Amazon 1 vs. Barnes and Noble 0
The best advertisement for Amazon seems to be the Barnes and Noble “customer service” department…
At this time of year customer service is important. As people try and find those elusive Christmas presents the last thing they need is grief from poor customer service. In the space of a couple of days I’ve had to contact online customer service for both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Amazon sent an item that got damaged in their warehouse. Not enough to warrant returning the item, but enough that they should be aware. I received an email response from them within minutes. And no, I’m not talking about the standard “we have received your email and will be back to you soon” automated email, this was from a real live person, addressing the specific issue. An unexpected level of service, and all the more laudable because of it. Issue was resolved quickly. Great customer service.
Barnes & Noble sent a coupon. Great! Books make great presents and cheaper books are even better. So, I went online to use the coupon only to be informed, in red text, that the book chosen did not qualify for the coupon. As with too many coupons nowadays the small print detailing the exclusions was far too long, but I think I pinned it down to the fact that the book was classified as a textbook. Huh? A book of science fiction short stories is a text book? Clearly a mistake on their part, so an email was duly sent to customer service.
Customer Service (Madelyn) replied to say that the coupon coundn’t be applied to the book as it was a textbook and the coupon wasn’t valid on textbooks. Great. Told me nothing I didn’t know already and didn’t help at all.
So I queried it again.
Customer Service (Kris) wrote back to thank me for pointing out the incorrect classification and to assure me they would correct it as soon as possible.
So I wrote back, as the coupon had now expired, asking if I could get the book at the price I would have paid at the weekend, if their data had been correct. A fair question, I think.
Customer Service (Rose) replied to tell me that until the online details had been corrected the coupon could not be applied.
At this stage I got tired of the game and ordered the item from Amazon. A couple of things to note:
No-one at B&N customer service seems to own this issue, even after it was assigned a unique reference. Each response was from a different person. That is not good customer service.
No-one at B&N customer service has actually delivered any customer service. I’ve been told what I already know. They have promised to update the classification for the book. But no-one has actually addressed the issue from the customer standpoint. That isn’t bad customer service, it isn’t customer service at all.
