Bought the Nook Color

After lots and lots of planning and comparing and going back and forth about what to get for my ebook reader (I was using my iPhone for a very long time) I went into Barnes and Noble with the intent of getting the new Glow in the Dark Ink on Paper Whisper thing.

It was $139.  But when I got to B&N they had a sale on the Nook Color for $149.  Couldn’t resist that.  Sure I could have gone up a bit more and got the tablet but at that point I’m getting sort of close to the iPad territory and I didn’t have the dough for one of those babies so I got the Nook Color.

Got it home.  Couldn’t get the wi-fi to work.  That could have been something I was doing wrong.  But after a long time with support on the phone, they came to the conclusion that I should bring the device back and exchange it.

I’ll tell you – don’t know what was going on in that store yesterday but just about everything that could go wrong in terms of making the sale went wrong.  It was just one thing after another.  Maybe I’m just not used to shopping in stores.  I get just about everything through the web.

Everyone at the store began by telling me that it must’ve been something I did wrong.  I explained with my usual lack of patience that I had already been on the phone for an hour with tech support. That I just wanted to make an exchange.  But something was wrong with their register and it kept wanting to give me back an extra $5.  Something to do with that it thought I was in the B&N club or something and I was due an extra rebate.

In the meantime, while I was in the middle of trying to get this taken care of a woman interrupted the process because she was due an extra $20 rebate on the color because she had a coupon and was a member of the B&N club but the register wasn’t giving her the extra rebate.  And the two sales girls were just rolling their eyes at the customer and the customer was saying that she – being a customer – was always right and no one wanted to make a decision.

And eventually the manager came over and the register didn’t want to give the extra $20.  And one thing lead to another until finally I got back into the service stream and they did all sorts of tricks and stuff to get the register to zero out for my exchange without luck and the manager came by and eventually straightened it out after I told my story for the tenth time.

No high blood pressure here – but could feel my blood starting to heat up.

And then they told me that the previous one prob. didn’t work because I hadn’t registered.  And I told them that I was just following the four steps that the Color said to do when you got it and that registering came after step 3 – the connect wifi – and since I couldn’t connect with wifi I didn’t register.  Just following the instructions.

The manager said that was probably wrong and I should have registered first.

And so there was an hour on the phone, and then an hour in the store, and I finally registered the new device and created a Nook Account and was able to connect with wifi in the store.  I got on the escalator to leave and as I was going through the two lucite things that beep if you’ve got stolen merchandise they beeped.  And a guard that looked like he was friends with Barney Fife went through each item and found that they didn’t add up correctly because of the exchange… oh it’s a long story.

I told him that it was okay – it was just an exchange… but I had brought along one of those screen plastic things from my first time and it wasn’t on the — he wouldn’t let me go.  I was very close to pushing him down the escalator when he called for security and an armed cop came by.  A friendly armed cop because I told him that I had just been in the store getting this deal fixed up for over an hour and didn’t want to wait for –

But in the meantime Barney Fife was on the walkie talkie calling in a ten-ninety to the Nook department and so I was there waiting… again… and finally one of the sales girls came up the escalator to see what the problem was and I told her that I was getting close to exploding and she asked if I had the original receipt.

No, I didn’t have the original receipt.  She had the original receipt.

Oh, that’s right.  Okay – hold on.

Can’t you just tell this guy that I can leave.  In a minute I’m going to throw this package down the stairs and get a refund.

No… just hold on…  And she went down the escalator and I waited…

The armed cop asked if anything was wrong… just chit chat and whether he needed to stay.  I told him he’d better stay because if I couldn’t get out of the store with my package there was a good chance he was going to be needed.

And the sales girl returned – all flustered – followed with two other associates – like something from that fairy tale about the goose that everyone is stuck to – and she presented the original receipt to the guard, telling me that I should have had this receipt as well.

Really, is that true?  If so why didn’t you give it to me?

Barney checked it off and gave it back to me and said it was okay to go.  The sales girl tore it from my hand and said she needed it.

So who is supposed to have it – you or me?

Don’t ask she said.  I might explode.

And with that I went home.

The new one is working fine.  It’s just what I wanted – but I suspect I should have ordered it over the web.