It’s no wonder that Barnes and Noble has such a high turnover rate when it comes to employees. All I ever see when I visit the Palm Desert, California store are managers talking down to its staff. I feel bad for the employees there. I know some of them from how much I get coffee in the cafe and I feel they do a decent job. But I’ve seen managers yell at them in front of customers without ever giving them any backup during busy times. And why are they always trying to set up their displays and end caps during busy hours? Do that in the mornings or at night when there isn’t a huge line at your customer service desk. Help customers! I believe he’s the newer store manager there, but all I ever see him do is put toys all over the tables and run away when it starts getting busier. What happened to featuring books in the bookstore and managers leading their staff by example?!

I took the bait and bought the membership in the store because I would save 10% on $40 worth of merchandise and they said it would get me free online shipping. I assumed (I know, I know ...) that I'd get 10% off of my online purchases, too. WRONG. And even worse, the free shipping is only on orders of $25 or more. The worst insult of all? I learned all of this only after calling to ask why my renewed membership wasn't showing in my online account. If you renew in the store, their database doesn't update your online account.

Amazon, you'll get all of my book purchases from now own. You have good service, the books arrive when you say they will, and your pricing is transparent.

So I am an avid reader and always look for a good deal to my continuous hobby. Most of the time I buy my online books from Amazon because they offer free Prime shipping to college students. When I was shopping around BN one day and paying for my merchandise, I was harassed by the cashier to purchase the BN membership. I explained how with my schedule I do not have time to constantly stop by BN for every book I want, therefore I order through Amazon. THE CASHIER INSISTED THAT BN EXPRESS SHIPPING WAS WORTH IT. It was worth the $30 you pay for the membership! So come April 25th, I am online shopping seeing what new books are coming out. I decided to finally use my membership on BN instead of Amazon and I order ONE SIMPLE BOOK. The express shipping was free and guaranteed the order would April 28th. HERE WE ARE MAY 7TH, AND MY BOOK STILL HASN'T ARRIVED. The company overall is MISLEADING SCAMMERS. Seriously, Amazon would have already had my book here. Moral of the story, DO NOT BUY THE MEMBERSHIP. SPEND $30 ON 5 FIVE BOOKS YOU CAN HAVE FROM AMAZON FASTER AND CHEAPER.

I was Christmas shopping at Barnes and Noble at Asheville mall today while my car was being worked on at Sears Automotive. I had $168 of merchandise I had already selected and intended to shop more; however I am a senior and have back problems and was having difficulty carrying all the merchandise around (and couldn't purchase and put in my car since my car was in the bay at Sears). I asked (what I later found out to be a manger) if I could put the merchandise I had already selected behind the counter while I continued to shop ( there is plenty of room behind the counter). She curtly informed me that I could not stating that staff had to be able to move around (it was ridiculous to think that the merchandise that I had - which fit into two shopping bags would prevent staff from being able to move around) . I tried to explain that I didn't have my car as it was at Sears so was left with lugging around $168 of merchandise if I intended to continue shopping. At that point I decided I did not want to shop any longer at a store that treats their customers this way (if it was not Christmas presents that I was purchasing I would have left all the merchandise right there and walked out. Needless to say I do not intend to shop there in the future.