

Update: The total is now up to $89.93 and I have spent several hours on the phone (on the 10th, 14th, and today), mostly on hold, and have been disconnected at least three times. At the end of the first call on the 10th, I was told that B&N would correct the overcharge. After this had not happened by the 14th, I called and waited again, and the rep I got could not get her terminal to work. After rebooting and still no luck, she said she would send me along to someone else, at which point instead I was disconnected. Tired of that scene, I waited a few days and finally decided to climb back on the horse today. After about a 25-minute wait, I got a rep who eventually (each time I have to read off 7 order numbers to them, which takes time) said that, yes, I had been charged full price for free books and this would be corrected on my account within 24 hours. I asked him to email me confirmation of what he had just said, which he said he couldn't do, at which point I asked for his supervisor. She came on, and after looking things over started to fix the problem while I was on the phone. She kept having problems, putting me on hold, and then coming back - all of this just on the first order number, mind you. Finally, as I had come to fear by now, she tried to put me on hold again, and instead disconnected me.

All of the reps have been very courteous, by the way, but in each case they seemed to have trouble doing simple things like calling up my account or locating the order numbers in question. And the phone thing, well, enough said about that. As aggravating as this all is, I'm not near giving up on B&N because I'm fine with my Nook and up to this point have had only minor gripes about purchases I've been making since last May, not to mention all the freebies that I wasn't charged for. But in the midst of the good news about what they're doing right, they clearly have a major problem, so I think it's a sad case.