Patch "breaks" Nook; B&N doesn't care! And they'll lie to customers too! [ Edited ]

[ScrewedbyBnN]

My hubby bought a Nook Wi-Fi in March and loved it.  then he downloaded patch 1.3 and now its "broken"  Can't dl a book.  He gets "Queued.  Will complete shortly."  then gives "Cannot connect to Network".  So I started helping him research on these boards for a fix and I have found threads going back a year and a half, 18 months!, and customers are still having the same problem that tech support can't fix. 

Your credit card info is wrong"  its not wrong but he wipes it out and re-enters it.  Not fixed.  "Do a hard reset"  Done and its not fixed.  My husband spent 16 hours on hold in one week trying to get it fixed or just get his money back but because its been more then 14 days past purchase they won't do it.  He has been run around by B&N tech for 3 months now doing the same bs "fix cc info, hard reset" that never works and finally agreed to take a replacement. And that is the extent of help that tech support can give.  He's done this each time he's talked to tech support.  After that its "Sorry don't know what to tell you but you can get a rapid replacement."  This is where you send them your broken Nook to get a "certified, pre-owned one"  And don't you dare call it refurbished or you'll insult B&N *eyeroll*.

Guess what?!  Its broken too because they updated it before shipping to have the patch 1.3 on it.  So he now has a refurbished, pre-owned Nook that's just as broke as his last one.  He talked to someone a couple weeks ago and spent 3 hours on hold to be disconnected then called back and sat on hold for another 2 hours and was finally told they were processing a request for a refund.  Finally.  AFter well over 20 hours on hold with B&N we're getting somewhere.

So he called back today to check on the refund status and after 2 hours of repeating himself to 3 different reps, each one supposedly able to authorize him a refund, he was told they never processed paperwork for a refund the last time he called even though they said they were.  So now they are lying to customer to make them just go away.  Of course when he said "So you're people lied to me?  So they're lying to customers now?"  The rep said "No they didn't lie.  You were never told you that."

I have been sitting with him through all this because I have almost 20 years of experience in customer service and I wanted to make sure he wasn't expecting pie in the sky fixes and also to make sure he treated the CS Reps well since I know how their jobs can suck when people can't accept they have limits on what they can do to help.

They will never fix this guys!  Its been over a year and a half of complaints about patch 1.3!  Barnes & Nobles doesn't care!  They have you're money and couldn't care less if it doesn't work now.  They're just forcing you to lose the money or try buying another of their worthless Nooks!

Is been a well known fact for around 18 months that the patch 1.3 "breaks" your Nook.  Do a search here on the patch 1.3 and you'll see lots of customers in this same boat and B&N doesn't give a monkey fart about it.

Buy a Kindle or iPad and save yourself the hassle.

[Nallia Distinguished Bibliophile]

The latest firmware for your NOOK is 1.7.  There have been a lot of fixes since 1.3.  You should update the NOOK to the most recent firmware version.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook1-support-software-updates/379002707/

[bklvr896]

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ScrewedbyBnN wrote:

My hubby bought a Nook Wi-Fi in March and loved it.  then he downloaded patch 1.3 and now its "broken"  Can't dl a book.  He gets "Queued.  Will complete shortly."  then gives "Cannot connect to Network".  So I started helping him research on these boards for a fix and I have found threads going back a year and a half, 18 months!, and customers are still having the same problem that tech support can't fix. 

Your credit card info is wrong"  its not wrong but he wipes it out and re-enters it.  Not fixed.  "Do a hard reset"  Done and its not fixed.  My husband spent 16 hours on hold in one week trying to get it fixed or just get his money back but because its been more then 14 days past purchase they won't do it.  He has been run around by B&N tech for 3 months now doing the same bs "fix cc info, hard reset" that never works and finally agreed to take a replacement. And that is the extent of help that tech support can give.  He's done this each time he's talked to tech support.  After that its "Sorry don't know what to tell you but you can get a rapid replacement."  This is where you send them your broken Nook to get a "certified, pre-owned one"  And don't you dare call it refurbished or you'll insult B&N *eyeroll*.

Guess what?!  Its broken too because they updated it before shipping to have the patch 1.3 on it.  So he now has a refurbished, pre-owned Nook that's just as broke as his last one.  He talked to someone a couple weeks ago and spent 3 hours on hold to be disconnected then called back and sat on hold for another 2 hours and was finally told they were processing a request for a refund.  Finally.  AFter well over 20 hours on hold with B&N we're getting somewhere.

So he called back today to check on the refund status and after 2 hours of repeating himself to 3 different reps, each one supposedly able to authorize him a refund, he was told they never processed paperwork for a refund the last time he called even though they said they were.  So now they are lying to customer to make them just go away.  Of course when he said "So you're people lied to me?  So they're lying to customers now?"  The rep said "No they didn't lie.  You were never told you that."

I have been sitting with him through all this because I have almost 20 years of experience in customer service and I wanted to make sure he wasn't expecting pie in the sky fixes and also to make sure he treated the CS Reps well since I know how their jobs can suck when people can't accept they have limits on what they can do to help.

They will never fix this guys!  Its been over a year and a half of complaints about patch 1.3!  Barnes & Nobles doesn't care!  They have you're money and couldn't care less if it doesn't work now.  They're just forcing you to lose the money or try buying another of their worthless Nooks!

Is been a well known fact for around 18 months that the patch 1.3 "breaks" your Nook.  Do a search here on the patch 1.3 and you'll see lots of customers in this same boat and B&N doesn't give a monkey fart about it.

Buy a Kindle or iPad and save yourself the hassle.

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I'm somewhat confused here, if you are referring to the original Nook eInk, 1.3 was released in 2010, but the current version is 1.7, I'm not sure why you would be still dealing with 1.3.   If you're talking about the NookColor, 1.3 has only been out for 4 weeks.  So maybe you can clarify which Nook you are talking about.

BTW, my N1E, which I've had since January 2010, is working just fine with 1.7, I've never had any issues with it, and my refurbished NookColor, with 1.3 is working just fine.

[sirwillard]

I understand you're upset, but you need to calm down. The folks on this board are users, and not B&N employees. That don't deserve your ire.

Your post seems to be in error, and if you want help you'll have to correct a few things you've said. First, I don't think you've got the right forum. This forum is for the NOOK, not the NOOK Color. You called the device a NOOK WiFi which would indicate a 1st edition NOOK (N1E) without 3G, but the current software version for that device is 1.7 not 1.3. Since the NOOK Color is currently at 1.3, I have to assume that's the device you've really got? The folks on this board aren't as likely to be able to help you as the folks on the NOOK Color board (http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/NOOK-Color-Technical-Support/bd-p/NOOKcolortechnicalsupport).

You (yell) complain that it's been over a year and a half of this issue, but also claim the issue was caused by 1.3. This doesn't make sense, since 1.3 was released only 6 months ago. In fact, the NOOK Color hasn't even been available for a year and a half. So maybe it's not the device you have wrong but the version number? Though even then I can't begine to fathorm what you're talking about since all of the current versions of software for all 3 NOOK devices have been out for much less than a year and a half. So if there's threads about this issue going back that long, the issue has nothing at all to do with the version of the firmware you're running and was not likely caused by your updating.

Clear these facts up (and possibly move the thread to the correct forum?) and I'm sure the people here would try and help you resolve your problem. Just be polite and remember most of the folks here don't work for B&N.

[Nallia Distinguished Bibliophile]

1.3 for the NOOK Color was released only last month.

[sirwillard]

Sorry, I don't have a NC, and I thought I found a thread about it's release back in March. In any event, the rest of what I said stands. There's a lot of things wrong in the OPs post, and without clarification, no one can help.

[Nallia Distinguished Bibliophile]

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sirwillard wrote:

Sorry, I don't have a NC, and I thought I found a thread about it's release back in March. In any event, the rest of what I said stands. There's a lot of things wrong in the OPs post, and without clarification, no one can help.

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Oh, I agree with you completely.  I was just pointing out that her claims are even more absurd than at first thought. 

[ScrewedbyBnN]

Whoops!! Thanks guys for catching my typo because I totally missed it!  After reading your messages I double checked with hubby this morning and he said yup I had a typo and this is about patch 1.7.

Sorry about the confusion.  Also I have to remember I'm not posting to people I know and who know me and would know I'm not pissed off and venting.  I'm very disappointed and disgusted with how B&N is handling this issue.  I'm shocked that they'll ie to their customers.  And I can't believe they won't take responsibility for their own patches breaking their products.  They just pass it off as not something the customer has to have done wrong.

As for being in the wrong place.  What I see when I looked for where to post this is Book Clubs.  Nook.  Technical Support.  No mention of it being for the color version.  But like the typo, I could have that wrong.

[bklvr896]

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ScrewedbyBnN wrote:

Whoops!! Thanks guys for catching my typo because I totally missed it!  After reading your messages I double checked with hubby this morning and he said yup I had a typo and this is about patch 1.7.

Sorry about the confusion.  Also I have to remember I'm not posting to people I know and who know me and would know I'm not pissed off and venting.  I'm very disappointed and disgusted with how B&N is handling this issue.  I'm shocked that they'll ie to their customers.  And I can't believe they won't take responsibility for their own patches breaking their products.  They just pass it off as not something the customer has to have done wrong.

As for being in the wrong place.  What I see when I looked for where to post this is Book Clubs.  Nook.  Technical Support.  No mention of it being for the color version.  But like the typo, I could have that wrong.

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Ok, I can understand the typo, but this still confuses me:

They will never fix this guys!  Its been over a year and a half of complaints about patch 1.3!  Barnes & Nobles doesn't care! 

If you replace 1.3 with 1.7, you have complaints about the 1.7 patch for over a year and half.    The 1.7 patch has only been out for 1 or 2 months.

And it's not a universal problem.  It's not affecting everyone, in fact, it's apparently not affecting the majority the of the owners.  The number of complaints about the 1.7 patch is relatively small, and given that people who post of the forums probably represent less than 5% of the total owners.

I know I've never had an issue or problem with any of the updates and I've had my N1E since January 2010 so I've been around for all the updates.  I have several friends with N1Es and none of them have experienced any problems with the updates.

I'm sorry you're having problems and I know it's frustrating, but, if the update was bad, then everyone would be having the problem, not just some users.

[ScrewedbyBnN]

That still doesn't make it okay for B&N jerk customers around for months, with well over 24 hours on hold, to knowingly lie to a customer and never solve the problem. 

When asked if they'd tested the replacement Nook to make sure it worked, the reply was "Of course we did.  It turned on just fine and it updated so it was a functioning unit when we sent it to you."  So hubby asked "Did you try to open a book or buy one or anything to test to see if it was going to have the same problems as the last one did?"  "It wasn't necessary.  I was working when we sent it to you."  Shaking his head he let them know that it was just as "broken" as the one it replaced.  The response was "Have you checked your credit card info to make sure its correct?"

Yeah he wasn't going down that road for another 2 months with tech and asked for a refund.  He was told they were processing paperwork to have one approved.  Then found out a month later that they'd never done, would never do that and it was something they'd -never- offer.  So 2 people hearing this refund offer are the ones called liars, not the CS Reps and their managers feeding the customers lies in the first place.  After last night my husband had to hand me his broken Nook and walk away because he was close to snapping it in half.

We're going to keep fighting this because this is not how you treat customers.

[Schwa]

Not accusing, trying to be helpful here.  Lets give this a try:

1) Your device says the CC is not valid.  Customer Service is saying your CC is not valid.  You are confirming that your CC is entered correctly.  have you tried calling the CC company and seeing if there is an error on that end somewhere?

2) Other posters in this thread are calling you out on your complaint, not because your complaint is not valid (it is valid) but your accusations are not valid.  While there are known issues with some of the updates, and rightful complaints on those issues, there has not been an update that has broken the device.  If an update actually broke the device, all hell would break loose, and not just a couple of complaints on a user forum.

Once again, actually trying to help, I hope your Nook gets working soon.

[Ya_Ya]

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Schwa wrote:

 While there are known issues with some of the updates, and rightful complaints on those issues, there has not been an update that has broken the device.  If an update actually broke the device, all hell would break loose, and not just a couple of complaints on a user forum..

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Actually, N1E v1.6 did kind of break it.  It broke the ability to read/use any content on SD card bigger than 2GB.

Of course, v1.7 fixed that.  It took about three weeks, which I didn't find unreasonable - and I was one of those affected by the "brokenness."

[Schwa]

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Ya_Ya wrote:

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Schwa wrote:

 While there are known issues with some of the updates, and rightful complaints on those issues, there has not been an update that has broken the device.  If an update actually broke the device, all hell would break loose, and not just a couple of complaints on a user forum..

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Actually, N1E v1.6 did kind of break it.  It broke the ability to read/use any content on SD card bigger than 2GB.

Of course, v1.7 fixed that.  It took about three weeks, which I didn't find unreasonable - and I was one of those affected by the "brokenness."

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I stand corrected, and I do remember that issue.  But this would be further proof that fixes are relatively quick when something major happens (affecting or potentially affecting a large majority.)  

[ScrewedbyBnN]

1) The device never gave us a CC invalid message.  Customer service and tech support both suggested we wipe it an re-enter it even if it already was correct.  Credit card company was never contacted because payment was process just fine and B&N confirmed they got paid or the book was free.  The books are there waiting for downloading.  Incase I wasn't clear in my earlier posts its when he tries to download them it gets the message "Queued.  Will complete shortly."  then after a minute or two gives "Cannot connect to Network".  So he went to B&N and tried to connect there and got the same message.  So he went to the library and tried to connect and got the same message.  He tried to connect at work and got the same message.  All these areas let him download before the patch but now he can't after it.

2) My accusations towards CS and Tech Support are valid and if you weren't on the phone with us listening to it then you can't sit here and call us out on them.  Simple as that.  We're not the kind of people that exaggerate just to get attention.  I posted the truth about how we have been treated and what circles we've been run around in and that we caught them in a lie.  All B&N wants to do is blame us or ignore us when this problem clearly didn't start until right after he updated to 1.7.

Thanks Schwa for not ripping me a new one for posting and we're not going to go away or be called liars because anyone else's search shows 99.99% of users didn't have a problem after the patch.  We have a problem with our device and how B&N is dealing with us and this problem needs to be brought to the light.

If there has never been an update that "broke" a device then tell me why this one "broke" ours?  If you're not sitting with a device messed up like ours you can't sit here and tell us that it has never happened.  It did.  We have the device, had 2 now, that prove it.  I've explained what "broken" means with this device.  So stop ignoring the quote marks because it makes it easier to rip us.

For those that want to rip instead of help; apparently the fact that I used the word "broken" is being taken too literally.  See the quotes guys? :-)  Take a breath and understand that the quotes are because we needed a shorter way to repeat ourselves over the last 3-4 months when dealing with B&N unless we wanted to repeat a long line of what's it doing everytime in the place of "broken" and same for here.  B&N understood us so I would hope you can too.  Instead of hopping on your soapboxes and ripping into a customer with a valid complaint, try accepting that companies treat customers horribly all the time.  Most just don't have a forum like this to bring it to light.

Since you can't see me to know, throughout all these posts I'm not sitting here pounding the keys frantically until my fingers bleed lol I might shake my head at misunderstandings and people not willing to accept truth when its posted but I'm not mad at what I read here.  I'm frustrated sometimes but I'm happy to answer questions that might help get us somewhere.  You can't see that in such a medium as typed text.  So don't assume I'm some raging firestarter that doesn't have a valid problem.  We're looking for help and to share our experience so others are aware.

[ScrewedbyBnN]

Thank you Ya Ya for recognizing the use of the quote marks.

[keriflur]

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ScrewedbyBnN wrote:

1) The device never gave us a CC invalid message.  Customer service and tech support both suggested we wipe it an re-enter it even if it already was correct.  Credit card company was never contacted because payment was process just fine and B&N confirmed they got paid or the book was free.  The books are there waiting for downloading.  Incase I wasn't clear in my earlier posts its when he tries to download them it gets the message "Queued.  Will complete shortly."  then after a minute or two gives "Cannot connect to Network".  So he went to B&N and tried to connect there and got the same message.  So he went to the library and tried to connect and got the same message.  He tried to connect at work and got the same message.  All these areas let him download before the patch but now he can't after it.



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Okay, first off, if you wanted people to think you were looking for help and not just trying to vent, you probably should not have chosen "ScrewedbyBnN" as your handle.  The implication here is that that you're too angry to be helped, and your tone isn't doing anything to discourage this idea.

Regarding the above - You bought your nook in March, right?  So it should still be covered under the warranty.  If you took the nook into a B&N store and could not connect to the network, then you have a broken device, regardless of the reason.  Maybe it's the patch, maybe it's not, it doesn't matter.  You can call CS and tell them that your wifi no longer works and request a replacement device.

[Ya_Ya]

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ScrewedbyBnN wrote:

Thanks Schwa for not ripping me a new one for posting and we're not going to go away or be called liars because anyone else's search shows 99.99% of users didn't have a problem after the patch.  We have a problem with our device and how B&N is dealing with us and this problem needs to be brought to the light.

If there has never been an update that "broke" a device then tell me why this one "broke" ours?  If you're not sitting with a device messed up like ours you can't sit here and tell us that it has never happened.  It did.  We have the device, had 2 now, that prove it.  I've explained what "broken" means with this device.  So stop ignoring the quote marks because it makes it easier to rip us.

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Actually, I'm almost positive that your issue isn't v1.7 - which isn't close to 18 months old.  You are mistaken about which update "broke" your NOOK or the time period that it has been "broken."  This is what people are concerned about - your story is more than a little inconsistent.

The sheer fact that almost nobody is reporting this particular issue, but you have had the issue on two different devices ought to be a clue that it isn't the device or any update, but something with your account.  If changing your credit card hasn't fixed your issue, try archiving all of your books and checking for new content.  Then "purchase" a free book and see if it downloads.  Then unarchive a few books at a time until you find out which book caused the issue.

I will be surprised if that doesn't fix it.  

[keriflur]

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Ya_Ya wrote:

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ScrewedbyBnN wrote:

Thanks Schwa for not ripping me a new one for posting and we're not going to go away or be called liars because anyone else's search shows 99.99% of users didn't have a problem after the patch.  We have a problem with our device and how B&N is dealing with us and this problem needs to be brought to the light.

If there has never been an update that "broke" a device then tell me why this one "broke" ours?  If you're not sitting with a device messed up like ours you can't sit here and tell us that it has never happened.  It did.  We have the device, had 2 now, that prove it.  I've explained what "broken" means with this device.  So stop ignoring the quote marks because it makes it easier to rip us.

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Actually, I'm almost positive that your issue isn't v1.7 - which isn't close to 18 months old.  You are mistaken about which update "broke" your NOOK or the time period that it has been "broken."  This is what people are concerned about - your story is more than a little inconsistent.

The sheer fact that almost nobody is reporting this particular issue, but you have had the issue on two different devices ought to be a clue that it isn't the device or any update, but something with your account.  If changing your credit card hasn't fixed your issue, try archiving all of your books and checking for new content.  Then "purchase" a free book and see if it downloads.  Then unarchive a few books at a time until you find out which book caused the issue.

I will be surprised if that doesn't fix it.  

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The OP says above that the credit card did work and B&N received the funds... so now I'm confused. Trying to keep up when the story keeps changing is very difficult. 

[Ya_Ya]

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keriflur wrote:

The OP says above that the credit card did work and B&N received the funds... so now I'm confused. Trying to keep up when the story keeps changing is very difficult. 

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Yeah, but I suspect there's a corrupted book download in there preventing them from downloading any new ones, which is why I think archiving everything will fix it.

[deemure]

Obviously this could be one of several different things. The op (who really isn't helping by creating such a user name, then posting the same things in different areas, giving really erroneous info) could or should try downloading books using another wifi connection. Starbucks or McDonalds or B&N. I think Ya_Ya may have hit upon it though. One book may be causing a problem. If it isn't so, then maybe the issue is their particular wifi. Some routers even have built in firewalls that can prevent things from downloading. I also think there could be some issue (which might have been what CS was trying to say) with the cc. The nook may be having trouble with the name on the card and account. You may have to try editing the info and changing it if the card has your middle initial on it like P. with the period. The nook may not get that. Also, you might want to make sure name on account and cc match, that you have a default address on file, even though ebooks don't ship, and all. Just some things to try.