Borders trouble, could lead to BIG TROUBLE!
- Thread starter gamerprinter
- Start date
Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
Sad, as I generally prefer Borders (one of the older big stores in Towson MD was great). But I have to admit, my local one has not been very impressive, and I've been shopping at B&N instead.
That is, for regular F&SF reading, history books, and the like, for which I find the browsing experience invaluable and unmatched online. But I buy all my gaming books from Amazon.
That is, for regular F&SF reading, history books, and the like, for which I find the browsing experience invaluable and unmatched online. But I buy all my gaming books from Amazon.
I like going to (brick and mortar) bookstores (and gamestores). Its recreation for me, so that's why I support them. But the service at the local Borders seems to have gone downhill lately. I called them last week to inquire whether they had (or could order) some books. The woman that I spoke to said that she was very busy. I offered to call back later, whereupon she said that they had been very busy the previous day right up until closing time. Then she suggested that I should go on the internet.
I did go on the internet - and ordered the books from Amazon.
I did go on the internet - and ordered the books from Amazon.
On x-mas, Borders.com had a sale for e-books. Specific titles for $5 each.
My wife checked to verify compatibility with her Sony reader, and then ordered 5 books. Here's how that simple task went wrong:
No shopping cart. She had to buy each book individually, generating 5 confirmation emails with Order#s
Then, only one of the books (last one) showed up on the web page in her "ebook library to download" Clicking the button led to prompts to install Adobe Digital Editions. Finishing that, returning to the site made the library show zero books.
Being a holiday, I clicked the button to send an email. Got no response after48 hours.
So we called them, and the girl said she couldn't actually look up our orders (apparently they were upgrading her software that day). She first assumed we didn't have the right software installed, which has nothing to do with their web-site showing zero owned books in our online Borders Ebook library. She actually asked me for my username and password to login to the site herself. I refused as NOBODY should ever ask for that in tech support. She said to call back later that day.
Later that day, I got busy signals calling their 800 number. I had to wait until the next day.
The next day, a new girl, presumably new software. The online library finally showed 1 book owned, but she had to refund me the rest because she can't twiddle the bits in the database (do you know how easy it is to code a tool for that, and how lame they don't have it...).
Downloading the actual book was easy. I logged into borders.com, went to ebook library and clicked Download Now. The browser started the file download, and because the file extension was registed to Sony's Reader Library program, it opened up and added the e-pub book to its registered books (which then is transferred to the e-reader like any other).
Given the problems however, I forbade my wife from buying from them. Borders is late to the e-book game. Failing to have their feces coagulated is not acceptable. They need to be as smooth as Sony (and they're only OK) or Amazon, two players who've been at it for awhile.
While my wife likes their B&M stores, they are failing to keep up with their competiion. As such, they deserve to fail.
My wife checked to verify compatibility with her Sony reader, and then ordered 5 books. Here's how that simple task went wrong:
No shopping cart. She had to buy each book individually, generating 5 confirmation emails with Order#s
Then, only one of the books (last one) showed up on the web page in her "ebook library to download" Clicking the button led to prompts to install Adobe Digital Editions. Finishing that, returning to the site made the library show zero books.
Being a holiday, I clicked the button to send an email. Got no response after48 hours.
So we called them, and the girl said she couldn't actually look up our orders (apparently they were upgrading her software that day). She first assumed we didn't have the right software installed, which has nothing to do with their web-site showing zero owned books in our online Borders Ebook library. She actually asked me for my username and password to login to the site herself. I refused as NOBODY should ever ask for that in tech support. She said to call back later that day.
Later that day, I got busy signals calling their 800 number. I had to wait until the next day.
The next day, a new girl, presumably new software. The online library finally showed 1 book owned, but she had to refund me the rest because she can't twiddle the bits in the database (do you know how easy it is to code a tool for that, and how lame they don't have it...).
Downloading the actual book was easy. I logged into borders.com, went to ebook library and clicked Download Now. The browser started the file download, and because the file extension was registed to Sony's Reader Library program, it opened up and added the e-pub book to its registered books (which then is transferred to the e-reader like any other).
Given the problems however, I forbade my wife from buying from them. Borders is late to the e-book game. Failing to have their feces coagulated is not acceptable. They need to be as smooth as Sony (and they're only OK) or Amazon, two players who've been at it for awhile.
While my wife likes their B&M stores, they are failing to keep up with their competiion. As such, they deserve to fail.
Thornir Alekeg
Albatross!
Oh no, they really did back in 2005. Kmart to acquire Sears in $11 billion deal - Business - Stocks & economy - msnbc.com
And if you shop at either store and have their Rewards card, you will notice it works at either KMart or Sears, since they are all part of the same corporation.
And do you know how much headache it can cause if you give just anyone access to twiddle bits in a database? Direct-writing rights are usually highly controlled for good reason.
it could have been passed to a central approving authority anything. Either way, they lost $20. Primarily because the code that charged my charged my card and had my userID and the productID couldn't correctly do an INSERT into a table with those 2 values to show I owned the book.
The fact that they also weren't nimble enough to correct the problem compounds it. Heck, the black-hole of their support request could have reviewed it and handled it without ever needing to waste a phone call if their support apps had functionality to pass the "fix it" request to an admin with the power to handle it.
Apparently its simpler to just refund the money and hope they come back.
Aeolius
Adventurer
I haven't set foot in Borders in over a decade. They rearranged their New Age CDs by some strange categorization other than alphabetical. I complained. They did nothing about it. So I never set foot in the store again. Granted, I haven't bought a physical CD in years, now. If I want to look for a book offline, I'll head to Barnes & Noble. There's also a Books a Million nearby, but that place is just too chaotic.
I also haven't set foot in a gaming store since 4e was released. My town was down to one mom&pop gaming store, anyway.
But then again, I'm a finicky shopper. If I go into the grocery store for beer and a few other items and they don't have the exact beer I want, I'll go elsewhere. I also never shop from endcaps. Leave the product where it belongs, or I'll never see it.
I also haven't set foot in a gaming store since 4e was released. My town was down to one mom&pop gaming store, anyway.
But then again, I'm a finicky shopper. If I go into the grocery store for beer and a few other items and they don't have the exact beer I want, I'll go elsewhere. I also never shop from endcaps. Leave the product where it belongs, or I'll never see it.
Diamond says no more
ICv2 - Diamond Book Puts Borders on Hold
How does this new development make things look?
What part did the publishers play in this, or did they have no say at all and as usual left at the mercy of whatever Diamond decided to do?
ICv2 - Diamond Book Puts Borders on Hold
Can you confirm?
How does this new development make things look?
What part did the publishers play in this, or did they have no say at all and as usual left at the mercy of whatever Diamond decided to do?
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