To buy a boy a tricycle
Four days back I got an email from Barns & Noble offering me 70% off one item from my first online purchase from them. I thought OK that's awesome, as I was considering buying A some wooden puzzles and I've seen those sold in their brick & mortar store. I look at their kids stuff online and OMG they have this on there. See photo above? That's A enjoying riding on one of these at our local playground. He totally loves this trike! I had no idea they even sold this kind of stuff but 70% off of a $90 tricycle that's listed for $70 sounds like a score to me. I read all the fine print to make sure it's not too good to be true. It all seems good so I attempt to check out. No dice. No matter what the website is telling me the coupon code is invalid. So I send them an email and go to bed.
The next day I get two replies from BN.com's online customer service. "Judz" asks me to copy and paste the content of the email THEY sent me so I send it to her. "Rose" asks me to tell her the product I am trying to apply the coupon code to. I respond to both emails separately and then send them a copy pasted version of the other reply.
I then get this as a third email from BN.com:
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your email.
We apologize for the difficulty you encountered when attempting to apply
coupon (COUPON CODE) to your Barnes & Noble order.
Please be advised that the terms and conditions of this promotion
indicate that this coupon cannot be applied to any digital product.
We regret any inconvenience this matter may have caused you.
Sincerely,
Maria
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/
That's right, Maria just told me I can't use the coupon on a tricycle since it is a digital product. No words.
OK more words actually.
I then email Maria back:
Hello Maria, Rose, Judz, and who ever the next person may be who
responds to this email.
The product I was trying to purchase with the 70% off coupon code that I
had received to my email account a4alia@gmail.com, the same email
account I used to register at BN.com with, to use upon my first purchase
was not a "digital product". I was attempting to purchase a children's
tricycle. The kind a kid sits on and you push around. Please take a
moment to look at the link I previously sent again if you are unsure:
http://gifts.barnesandnoble.com/Toys-games/Smart-Trike-CLASSIC/e/4897025790520
Should that link not work for you I hope you have some way to look up
the product ISBN as copy/pasted from bn.com (same as last numbers of the
link's url): ISBN-13: 4897025790520
Should there be any further confusion as to what it is I'm asking for
assistance with, of if there is further information you require so that
I can complete this transaction by using the coupon code BN.com has sent
me please refer to the chain of emails in its entirety below.
- Alia [...]
To this I get TWO more individual emails from BN.com customer service agents, Jennifer and Henry. Both advise me to call in to place my web order and the pay by phone person will enter in the coupon code for me and then take my credit card since they can't do this via email. Ok sounds good. I call.
Phone person #1: she tells me I have to create an order (I already did this) and then check out and there is an option that lets you pay by phone instead of entering in credit info online (weird) and that after I check out I then need to call back and have someone help me with this since she can't create the order and check me out all at the same time. OK so I do this.
Phone person #2: This guy tries to enter in the coupon code but has some trouble. Then he puts me on hold for about 20 minutes and comes back to tell me that his boss says the coupon code is only good for products that Barns and Noble produces. I tell him Barns and Noble does not make the books it sells and then I read him the entire fine print of the coupon code and point out that not one part of that would indicate I can't use it on the trike - a specialty store (aka "Kids Toys") item. This guy then changes his tone and transfers me to someone else.
Phone person #3: I explain this again to another woman, who now sounds a lot more american, she then puts me on hold for another 15 minutes or so and then gets back to me that they will change my order price to adjust for the coupon code, however it takes 48 hours for their system to recognize this change (SRSLY??) and that I will either get a new order reminder email that I need to call again to pay by phone or I should simply call again in 48 hours to complete the payment on my $90 trike for $20.
This is a true story.
So come monday I'm either going to be completing my online transaction by phone or I'm going to be playing another game of telephone semantics with someone else at BN.com. It's amazing what I'll do for this kid.
Needless to say, once I get this trike I'm never ever ordering another thing from their website ever again.
**** UPDATE as of 10pm (copy/pasted from facebook and now I'm making this entry public)
9:00pm: on the phone with barns and noble again... evidently phone person # 3 left a note for a supervisor to fix my order (never happened though) which phone person # 4 was able to view so I didn't need to argue with person # 4. Now person # 4 is looking for phone person #5 to finally finish my order.... and I'm holding for phone person #5 to show up. Oops looks like person #5 doesn't want to talk to me... just had an argument with person # 4... now waiting again for person # 5.
And one hour later:
Update. Spoke to a very terse sounding Mr 5. He tells me that the 'young lady' # 3 made a mistake by not telling her supervisor what the product was I was trying to order when she requested the permission to grant me the 70% off my order as promised by the coupon code they chose to send my by email. None of the terms of the coupon stated the coupon did not apply to "Specialty Store Items". Which I had previously discussed with online persons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and phone persons 1, 2, 3 and 4. In fact online persons 4 and 5 and phone persons 1 and 3 all believed the terms of the coupon did apply to the item I wanted to order and were trying to complete my purchase. I asked him how it is that four other people all told me this coupon was usable on this product and he refused to listen to that and just kept stating that even though it is mentioned no where in the terms of the coupon that they sent me, that my the item I wanted to order did not qualify for the coupon code. He then told me that Barns and Noble does not sell toys in it's stores and only online through third party vendors so I should know that this product was being sold by a third party thus fitting one of the disqualifying terms of the coupon. Say what? I tell him that the Barns and Noble I go to about 3 times a week with my son sells tons of toys and how am I to know that the ones sold on the website are from a third party if it is not listed anywhere on the webpage that the items I would be ordering from them are not actually being sold by them? He then would say it's a specialty store item so I should know it's a third party sale - but then I would again point out that the coupon does not state "no specialty store items". He got frustrated with me and pretty much said there was nothing he would do for me and that eventually I'd get an email about my order not being completed due to the terms of the coupon.
It should be noted that phone persons 1, 2, and 3 all checked with their supervisors before they chose to tell me that the 70% off would be applied to my order, so in total there were at least 6 people who approved it. Mr phone person #5 seems to be having a bad day.