Dealing with Barnes and Noble

[DawnFalcon]

Obtuse?
...
Oh, that's just the sarcasm fairy. He hangs around my posts a bit.

I wasn't discussing the morals though, I was discussing the practical effects. You can't stop these things leaking to the Darknets (I refer you to Microsoft's paper on this, again), and that means no legal electronic version is choosing to forgo a certain amount of revenue which she would otherwise make. It IS her choice, after all.

But trying to pretend that "concern" will stop some people getting ebooks of her work is rather silly at this point in time. That's all.

Actually, there is one pretty bright point - while I haven't worked on a Harry Potter game, friends of mine have and apparently (unlike some more tech-savvy authors) she doesn't demand contract clauses to allow her to meddle with their development. Heh.

[nikkie]

This is really unfortunate. I had a very different experience with B&N customer service:

1. I purchased the new Wheel of Time prologue.
2. Downloaded to my iPhone.
3. Attempted to open on my iPhone.
4. Application crashed.
5. Downloaded to my Mac.
6. Attempted to open on my Mac
7. Application crashed.

At this point I called up their support and explained the problem. The fellow I spoke to was very polite and mentioned they had had this problem with several ePubs. After walking me through a few debugging options (re-downloading the book and app) and confirming it wasn't user error, he apologized and refunded my money.

That was it. I was a happy customer.

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by BWhite

Truthfully I do not know what you are stating about J.K. Rawlings.

No offense intended, and I don't normally get down on people for grammar or spelling mistakes unless I'm getting paid to, but if I may make a suggestion for future consideration? If you're going to write a long post with repeated mention of a person's name, take a moment to make sure you're spelling it correctly (well, unless you're twisting it for deliberate satirical effect or something).

[BWhite]

Originally Posted by Pardoz

No offense intended, and I don't normally get down on people for grammar or spelling mistakes unless I'm getting paid to, but if I may make a suggestion for future consideration? If you're going to write a long post with repeated mention of a person's name, take a moment to make sure you're spelling it correctly (well, unless you're twisting it for deliberate satirical effect or something).

No offense taken and none given - I never can get that author's name correct.

Okay. So J.K. Rowling, per the title page of her physical book right here.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

It IS her choice, after all.

But... is it? Can she demand that her books are only read under natural light, and not under lightbulbs? Can she force all editions of her books to have less than 9pt type size? Can she choose Chinese translations to be printed left-to-right, so that the readers can get the "real feeling" of reading an English book?

I understand that currently the contracts for printed books and electronic publishing are different, so at the moment it really is her choice. I just hope things change in the future.

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by gr8npwrfl

I sent a letter of complaint about fraud to the California States Attorney about my dealings with Barnes and Noble.

They sent me numerous emails saying there was no refund of any kind for ebooks which I ignored.

A person from Barnes and Noble contacted me today to tell me they had issued a complete refund and to not make any more complaints to the States Attorney's Office.

LOL

All this for $.95 and they probably lost $1,000 in sales

Good on you for seeing this through to the end! I wish more people were as stubborn as you are. Too often people let things like this drop because it's only a $1, but the point is that they didn't deliver what they had promised and they refused to make it right, and that is unacceptable!

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Can she demand that her books are only read under natural light, and not under lightbulbs?

Sure. Good luck to her on enforcing that, though.

Can she force all editions of her books to have less than 9pt type size?

If she puts that in her contract, and the publishers want to sell her book badly enough, you bet.

Can she choose Chinese translations to be printed left-to-right, so that the readers can get the "real feeling" of reading an English book?

Of course. Mind, that would just result in (even more) people reading pirate (NB: not file-shared. Pirate.) editions, but it's a perfectly legal demand to make.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by Pardoz

[on "natural light only"]Sure. Good luck to her on enforcing that, though.

Actually, no. She can't enforce that on the end user because there's no contract involved in retail purchase. So there's no way to impose contract terms on the end user. 1st sale doctrine.

Originally Posted by Pardoz

If she puts that in her contract, and the publishers want to sell her book badly enough, you bet.

Yes, here, because she does have a contract with the publishers.

Originally Posted by Pardoz

Of course. Mind, that would just result in (even more) people reading pirate (NB: not file-shared. Pirate.) editions, but it's a perfectly legal demand to make.

And yes here, too. On both the contract front, and the likely effect of such a contractual provision.

Xenophon

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Pardoz

Of course. Mind, that would just result in (even more) people reading pirate (NB: not file-shared. Pirate.) editions, but it's a perfectly legal demand to make.

I'm not seeing where hijacking at sea comes in. Unauthorised editions, sure, but that's the same crime - making an unauthorised copy - as downloading the book.

[Richard Herley]

It seems Barnes and Noble have had some problems with delivering the nook too:

http://blog.fsck.com/2010/01/dont-buy-a-nook.html

[BWhite]

Originally Posted by Richard Herley

It seems Barnes and Noble have had some problems with delivering the nook too:

http://blog.fsck.com/2010/01/dont-buy-a-nook.html

I stumbled across multiple articles on the Nook, because this house was thinking of buying one. Google search should re-discover many of them.

One article, which I did read, said there was a deal for a 'rebate' for those who ordered a Nook, but could not get it? Then I guess there were a slew of complaints that
1) people went ahead and placed an order
2) with the knowledge they would be getting a rebate
3) then the original order conveniently (for B&N) went *POOF*

Hmmm. I think it was engadget.com or gizmodo.com which posted this article - both sites have their own search functionality if you are curious.

The point is the Nook is/was a popular product and volume of sales seems to have overwhelmed Customer Service at B&N

I read your link - it reads much like the article which I read. Lots of unhappy potential Nook customers out there.

For me, I have always enjoyed going inside of a B&N bricks and mortar, but I am going to pass on their Nook. Currently researching the technological prospects for reading B&N and Fictionwise eBooks on an iPad.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

Yes, here, because she does have a contract with the publishers.

You are right, it can be in a contract. But not everything that can be in a contract is actually enforceable. Contracts sometimes have abusive clauses, or clash with higher laws, etc. I bet there'd be a case against contracts which prevent the vision impaired to enjoy the book or "damage" the Chinese language (though it would depend on the real language policy of the Chinese government, and would only affect books printed/sold in China).

[JSWolf]

It seems the OP was a little too hasty.

I had a similar situation with Fictionwise. I purchased a book and it ended up being a different book. I sent Fictionwise a message via their website about the problem. Few days later the problem was fixed.

So the OP should have asked B&N to fix the problem and given B&N reasonable time to fix the problem. Then if the problem is still not fixed, then ask for the money back.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by Jellby

You are right, it can be in a contract. But not everything that can be in a contract is actually enforceable. Contracts sometimes have abusive clauses, or clash with higher laws, etc. I bet there'd be a case against contracts which prevent the vision impaired to enjoy the book or "damage" the Chinese language (though it would depend on the real language policy of the Chinese government, and would only affect books printed/sold in China).

Full agreement with all of this. I wasn't intending to be addressing anything beyond 1st-sale-doctrine and the lack of a contract with retail purchasers. All the usual legal issues with contracts and what the may or may not include (and what clauses may or may not be enforceable) still remain, and are beyond the scope of my earlier discussion.

And we won't even mention the question of whether those contract provisions would be a good idea....

Xenophon

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It seems the OP was a little too hasty.

I had a similar situation with Fictionwise. I purchased a book and it ended up being a different book. I sent Fictionwise a message via their website about the problem. Few days later the problem was fixed.

So the OP should have asked B&N to fix the problem and given B&N reasonable time to fix the problem. Then if the problem is still not fixed, then ask for the money back.

Kindle CS would have had this fixed in less than 5 minutes, and there is no reason it should require keeping someone on hold for an hour. Remember that Amazon actually offers refunds of their own free will, no state attorney general required!