Here’s a puzzle for you. B&N just cut the price of the Nook e-reader by $60. Over the Father’s Day weekend, the Nook was $259 with a “free” $50 gift card. One PC World reader who got this deal called B&N to ask if he could have a refund of the price difference and was told he could only have $10 because he got a gift card. Now he wants to know if he’s been shafted. [More]
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A Weird And Expensive Way To Get A Free Cup Of Coffee At A Bookstore
By 6.8.10
If you’re one of the few people who own a Nook and enjoy taking it to Barnes & Noble to read a digital file you bought rather than paging through something off the shelf for free, you’re in luck this month. Barnes & Noble has some free coffee to reward your labor intensive, counterproductive, fiscally unsound practices. [More]
Once You Break Your Nook, No One Can Repair It
By 4.3.10
If you buy a nook from Barnes & Noble and think there might be any possibility whatsoever that you could drop it, be sure to buy a protection plan for it. That’s because if the nook breaks and you didn’t buy an extended warranty, no one at Barnes and Noble can fix it. Not even if you offer to pay for the repairs. [More]
Barnes & Noble Is Unfailingly Polite While Breaking Promises To Customers
By 1.23.10
Did you think that perhaps Barnes & Noble’s epic problems getting the Nook e-reader in the hands of customers by Christmas would be over after Christmas? Not quite. Jesse Vincent blogged about his experience of broken promises, mysteriously canceled orders, and how Barnes & Noble still hasn’t even sent the famous $100 gift card that Nook customers were promised. [More]
Sony Asks Customer For Her Reader, Breaks It, Then Sends It Back
By 12.28.09
I’m not usually amused at the customer service horror stories that arrive in our in box, but this one is just so over the top that I can’t help but laugh incredulously. The lesson here, which Kate sadly learned for all of us, is if Sony ever asks you out of nowhere to send in your Reader for an update, run away. [More]
Barnes & Noble Will Send You $100 If Nook Doesn't Show Up By Christmas
By 12.19.09
Barnes & Noble keeps pushing the delivery date for pre-ordered Nooks back. Realizing that many of the e-readers were purchased as Christmas gifts, they’re sending a $100 bribe gift card to the delivery addresses for pre-ordered Nooks that aren’t slated to arrive by December 24th. [More]
Borders Gets Into Ebook Business, Relaunches Shortcovers As Kobo Books
By 12.16.09
Shortcovers, an ebook retailer that I recommended to a Sony Reader owner last month, has morphed into something called kobobooks.com, and it’s now partially owned by Borders. If you own an ereader other than a Kindle, or if you read ebooks primarily on a smartphone, you might want to add it to your list of sources for ebooks. [More]
Barnes & Noble Says They'll Accept Gift Cards For Ebooks Before Christmas
By 11.16.09
Apparently Barnes & Noble meant it when they said that they were looking into the gift card issue for ebook purchases. Currently, B&N gift cards can’t be used to buy ebooks, but a new post on one of the company’s blogs says that should change by mid-December.
You Can't Use A Barnes & Noble Gift Card For Ebooks
By 11.13.09
Update: Barnes & Noble says they’re changing this policy. If you or someone you know is getting a nook, Barnes & Noble’s version of the Kindle, this year and you want to use a gift card to fill it with books, forget it. For mysterious reasons, the retailer won’t allow it. (By contrast, Amazon does.)
Sony's Ebook Store Prices Too High? Try Shortcovers
By 11.11.09
Michael bought a Sony Pocket Reader last month, but with the exception of $10 bestsellers, he’s finding that other books he wants are priced higher than he’s willing to pay. For example, Tad Friend’s memoir Cheerful Money is $10 on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble, but $17.49 from Sony. Michael wants to know if we have any advice on how to get Sony to lower their prices.
B&N Ebook Reader Lets You Loan A Book Just Once
By 10.23.09
One of the big selling points about the Nook, the new ebook reader introduced this week by Barnes & Noble, is that unlike Amazon they’ll let you virtually “loan” your ebook to a friend for up to 14 days (if the publisher allows it). What they don’t tell you–some smart readers over at MobileRead sussed it out–is that you can only do this one time per book. You’d better lend wisely–and your friend had better finish that book within 14 days.
