Why are so many questions being inadequately answered?

[Xandie]

After making the announcement that the nook was coming out, your admin stated you'd be answering questions here. Some (few) questions have been answered, and some contradictory answers have been given. In at least one case I know of, follow up was promised and never delivered, and there was no explanation as to why.

We know you're around - you guys seem to have no problem updating the nook blog pretty often, but you're neglecting the people who really want to know solid information about the product. After yesterdays announcement that you'll be partnering with a racist jerk, and your total lack of communication with the people who WANT to be sold on the nook, I have the feeling you're hemorrhaging potential customers. I was so excited about the Nook... And now I've told my mom to hold off, because I'm not getting very many answers. At least with the Sony reader and the kindle I know what I'll be getting.

What's going on guys? I really want to be sold on the nook, but you can bet your tush I'm not just going to purchase it without some real solid information. Did you get pressured to release the nook early or something, because of Amazon's price drop on the kindle? Owning a nook won't be some sort of privilege - we're your customers, not the other way around... Are you still making changes to the programming? If so, cool, but let us know, would ya? We want to make informed decisions, and in this economy you can't just expect us to pony up for the newest without also knowing if its the greatest.

Just want a little bit of real dialogue.

[want2know]

I agree. What a mess! Example: Called to ask about the 14 day return policy since if you get it Dec. 7 14 days are up before Christmas. Told that it has changed and you can retun it until Jan. 31. Nothing on their site reflects that change. I won't buy.

[NewToEreading]

Unless you are shopping for holiday gifts, I would advise to wait. I wouldn't abandon the Nook just yet.

BN doesn't seem ready to answer all of these questions. Perhaps that's because they are still not finished with the final version of the product and cannot answer. Perhaps the boards are understaffed and there's no full-time Nook expert available. I feel that any of us non-experts could answer the questions if we had a Nook and a user manual and a few hours of to test it... but I digress.
Perhaps there are plenty of people pre-ordering Nook, no questions asked, and the few of us with questions and doubts are a just drop in the market bucket - not worth the effort.

I'm looking forward to the release. Even if it turns out to be the wrong ereader for me, it should help move the industry in the right direction.

[KevinCK]

NewToEreading,

I think you highlighted precisely the problem: "I feel that any of us non-experts could answer the questions if we had a Nook and a user manual and a few hours of to test it." I just don't feel like it would be that hard to answer many of these questions and, as such, I wonder whether it is that BN does not have the staff to answer easily answered questions or whether maybe they don't want to give answers that aren't good.

The fact is that on this entire board, there are probably about 15 commonly recurring questions on here. Most of the questions would be really quite easy to answer, as you say, by taking a nook (I'm sure customer service has nooks) and checking. Can I highlight on pdfs? Can I export notes? How do I highlight? questions like this can be answered in a few minutes by putting a pdf on a nook and trying the activity. But unless customer service doesn't have any nooks (and in that case, how are they customer service?) there seems little reason why the answers can't be found and posted to the blog, thereby eliminating the constant barrage of threads asking the same question!

In my opinion, there is no explanation to the lack of customer service which makes BN look good. Either they are understaffed, in which case they failed at forethought, their customer service doesn't have nooks with which to answer questions, in which case they failed at forethought, or they don't want us to know the answers to the questions, in which case they should have never opened up a "question and answer" chatroom.

I do not blame folks for not wanting to buy this product until the myriad of questions get answered - and they will get answered (if not by BN, then by nook users).

[siskiyousummit]

Thank you Xandie for spelling it out so eloquently. All most of want is honesty.

BN, just please answer the legitimate questions as best you can. I think a lot of us would be satisfied if you said, "We don't know yet, but we should have the answer by (insert date)."

And a good start would be to update your FAQ page. So many of the questions asked could be answered there.

And I'm STILL waiting for an answer to when, or if, we can have a look at the user manual.

Jim

[JimM]

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KevinCK wrote:
(I'm sure customer service has nooks)

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I'm not. Speaking from my experience, customer service is often one of the last departments of a company to see a product. They'll probably get a demo and be hands-on with the nook, most likely, a week or two prior to release.

[want2know]

I couldn't have said it better.  I want to give it as a Christmas present but kinda of scary when answers don't come.  I even sent an email to Customer service asking one question that I really wanted to know.....nothing back.  I thin BN could be selling a lot more if they would get with the answers.  Wondering if the Federal lawsuit filed Monday against then have anything to do with this.

[StevenP]

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want2know wrote:

I couldn't have said it better.  I want to give it as a Christmas present but kinda of scary when answers don't come.  I even sent an email to Customer service asking one question that I really wanted to know.....nothing back.  I thin BN could be selling a lot more if they would get with the answers.  Wondering if the Federal lawsuit filed Monday against then have anything to do with this.

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That could explain why there's so much silence from the Mods... but... who knows. *shrugs*  Regardless, I am sure they are very busy.  I am sure they have many other duties.

[siskiyousummit]

I agree that they are probably very busy, but there seems to be a deliberate policy to ignore most questions. The fact is that we, the potential buyers of the nook, were invited to ask questions starting on October 21, and BN promised to do their best to answer them.

I think they could do better.

Jim

[KevinCK]

JimM,

You may well be right, but I question how you can call yourself "customer service" if you can't service customers by answering questions. I know from talking to the very and always helpful amazon staff that oftentimes, they take my question and say, "I am trying this on my kindle here and..." I would hope that there are no poor, poor souls who are expected to answer questions about a machine about which they have no experience. If that is the case, then I feel sorry for them and sorrier for Barnes and Noble.

But I have heard another poster on another thread say something like "I have very little trust in BN's customer service answers because everyone seems to be operating with a different manual." There have been several reports of absolutely contradictory information being given and, in absence of BN's refusal to make the user's manual publically available (as Sony's and Amazon's are), all we can do is guess as to what the REAL answers are.

Surely, customer service must at least have manuals! But if so, why the contradictory answers?

[JimM]

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KevinCK wrote:

Surely, customer service must at least have manuals! But if so, why the contradictory answers?

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Also not necessarily the case, as manuals may be worked on up to the last minute also (especially since it's rare to get printed manuals these days...digital manuals can be updated at any time prior to the release).

I'm not saying that this is good, but I can certainly understand how they might not have all the information available at their fingertips.

You mentioned Sony and Amazon's manuals being available, but their products have been on the market for several years now.  How available were they prior to release of their respective products?

[SuperC142]

If they're not prepared to answer questions yet (whatever the reason) I don't understand why'd they open this board up and invite us to ask them.

[Xandie]

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JimM wrote:

You mentioned Sony and Amazon's manuals being available, but their products have been on the market for several years now.  How available were they prior to release of their respective products?

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I have no idea, Jim. The real issue is, did they open up a forum and encourage customer questions without knowing whether or not they could actually answer them, then provide vague (or in the worst case no) answers? Cause B&N sure did... I totally get that the manual (and probably the device for that matter) are open to change right up till the ship date, but if that's the case, why would they invite questions they didn't have the answers to? Part of me suspects they're still programming the dang things!

I'm really not trying to be a total pain, but how is it that a company as big as B&N can mess up a potentially AWESOME rollout? They're just so far off the mark...

[siskiyousummit]

Here's some hopefully helpful information. I went to the FAQ page to see if anything new was posted. There wasn't. But the sidebar said to email BN or call an 800 number if one had questions not answered on the FAQ page.

So I called the number to express my frustration that so few questions were being answered on the board, and also to ask when we could read the manual. The CSR lady was nice but very uninformed. I finally asked to be escalated to someone who might be able to answer my question. I got transferred to a very helpful, and equally frustrated, Digital Support rep. He is very aware of what is going on regarding the posts on the board, but he and the other CSRs are prohibited from answering any questions on the board. He is only allowed to try to answer a question if someone calls or emails. He said that BN considers the board just a discussion forum for members to members, but I told him that we were invited to ask questions there to be answered by BN. He also expressed his concern that so many potential customers are expressing their frustration and displeasure about how BN is responding to questions about this potentially great product. And no, he has not had a nook in his hands yet.

I asked him if I could post the alternate sources of asking questions, and he welcomed the idea.

The Number is 1-800-the-nook (843-6665). You then have to ask to be transferred to Digital Support.

The email is service@barnesandnoble.com.

I hope that if anyone actually receives concrete answers to their questions, they will post the results here.

Jim

[modo_hoc]

So B&N is trying to market a new product targeted primarily at online media consumers and yet they do not appear to culturally understand the expectations of an online consumer? Doesn't instill much confidence that they are going to get the list issues sorted out any time soon.

[ATXinWI]

Having read throught the lawsuit I do believe that it is playing a part in the lack of response from the BN customer service branch. BN has a strict policy of not commenting on litigation in which it might be involved. I think that perhaps since thwe design of Alex and Nook are so similar BN has decided to not to comment further publicly on any features or functions not already made public in order to avoid it being used against them in court.

[want2know]

OK.  I finally got an email about my question concerning the 14 day return policy extended for Christmas.  I was told on the phone (customer service) that all orders INCLUDING NOOK has the Holiday extended return policy.  I informed her that the web site does not reflect that and then was told that the changes will be made soon.  I then wanted something in writing so I sent an email asking what the return policy was for NOOK now.  I just received this.  "We have extended our Retun Policy for online orders (including Nook) purchased from November 1st through December 24 and will accept these returns through January 31, 2010.  Please check with your local Barnes & Nobel store regarding the Holiday Return period for in-store puchases".  Then they directed me to their link for return policy.  Guess what.....it still says 14 days.