Barnes and Noble Made Me An Amazon Customer
by Joubert - Written: Nov 06 '02
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Barnes and Noble’s online arm, bn.com, sacrificed me to Amazon for the cost of a CD.
In what was most likely the worst customer service exchange the company suffered that week, I demanded satisfaction after the company admitted having an order, allegedly shipping same to a gift recipient and said order never showing. Unfortunately for the reps on the B&N side, I had already used their shipper, their email software and knew their processes. All I asked was that a duplicate CD be sent to my friend via overnight delivery. All I got was a credit and yet another form letter.
In all honesty, my first email to the company was strident and demanding. That’s the way we finicky customers sometimes present our cases. By the third, I was vowing to never do business with B&N again. I’m not a big account – maybe a few hundred bucks a year, sometimes more when I’m ordering for work. But my lifetime value as a customer is huge, and the damage done to the B&N brand in my family and the gift recipient’s family is something the company will have a tough time overcoming.
The first thing I did was strip my personal web site of the B&N affiliate links. Maybe they’ll return as Amazon links one day, but they’re not going to Barnes and Noble. The second thing I did was create an Amazon wish list and actually tell people that me, the secretive one, had actually published a wish list. Yep, took all my savvy web friends right before the holidays and sent them to Amazon.
The company won’t cry over the loss, but I feel better. And the funny thing was that my goodwill was easily salvageable. I simply wanted my friend to get the in-print CD we ordered for her within several weeks. When the company missed its mark (the CD never arrived although my credit card charge was eventually reversed), I gave them multiple opportunities to rectify the problem only to be met with email templates.
If You’re Going To Shop There Anyway
BN.com, late to the online game, has been chasing Amazon since its inception. The publicly traded company has yet to post a profit, although losses are narrowing. Despite investment community pressure, the company continues to stick to its course of selling core media products such as books, video and music rather than branching into other areas. This decision has held the company’s annual revenues to approximately $400 million versus the well over $3 billion Amazon will sell this year.
So selection will be limited. You won’t be able to add a CD player or household item to your shopping cart. A cursory search between the two found prices relatively similar, each beating the other by a dollar or two on certain items. Like Amazon, bn.com is waging a price war on shipping, waiving all shipping charges when two items are purchased.
The search engine works well, although bn uses a network of resellers and wholesalers to supplement items it no longer carries. Amazon performs the same function through its auctions, but I have to give the nod to B&N for using businesses rather than individuals to augment their product line.
One area in which bn.com absolutely beats Amazon hands-down is in returns. Unopened items can be returned to any Barnes & Noble store, a welcome move that many online retailers are making. The site also offers same day delivery in Manhattan, perhaps testing the concept for future markets. If the item is available at the site’s New Jersey distribution center and the order is placed before 11:00 a.m. eastern time, the company will attempt same-day delivery at no extra charge.
Think of the program this way. Shipping is waived for two items. If you’re in Manhattan (and there a lot of folks who work there), you can place an order for two items on the site in the morning and potentially have the delivery made that afternoon. The program smacks of a shameless attempt to engineer brand loyalty, but if it works, then the concept is certainly sound. The only issue remains the small margins on the products and the increased delivery costs.
Customer Service
I already addressed my particular customer service fiasco, but the company does offer fairly timely responses, although the responses are mostly templated and the reps don’t seem to have much empowerment. Like other sites, bn.com offers regular shoppers an order history stretching back years, the ability to store multiple shipping addresses and credit cards and a product alert service.
Those are all fine features, but when the rubber met the road and I needed help, the site’s service staff disappointed me more than once.
That’s why I have an Amazon Wish List.
Five Things To Remember From This Review
1. Selection is limited to books, video and music, but is extensive in those categories.
2. Shipping is free if you order two or more items.
3. The site can’t be customized like Amazon, but does a good job tracking order history.
4. Returns can be made at Barnes & Noble stores – a huge benefit.
5. My customer service experience after many orders was awful.
Joubert’s FunLink
Only get the Cliff Notes version of the classics? Want free books and don’t mind reading on the screen? Project Gutenberg is for you. The site is mirrored all over the world and offers free electronic versions of public domain books.
http://promo.net/pg/
© 2002 Joubert
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