Barnes & Noble

Reviews 3

MI

Michael Tuchband

The bookstore is fine, like any other Barnes and Noble. But I was mislead about the membership benefits and the employees mislead me about cancelling, clearly not having my best interests in mind.. I went to this Barnes and Noble location and picked up ~$100 in books. When I went to check out, the cashier recommended a membership since it would help me save money on the books I wanted. I figured I would ask about the details and she said it would be $25 per year and that I would get 10% off my book purchases and ~$50 off books soon afterwards by email. I told her I thought that would be nice since I could get a book less than $50 for free next time Im in, already with a book or two in my mind. She agreed with me and I paid for the membership. I thought it was a nice way to welcome a new member to the Barnes and Noble membership. A few days later I check my email and find that Barnes and Noble sent me a bunch of coupons worth ~$50. Its not the "$50 off your next book purchase" coupon I was lead to believe, but $5 off a childrens book here, or $5 off your purchase of $40 or more there.. not the kind thatll be very useful unless your doing all your shopping at B&N.. Thinking this was pretty crappy, I wanted to cancel my membership and get a refund (of course very willing to pay full price for the books I got). I found on the website that I could ask for a refund if I went to the store that issued my membership within 30 days of the purchase, so I walked over to do just that. When I got there, I asked the customer service person if he could help me cancel my membership and get a refund. He said I couldnt do that if Ive already used my membership to buy books. I told him I checked the website and it said I could. He then said to see the cashiers. Then I asked a cashier to please cancel my membership and refund me the membership fee. She said that if I had used it already that I couldnt get a refund.. Then I told her about the website saying that I could do just that if its within 30 days. She nodded and seemed to acknowledge that Id done my homework and called the manager over. When I asked the same thing to the manager, she gave the same line.. "We cant cancel your membership and give a refund if youve already made a purchase with it". So I said the website permits me to cancel and get a refund in 30 days and she finally said ok.. Theyre obviously pushing memberships really hard and willing to fudge the truth about what you get in order to sell them to you. Its ridiculous and Im really unhappy that they were not forthright with me in the first place, and not willing to help me when I eventually wanted to cancel. For some people who really like Barnes and Noble and spend a lot of money there and get gifts and snacks and toys and games there, the membership may be worth it. Dont be fooled by the employees here about the benefits of the membership without checking exactly what youll be getting in return, because it seems like you cant trust what they say.. because of this fiasco theyve lost a customer in me from now on.

JO

Johnny Doe

So Ive seen a lot of hate for the customer service at the store. I worked at that desk for nearly a year. Many of those negative interactions may have been with me, and I just wanted to say a few things. Firstly, that hate is entirely justified, but directing it at the people AT the counter isnt. 1. The store is understaffed, and the managers have people at the desk setting up displays, fixing the shelves throughout the store, and covering other peoples breaks all during a 4 hour shift. Often times I would be given a project to do, be expected to fix up the entire store, and help an average of 10 or so customers every 30 minutes. Theres simply not enough time and not enough people to accomplish all this, and Im the one they would be upset with if it didnt get done. So if I ever looked inconvenienced to be helping you, Im sorry it was not my intent. I just had too many things to do and not enough time to do it. 2. Im going to be frank. The people at the desk arent magicians, and Barnes&Noble doesnt carry every book ever made. There are many, many, many books we just dont carry in the store, and quite a few we dont carry online either. There are a lot of times when there really is NOTHING we can do. 3. The managers at B&N treat their employees abhorrently and pay us nothing. I was their for a little under a year, and I was already one of the longest staying employees at that level. I had seen a number of people quit or be fired, quite a few employees hired and hated it, and two people who both came and went during my time their. 4. This also goes back to my first point a bit, but during my last few months there they actually told us NOT to use the desk. We were told to use the NOOKs so that we could look up the book on the go. They thought it would speed us up and promote the item (It took longer to use, and kept me from positive customer service, and no one wants the NOOK because it sucks). This was actually one of the disagreements that led to me leaving. 5. Ive also seen some complaints about being kicked out if you dont buy anything and I do have to say, its a business, not a library. If you want to just lounge and read/work on something, you can do that here ----> 6510 Stockton Ave, El Cerrito, CA 94530 All in all I just want you to know that the employees hate it as much as you do, and to not be so hard on them, because its managements fault and theyre just following orders.

DE

Dee S

I give this palce a 1 star. I wouldnt give it any if I could. First I went to the information counter. The young kid there seemed to think it was an inconvenience that I was even talking with him. He said I needed to speak to someone else, but that person wasnt around. So, I could hang around and look for him. Really?! Is this what the information desk is for? or customer service? The reason I was there was because I had called earlier to see if a book I was looking for was available. The guy on the phone told me it wasnt in the store, but I could review the book online if I just came in and use one of their Nook tablets. Well when the guy who handled the Nook tablets finally came by. He told me just type in the name and walked away. Well, when I typed in then name of the book...nothing came up When I typed in the author...nothing came up. Then some other guy came up and asked if he could help. Apparently it was just words they were told to speak, but not really mean. He said very rudely, "well, if it doesnt come up, theres nothing I can do". Nothing came to this guys mind like... Let me look on the computers and see if we can locate one for you. Or, Maybe we can order it for you. I called to avoid all this...but apparently no one there knows what they are doing. Avoid this store at all costs. They are very RUDE and not helpful at all. NEGATIVE 5 STARS IF POSSIBLE.