As gstone predicted, writing to customer support did not help. Here is their response:
Thank you for your inquiry regarding a price change for your recent NOOK Book purchase. Barnes & Noble offers very competitive pricing on many items, resulting in the best value for our customers. However, as with all retail products, prices are subject to change due to current promotions. Upon checking our records, the NOOK Book was under the "free" category from 11/1/2011 at 11:29:40 AM until 11/1/2011, 11:41:41 AM EST. You have ordered the item on 06:27:54 PM of 11/03/2011 which is within the timeframe when the author decided to place a charge for this NOOK Book, specifically from 11/1/2011 at 11:41:41 AM onwards. We regret to inform you that we cannot cancel the order nor process a refund since our system shows that the NOOK Book has been downloaded already. Please click on the link below to know more about our return policy: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/help/cds2.asp?PID=8121 We do apologize for any confusion. Thank you for understanding. If you have questions, or require further assistance, please email us back or call 1-800-THE-BOOK (1-800-843-2665), Monday through Friday from 8AM to 11PM EST, Saturdays and Sundays 9AM to 11PM and select option 2 for Digital Support. Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused and we look forward to your next visit to Barnes & Noble. Sincerely, Ysanna Customer Service Representative - Digital Support Barnes & Noble http://www.bn.com/ Visit our NOOK Support site for the latest updates and downloads at: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/support/
I called customer service today and after 45 minutes and 3 different support representitives from differnet divisions the refunded my $1.98 (2 x 99 cents). I thanked the customer service rep for that and told her that I was more concerned with an explanation of how this could happen than the $1.98. I explained that it wouldn't be very good for Barnes & Noble if customers couldn't trust the prices they see on their Nook . She was at a total loss. I asked if it were possible that the prices in their database that get uploaded to the Nook get delayed from when the prices actually change. She didn't know. I suggested she bring this to the attention of someone that could investigate further. I do find one thing a little suspiscious. Both of these are self published titles from Smash Words and from the support email the book was free for 21 minutes on November 1st. I wonder if some of these self published authors have found a way to play the system by making the book free for a brief period, knowing that the price change back to 99 cents won't be reflected on your Nook for a while, but that the charges will occurr.Then again, maybe I'm just not very trusting. In either case B&N should figure out what is going on.
