Read in Store Feature

[Markj]

I'm wondering if B&N has discontinued the Read in Store feature? 

There are two B&N stores in the West Des Moines and Des Moines Ia communities and the read in store feature has not worked for several months in either one of them. You can still buy a Nookbook in the store and download it, you just can't read one for free in the stores any more. I've talked to store personnel and they keep saying that they will have their store web fixed in a month or two. But what business takes a couple months to fix a problem like that?  Anyone else having this problem?

[Zeeker]

     Myself and others have been asking about the problem with read in store and the N1E for over a month.  Newer models of the nook do not seem to have a problem.  Customer service has told me they have no reports of the connection error even though I have called them twice.  I can verify it is happening in multiple stores around the Pittsburgh area.  If lucky, a reboot (or two, or three along with turning airplane mode on and off) will bring it back online.

     I've also noticed the removal of seating areas outside the cafe and no more special offers (such as cafe perks) to nook reader owners.   

     End result ... I no longer spend money in the cafe until I can connect to the 'read in store' feature.  It's the only way I can think of to voice displeasure with B&N without going over to the Kindle dark side. 

[leo17434]

Today was my first attempt at this. On the first book, it took almost 20 minutes to download. When I opened it, all the pages were blank! The second book, I got a message that my hour to read it was up. I hadn;t even downloaded it. 

The stores have a very unreliable WiFi setup. There are many people hanging out with their PCs on the same network. My guess was that there is not enough bandwidth in the store. The store tech guys were frustrated by this issue, as well. They can't demo some of the features.

[dom62]

There has been a discussion of this in the "ask the community manager forum. " The problem has been a known issue for months, but it never gets fixed. Lately the manager of the local B&N told me I could trade in the old Nook and buy a Nook Simple Touch and get a $50 gift card.

[Markj]

There is an upgrade going on, but it will not fix the problem. The IT guy at my B&N said their wi-fi problem affects all Nooks. He has had techs out twice to fix it and both times they said they did get it fixed. But he always lets them leave the store BEFORE he tests the system. Then when it doesn't work, he has to reschedule them. Duh!

[leo17434]

I was able to use it last week. This is not a problem with the Nook. This is a network issue, the stores aren't putting in enough bandwidth for all the prople with nooks and laptops. The nook support guy in the store has complained because he can't demo some of the nicer features of the nook tablet becasue the network is so slow. B&N needs to add a lot of bandwidth to the stores and have a separate network for nook users vs. the laptop users who buy a cup of coffee and sit all day.

[ColoKid]

When you traded in your old Nook, did you get any credit for it, or just the $50 gift card?  If B & N sells something but does not support it and will not refund your original purchase price, then I would be VERY hesitant in buying another product from them.

I have had continuing problems with my original Nook using the read-in-store feature.  Yesterday I spent an hour with the in-store manager trying to get it to work, to no avail. He called tech support and their recommendation was to 1) turn the unit off and on - which did not work. 2) remove the memory card - I can't' think of why this should work, and it doesn't. 3) Reset the unit to the factory settings, which I refuse to do.

Last night I spent another hour on the B & N chat room with customer service.  Mary's recommendation was to put the unit onto airplane mode, then take it out.  Why this should be different than rebooting the unit is hard to tell.  In any case, it did not work today when I tried at my store.

My Nook shows all the signs that it is properly connected to B & N when in the store. It shows that I can read in store.  The B & N logo shows on the top line of the Nook.  The WiFi page shows that I am connected to B & N.  I can download samples of books.  But I can not read in store. The Nook tries, and shows the title of the book on the top line, but somewhere between 20 seconds and 5 minutes later it gives me an error message.

Even some of the instore demo units could not read in store!

Given the continuing problem I have had, and the numerous comments on the internet, it seems that this is a significant problem with B & N.  They must be aware of it, but they do not appear to be addressing it, or are not advising anyone that a fix is on the way. When we registered our Nooks, we give them the serial number and our e-mail address.  If there is a problem (and it sure looks like there is one) the least they could do is email the registered owners of the affected units. If there is no fix, they should refund the purchase price, or replace the affected units with new ones.  In the meantime, they should remove any advertising about the read in store feature, since it is not available to everyone.

Thanks for your attention.

[CMeCT]

I, too have been unable to use the read in store feature with my Nook 1st Edition for at least a month, maybe two.  At first I accepted their explanation about the wifi signal not being strong, or being overloaded.  However, the Nook clearly showed a strong signal was being received and that it was connected to the in-store network.  I have tried many different books, and it doesn't matter which book.  This has been a consistent failure at two different BN stores I frequent, in the same state but at least an hour's drive apart.  The last time this happened, last weekend, there certainly was not overusage of the wifi by other users at the store.  It wasn't my Nook, because the store model Nook couldn't read in store either.  When the in store tech called tech support, they said they hadn't heard of the problem before - which is obviously not true.  Furthermore, my husband also has a Nook, but the newer Nook touch.  His Nook could read the same books in store that I could not, at the same time, at the same place, side by side.  To be clear, there was NO book that I could read in store, including books that I had previously read in store.  I could use all other features I tried - download books or samples, search, get the free friday book, etc.

So, BN seems to have either a) discontinued the read in store program for Nook, or b) there is a network problem with the read in store feature for 1st editions only that they don't want to address or don't want to acknowledge.  There doesn't seem to be any BN response to this issue on this forum, and it's been appearing for months.  I'd appreciate it if there was an actual response instead of just ignoring this obvously widespread problem.  It's been a little under a year since I purchased this Nook; I don't think I should have to purchase a new Nook from BN every year.

[frantastk]

I don't think they are discontinuing it for the N1E. It has always worked on both my N1E and my N2E, as well as all nook demo units in my local store. However, this store has always been a high traffic store with lots of people and devices using the wifi at all times. They even seem to be able to handle the added dozen or so demo nooks they set up recently for the holidays. They have very a very strong wifi service, which leads me to believe that it's store specific and probably up to the store manager or district manager to arrange an upgrade to the store's wifi so they can handle the increasing demand of so many people with wifi devices. The only problem I've ever had is if I sit in the cafe all the way against the wall, I usually pick up the wifi of the Cosi cafe 2 stores down. But all I've had to do is go into the settings and selected B&N as the wifi network. Apparently, both B&N and Cosi have far reaching wifi service. LOL

[leo17434]

The manager at the store I go to tried for more bandwidth and was turned down by his management. Steve Jobs would never let that happen. He would likely go into random stores, and if it failed, he'd make it a top priority to get it fixed. This is the clash between the traditional retail (keep store costs low) and high tech culture (make cool features work right) at B&N.

[Zeeker]

Frantastk is fortunate that his N1E can still 'read in store'.  Mine has failed at three different stores in the Pittsburgh area (along with demo models).  If this is truly a bandwith problem, B&N upper management should set the standard requirements that every store should maintain to insure all features continue to work.  At this point, since a major selling feature of nook has failed, with no apparent fix, B&N makes it difficult to trust them and buy a newer model.

[Ya_Ya]

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Zeeker wrote:

Frantastk is fortunate that his N1E can still 'read in store'.  Mine has failed at three different stores in the Pittsburgh area (along with demo models).  I

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fran is a she.  

Interestingly enough, my mother has my old N1E and she was delighted to find this feature when she went into the same B&N she bought it at last year.  It worked just fine for her.

[CMeCT]

When there's only two other people in the store using the network, it's not a bandwidth problem.  

As a followup, I spent about an hour on this with the tech at one of the BN stores, who put in a ticket to have their network repaired after finally admitting it was a BN problem.  The on-phone tech said she'd "just been getting calls that day" on the issue.  Who knows how long that will take, if it will work, whether it will have to be done separately at each store, etc etc, but at least it's something.

[Zeeker]

Oops, sorry Fran

Not knowing much about networks, I'm curious if someone could explain how a bandwidth problem would disable the N1E, but have no effect on the Simple Touch, Color or Tablet?  If the network was being strained, wouldn't all nooks have the same problem connecting to the server?

[NicodemusLegend]

Just adding my own experience to the list:

My N1E has failed to successfully connect to any book to "Read in Store" for a couple of months now, and I started to percieve the problem perhaps a month before that (but since I was able to connect to read a book a time after that, I thought the problem had been fixed, only to lose the ability again the next time I went to B&N).

For what it's worth, I live in Southern California, and have had this problem at more than one B&N.

I finally talked to a Customer Service rep about it a few days ago, and this seemed to be a new problem to her. To her credit, she worked with me for the better part of an hour trying to solve the problem (if folks in Management read this, her name was Brittany, and she works at the Glendora, CA store). She located the old N1E floor model from back storage, and tried to read a book on that, as well, and was unable to do so.  She called tech on the phone, and worked through a number of options (including rebooting my Nook), and ultimately nothing seemed to work. There was nothing left to do but ask her to let the higher-ups know that this was apparently a problem endemic to N1E, and if they were indeed not going to fix it, they should at least change the error message so that it didn't encourage us to try again later, since that lends one to think that the problem is going to be solved.

Honestly, I'm not as bothered by this as some others, since "Read in Store" wasn't a driving force behind my decision to purchase the Nook, and all other features continue to work fine. But I do think that if B&N is going to suggest that this feature is still going to work, and that the N1E will continue to be supported (a suggestion that is reinforced by the Customer Service rep's helpful attitude, even if the efforts were ultimately futile), then we deserve an official response on this matter.

[Deetimes20]

This seems to be a N1E problem, and tech support STILL says it doesn't know about the problem. I had the Nook seller at the Springfield, NJ store call today, but got no more suggestions than we already knew what to do. I agree that if the Read in Store feature isn't going to work, then they need to change the message from Unexpected error, to something more... expected.

[Markj]

My store had a tech in the store all day last Saturday and they finally got it fixed. Here's how you can get them to do it. I finally started going onto Facebook each day for both Barnes & Noble and Nook and posted how many days it had been since the feature worked. After a couple days of posting it 10 to 15 times, it got their attention. I posted on the main page and on every new ad that came out. Lots of people saw it and it forced a fix. Go Public with your problem.

[RHWright]

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Markj wrote:

My store had a tech in the store all day last Saturday and they finally got it fixed. Here's how you can get them to do it. I finally started going onto Facebook each day for both Barnes & Noble and Nook and posted how many days it had been since the feature worked. After a couple days of posting it 10 to 15 times, it got their attention. I posted on the main page and on every new ad that came out. Lots of people saw it and it forced a fix. Go Public with your problem.

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I agree. The FB & Twitter feeds are much more closely monitored than these boards. And they're much more concerned about their image there.

A tip, FWIW: Be direct, make your point, don't be obnoxious. Otherwise you run the risk of being discounted as some ranting troll looking to stir up trouble, rather than a serious customer with a valid complaint.

[Markj]

You are exactly right. Be polite. I know most of the staff at my B&N personally. They are friends. I don't want to offend them by making crazy statements. Just the facts.

[Zeeker]

Thanks for the info Mark.  I agree, the people in store and the cafe become friends after a few trips.  They have all felt badly about the problems with 'read in store' on the N1E.  Since I don't use Facebook or Twitter, I haven't followed events there.  But I have some now to stop by my closest B&N to see if the "fix" has made it to Pittsburgh.  I'll update after my visit.