James ordered his law school books for the semester from Barnes & Noble, and an issue that would only be a tiny hiccup under normal circumstances is now holding the whole darn thing up. That’s because customer service lines are so flooded with customers calling about their HP Touchpad orders that he can’t even get through.

I placed an order last night with Barnes and Noble for my semester’s worth of law books. In a hurry to head out the door, I mistakenly entered the wrong payment address (i’ve recently moved and entered my previous long-term address). This mistake, of course, resulted in the order being flagged. I have no problem with that, as fraud prevention is a laudable and necessary reason to hold up an order.

My problem is that none of the customer service lines are working, something they blame on a sale on HP touchpads. I’ve been trying to get in touch with them for four hours to no avail. They don’t even provide the option of getting put in the queue. The only time I ever heard a human was to hear an operator say the words “yesterday, cancel” and hang up.

Any help navigating this mess would be greatly appreciated!

Get Human has a few numbers that can reportedly get you to a real person, but that’s under normal circumstances. It’s probably best to wait a few days for the Touchpad fuss to die down if the books aren’t needed urgently.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.