Saturday, July 21, 2007

Why Barnes and Nobles Sucks

I am writing in regards to the extremely poorly managed Harry Potter and the Death Hallows "midnight launch party" held at the Woodland Hills location. 6100 Topanga Canyon Blvd Suite 1340 Woodland Hills, CA 91367. I had reserved a copy of the Special Edition of the new Harry Potter title and was ASSURED that I would receive my copy if I attended the "party" this evening.
I arrived at the store at 6:20P.M. and stood in line until 7:00P.M. when I received a wristband.
I then returned at 10:15 and was directed to a line OUTSIDE the store. No party of any type in sight.
The line started moving at midnight, pretty much the only thing that happened as advertised.
I was allowed into the store at 12:30. When I got to the register and told the cashier that I was picking up a PREVIOUSLY RESERVED copy of the special edition I was informed that the store had already sold out of the item in question. I waited more than 2 hours in a line for an item I was assured I would be able to purchase only to find out that was completely untrue.
There was no apology offered, just a "you can come back another time."
I am disgusted and extremely angry with this.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

How infuriating!! What was the point of the reservation? what was the point of the wristband?

I wonder how many people were in your similar situation...

shayera said...

Jennifer, I walked out of that store so angry!
And then I drove to the two closest bookstores. Where the lines were even huger.
So no book for me last night.
But luckily, Target opens at 8 and they had the edition I wanted. So I'm going to eat breakfast and settle down with my book.
I sent that letter to Corporate. I don't expect to hear from them.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you got your book. Enjoy the read!

I'm glad you sent a letter. You're right, it probably won't do any good and they don't have to worry about any other Harry Potter releases. Grrrrr. Maybe others will write as well. You couldn't have been the only one.

Hey, if you finish before Pinko, maybe you should leave a comment about how it ends! ;)

shayera said...

Violate the sanctity of the no spoiler rule?!?! Can't do it Jennifer.
I promised to punch anyone in the nose who spoiled even a second for me and I would never spoiler it for others.
Even though taking the piss out of PP is awesome fun.
I'm loving the book!

Anonymous said...

Desiree was working at Borders when HBP came out. They had a very STRICT policy that a "special edition" COULD NOT be sold unless someone had their ticket. Guess B&N wasn't so thoughtful.

Of course, this isn't really meant as an endorsement for Borders either... :/

Just about to start reading our copy! :)

shayera said...

David, I thought it was wonderful. I'm still tearing up.

Adorable Girlfriend said...

Geesh. I saw they had a bunch of them at K-Mart today. I couldn't believe how many there were.

I could suggest that you could write a letter to the store manager of the specific location. Sometimes what I find is that they do care, even if the associates don't. I've gotten some really great stuff that way -- free item I intended to purchase, money off, gift certificates, etc.

Each time a manager thanked me for letting them know what was wrong.

Conversely, when I see something that goes well, I write letters. For instance, I love the DQ waffle cone blizzard. I sent DQ a note to tell them that. They deserve compliments, not just complaints too!

Do enjoy the read! I heard PP read his book in one day or so. I didn't know he was so committed.

zoe said...

that's atrocious service - write to the management.

as for the book in question .... i really can't stand harry pothead, but i do hope that you enjoy the book :)

presently i'm reading rachel north's book - "out of the tunnel". it's incredibly moving.

shayera said...

AG, I did ask to speak to a manager. "No one is available right now." Yeah.
I'm definitely of the belief you reward good behavior. I call people's bosses all the time.
But this was really rotten.
And I didn't want to explode all over, because there were excited kids in line and I didn't want to wreck it for them. I did write a letter to the B&N corporate office. It's totally wrong behavior.
See, the thing is, I've worked in bookstores, and I know a lot of the staff in a lot of the local stores. Not one of my friends would have ever run an event like this.

Zoe, not everything is for everyone. I can't wait to get your book! I pre-ordered it from Amzazon.uk at the same time as I ordered my HP. I'm not sure what I'm picking up next.