Some good news for readers north of the border: We'll soon start selling Barnes & Noble eBooks to customers in Canada.

 

The update, which will take place around Dec. 1, will allow people living in or visiting Canada to shop our eBook store and download eBooks to their B&N eReader-supported devices, including the iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Mac, and PC.

 

That includes nook, too, though we are not selling nook in Canada (or anywhere outside of the United States) at this time. If you're using a nook in Canada, you will be able to sync to your B&N eBooks library and access our eBook store via Wi-Fi.

 

We know there's an incredible interest from readers who want to buy from our eBook store outside the United States, and we are looking at our options for international sales. For now, though, we remind international travelers that they can access their online eBooks library and download already-purchased content while they're outside the United States. nook owners can access their online Library over Wi-Fi while outside the country as well.

 

Happy eReading.

Comments
by allan_vancouver on 12-29-2009 10:49 PM

killertofu,

 

Your note was a positive sign that at least "someone" has had success with a Canadian credit card and billing address.  Unfortunately, after reading your message, I again tried ordering "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy for about the 7th time, and I still get: "! You must reside withing the United States to receive this item.  We currently do not support international, U.S. territory or APO/FPO billing addresses".

 

I'm still trying to get through to B&N Digital Support, but it has been a nightmare so far.

by allan_vancouver on 12-30-2009 03:04 PM

FINALLY, the answer to my ordering problem.  It turns out that only "some" of the B&N eBooks are available for ordering from Canada, and that the error message I have been receiving is very misleading.

 

In the Science Fiction eBooks, only about 1 in 5 books can be ordered by a Canadian.  They have the statement: 

 

These items ship to U.S. and Canadian addresses only.

 

The others have the statement:

 

These items ship to U.S. addresses only.

 

These two statements should actually say "These items download to ...." because nothing actually gets shipped.

 

The checkout error message I posted earlier is the bigger problem that needs to be addressed.  B&N Digital Support acknowledged that the website error message was misleading and they have notified their web support department.

 

So, if you check the fine print on each book you will see what titles can be ordered with a Canadian billing address and what titles cannot, and avoid my long and frustrating experience.

 

 

by Twolane on 01-03-2010 10:41 AM

Well, you're absolutely right about the B&N clowns and their feeble attempts at updating software to comply with their mealy-mouthed statements about eBook availability in Canada. I've tried to download some of the free "classics" B&N offers that are already available at other book sites, and none of B&N's will download to a Canadian CC. How typical of an American corporation claiming to do business with Canada.

 

Thank goodness for other world-aware eBook sellers and distributors who will allow purchasing and/or free downloads of what a customer would like. Given the present-day atmosphere of online availability "somehwere else", I shan't be returning here to waste my time or my money, either for eBooks OR hard copy.

 

Bye, bye, Barnes&Noble.

by shmish on 01-03-2010 09:52 PM

Holy cow, what is it with some of you.  The Nook uses ePub format.  You can buy your books online from Indigo in Canada.  Their ebook selection is as good or better than Amazon in the comparison that I did.  I just did a price comparison between B&N, Amazon and Indigo for the book, "The Road".  Indigo was about $1 more expensive.  Surely us Canadians can buy a couple of books for a few dollars more while we wait for B&N to sort out all of their issues for the new technology?  Just be happy and glad that you have one of these devices, most of us don't.

by Sparky003 on 02-03-2010 01:41 PM

Did you look at the price for more than one book? If you did then your statement would have differed. A lot of Chapters/Kobo's ebooks are quite higher in price than B&N; and as for Amazon, unless you have their Kindle you cannot buy their books (as far as I know).

by eNerd on 02-04-2010 03:55 PM

OK here is the scoop. #1 If dialing that 800 number from Canada, they will not pick up...however if dialed from the States they will. I have two phones here in Barrie with one that has a direct line through NY. #2 The address that you put in as a shipping address is not checked against your credit card. For an e-book a shipping address is never warranted. The only receipt you get is to your email account with the record on your credit card statement. The person I talked to on this was absolutely amazed that Canucks were having a problem. There you have it....enjoy!!

by Evanka on 07-21-2010 07:13 PM
As of July 21, 2010, most books are STILL unavailable to Canadians. Our household enjoys two Nooks and we'd like the ability to access the free books and other content as well.
by Evanka on 07-21-2010 07:16 PM
@shmish I still can't order Chains of Ice by Christina Dodd in eBook format at Chapters.indigo, nor can I find it on kobobooks.com
by pnadon on 08-21-2010 10:01 AM

The site USunlocked.com will allow anyone to order any thing from the US...

by Johannes49 on 12-10-2010 07:03 PM

I bought a nook ereader in the States. I was told that I would be able to download ebooks in Canada. They gladly took my money but forgot to mention that I needed a US address to be able to buy and download their ebooks.  What??  Does the world stop to exist above the 49th parallel? No wonder the American economy sucks! If you don't want to do business with the rest of the world then everyone will pass you by!

by on 12-11-2010 12:06 AM

Johannes49: write your PM to complain about how the Investment Canada Act is keeping US companies from being able to sell to Canadians, especially cultural items such as books. The Canadian government has enacted laws to protect Canadian authors, publishers, distributors, and booksellers from American competition, and to protect Canadian readers from exposure to books containing un-Canadian words like "theater" and "color".

 

It took Amazon about a decade to get access into Canada, and even then it was just as a sales agent for Canada Post. Earlier this year, Amazon learned that $20 million to the right places, along with vague pledges to promote Canadian books world-wide, would convince the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, to let Amazon actually set up business in Canada.

 

Apple opened the Canada branch of its iBookstore without worrying about the formalities, and now is under investigation by the Canadian government.

 

We Americans very much want to do business with Canadians. Your government doesn't want to let us.

by sugal on 01-06-2011 06:20 PM

Buying ebooks in Canada for the nook color

 

After being assured by B&N that if I bought the nook I could download books in Canada; after sending emails to B&N support; after waiting days for a response; and receiving responses that were complete nonsense; after calling B&N's international support line and waiting for over 20 minutes (long distance); I have resolved the problem of ordering ebooks for the nook color ereader.

 

Without changin my visa number, I changed the address where my visa bills come to (Canadian address) to a US address to which my visa bills do not go to.  Presto.  I bought an ebook that I could not buy using a Canadian billing address.  All you have to do, is change your billing address to any US billing address.  It worked for me.

by rankster on 12-12-2011 08:26 AM

I am still not able to order anything. B&N should really get there s##t together.

by kayaks on 02-16-2012 09:27 PM

How did you do that? My visa was not accepted bcI don't have a US address?!