Barnes & Noble - think twice!

This is not related to Amateur Radio in any shape, way or form; but it might be something you might like to keep in the back of your mind.

I had an unpleasant experience at Barnes & Noble. I hope none of you ever run into this; but you might want to think twice before you purchase books from them with the intentions of giving them as gifts.

My sister bought three books from her local Barnes & Noble back on April 13th. One was for our mom to be given as a Mother's Day gift, while the other two were bought for me as a birthday gift. It became apparent to my sister that the one she bought for our mom was a duplicate. Our mom already has the book; so my sister went back and exchanged it for another.

She gave the other two books to me for my birthday last week; and as luck would have it, I had them also. She included the receipt as she suspected I might already have them. Normally you would think that this was no problem.

I took the books to our local Barnes & Noble and explained what happened. I didn't want a refund, just some other books. I was told that since the original purchase was over 14 days old; and that one of the books from the original purchase of three had already been exchanged, that I was out of luck. It did not matter that these were purchased as a gift. The information on the back of the receipt mentions a 60 day period of return for gift purchases! That was from the person behind the register. Speaking with the manager/supervisor yielded no further result; just a parroting of the company line that I received from the young woman behind the register.

This is highly disappointing; and in my opinion is pretty poor customer service. I will find it VERY hard to step into a Barnes & Noble for a very long time. I suppose there's always Borders or some other stores to go to; or even Amazon.com for that matter.

I fired off an e-mail to the Customer Service department that I found at the bn.com Website; but I am not holding my breath for any response or happier outcome. So be very careful when you go to purchase gifts for your friends and loved ones at Barnes & Noble. If you buy it too early, you just might find out that you wasted your money.

72 de Larry W2LJ