Barnes & Noble is apologizing to customers that had placed orders for the HP TouchPad only to later find out that the tablet was not in stock and their orders had been canceled. Basically the company’s inventory system kept taking orders even after the TouchPad was completely out of stock.
While the company won’t be sending out $102 tablets to everyone who placed orders, those who had their orders canceled are getting a consolation prize. Multiple people have reported that B&N is sending $20 eGift cards which can be used to purchase items at the Barnes & Noble website or in stores.
More than 1100 people had already signed a petition saying they’d had their orders canceled. Assuming not everyone knew about the petition, it’s possible that B&N could be sending out thousands of gift cards to apologize for canceling orders on an item the company probably wasn’t making much money on anyway.
I got an email yesterday that contained the $20 gift card. Already bought two ebooks @$9.99 and stripped the DRM so I could convert it to mobi and read it on my Kindle.
I haven’t gotten a gift card, and I placed three orders for Touchpads with Barnes and Noble. All of them got cancelled. Even the order I placed at full price the day before Barnes and Noble started selling them at the sale price.
No gift card here…And I am the one that started the petition!!! You would think I would be the first on the list to attempt to get me to take the petition down. Dumb B & N
We received your concern with regards to the $20 giftcard that we offeras an appeasement to our customers and we sincerely regret to inform youthat this giftcard only applies to Barnes & Noble members. We willsincerely regret seeing that you, being a very loyal customer from ourcompany would leave due to this unexpected event. Losing you as acustomer would be the last thing that we wanted.We pray for the success of your future endeavors.We thank you for your feedback and we apologize most sincerely regretany inconvenience this may have caused.Sincerely,ErwinCustomer Service RepresentativeBarnes & Noblehttp://www.bn.com/
I haven’t gotten a giftcard either.
We received your concern with regards to the $20 giftcard that we offeras an appeasement to our customers and we sincerely regret to inform youthat this giftcard only applies to Barnes & Noble members. We willsincerely regret seeing that you, being a very loyal customer from ourcompany would leave due to this unexpected event. Losing you as acustomer would be the last thing that we wanted.We pray for the success of your future endeavors.We thank you for your feedback and we apologize most sincerely regretany inconvenience this may have caused.Sincerely,ErwinCustomer Service RepresentativeBarnes & Noblehttp://www.bn.com/
We received your concern with regards to the $20 giftcard that we offeras an appeasement to our customers and we sincerely regret to inform youthat this giftcard only applies to Barnes & Noble members. We willsincerely regret seeing that you, being a very loyal customer from ourcompany would leave due to this unexpected event. Losing you as acustomer would be the last thing that we wanted.We pray for the success of your future endeavors.We thank you for your feedback and we apologize most sincerely regretany inconvenience this may have caused.Sincerely,ErwinCustomer Service RepresentativeBarnes & Noblehttp://www.bn.com/
NO GIFT CARD HERE.
Related to the HP TouchPad, the only emails I received from Barnes & Noble are
1) A Receipt that my order for the TouchPad was accepted.
2) A Cancellation email that my order could not be filled.
I guess they are only concerned with Members who were screwed out of their purchase……. for the rest of us, I guess they could give a @#%&!
I call BS on B&N! How are they legally allowed to appease “customers” when all of us who ordered the Touchpad are customers? It’s discrimination, flat out! I plan to boycott them indefinitely.