Comments on: B&N NOOK server failures prompt holiday headaches (again)

By: colornookie

colornookie — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:01:19 +0000

Julie’s points are dead on…
I bought and gave my wife a CN, had the same frustrating problems on Christmas day and the day after as everyone else. However I was able on Christmas day to register, setup my B&N account, and purchase a e-magazine with some nice color pages, yeah thats right COLOR e-magazine Kindle can’t do that, nor can it do half the things a CN can do. B&N still sold over a million ebook on Christmas day, so it worked for some.

To expect B&N’s web service to rival Amazon’s is foolish, B&N’s web service is backup for their Brick and Mortar book stores, Amazon’s entire business is online and can handle HUGE amounts of user load/demand/ etc whatever it is called.

Did someone screw up not planning for the Christmas Rush on B&N’s web service, yeah I guess, but should B&N make an investment that only gets used for about 5 days a year? B&N knows that by the 3rd day everyone will get what they want.

Since B&N’s site was clogged I went to our local library’s web site and d/l books using Adobe Digital Edition, and side loaded them into the CN, another thing that Kindle can’t do because the books need to be converted first, and the next day d/l about 100 books off of Project Gutenberg for free, and side loaded those into our CN, again the epub format used for those books didn’t require conversion to the kindle format, I just move the files directly to our CN. So by the 3rd day, 124 books, 1 color magazine, and 250 MP3s on our Color Nook and wife was a happy reader. Oh did I mention she also uses her CN to check on tv, movie, actors, etc while we are watching a show, plus checks her email and whatever forums she likes to participate on, Kindle where are you?

By: Podesta

Podesta — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:03:15 +0000

You are wrong. All that was leaked was the identification numbers for some iPads with 3G. No personal information was at exposed.

And why would you compare a little e-reader with an iPad, anyway?

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 05:13:50 +0000

Maybe before you all complain like you are maybe you all should know BN, Bestbuy and Walmart were all sold out on these devices and anyone that tries to sit here insulting BN should think every device has issues if im not mistaken didn’t a lot of customers personal info get leaked with the Ipad earlier this year? If I am not mistaken didn’t books get removed from Amazon on peoples K2′s? before you start insulting maybe you should have used common logic that you would expect people to start buying books day one and two. give it a day or so before you start buying stuff remember BN is a bookstore not an electronic company. Geez grow up people stop whining.

By: Charles

Charles — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 22:31:10 +0000

I received the Nook for Christmas and had issues the first day with downloading items. In the past two days, the server has been much better, and I am not having any issues. I am now very happy with it!

By: Liana

Liana — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 19:03:12 +0000

I got this for christmas and been trying 3 days straight trying to log onto my barnes and noble account just from the pan digital novel and it couldn’t even do that piece of crap seriously consider returning and getting the kindle

By: Maddaddy

Maddaddy — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:44:26 +0000

I brought my 11yrs old daughter an E-reader(pandigital noval ) after much thought over the Nook. ($$$$$) I gave it to my daughter on Christmas Day with great excitement . We read the instruction word for word and decided to purchase a book from B&N online.(Dec25- ). We could not download the book. WE call B&N Customer Server agent , she could not tell me any thing about why we could not download our books.She said it normally takes 24hrs to get a E-book . I did not understand that ,but it was my first time ordering a e-book.So I wait until Dec26 ,still NO e-book. in my daughter E reader. Now its Dec28 and not B&N book yet. This the worst customer service Ever .

By: cammy

cammy — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:14:47 +0000

I bought a ebook online and it still wouldn’t come up in my library!
I tried to download a free sample book the server wouldn’t let me do THAT! :(

By: cammy

cammy — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:12:10 +0000

I tried to download a free sample ebooks but still couldn’t get that!
I also purchased a ebooks online but they wouldn’t come up in my libary! :(

By: Dregun

Dregun — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:21:56 +0000

My father in law got a Kindle for Christmas and my wife got a Nook. Christmas morning my father in law tries to send my wife a e-giftcard through B&N in the morning after she opens her nook. Since my wife has a Android phone he already knew sending the gift card early would probably prompt suspicion of her christmas present. Gift card wasn’t sent out for over 24 hours, the servers were so slow she couldn’t even browse the shop to find a book or books to purchase.

My father in laws kindle? No problem, it worked like a champ and he was buying himself books from amazon and downloading them with ease.

Shame on B&N for having server issues on CHRISTMAS!! I hope they realize the amount of sales they potentially (and did lose) on this EPIC FAIL!! Who was the moron at B&N that didn’t forsee a huge influx of new customers possible after christmas? What; did they think the biggest strain on the B&N servers is when the retailers sold these Nooks? I was half tempted to return my wifes Nook and just get her a Kindle after this experience and considering NOBODY bought her a book for christmas because we knew she was getting the Nook meant for the first Christmas since she was a kid she wasn’t able to curl up on the couch and read a book on Christmas….seriously B&N??

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 05:00:47 +0000

A Tale of EPIC Christmas FAIL

Bought dad a nook color for Christmas. He opened it up to find 2x USB cables instead of the AC adapter/cable that is supposed to come with it, FAIL #1. He tried to setup the device and wasn’t able to setup his account from the device because it was already registered to another user (the device was brand new and shrink wrapped from the local B&N store), FAIL #2. After finally muddling through the setup (he was able to get the device setup but couldn’t add a credit card to buy books) and adding a credit card via the website (which of course was a complete pile of suck) he attempted to buy a couple books. It took over 3hrs for the books to even show up on his account and even longer to actually show up on his device, FAIL #3.

3 FAIL’s = EPIC FAIL

Had to go back to the store on the 26th to get his AC adapter and luckily that went smoothly. He finally did get his books and is now getting some enjoyment from his new device, but B&N definitely screwed the proverbial pooch this Christmas.

By: Sean (Menlo Park, CA)

Sean (Menlo Park, CA) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:49:43 +0000

Dec 26th. Having issues here with a new Nook Color. First we could not even get onto bn.com to add books to our library. Tech support hold time was 45 minutes, only to tell us to try again in 2 hours. Rep said they are having issues but to be patient. Finally by midnight, our books were finally starting to appear.

Dec 27th. Different day, same issue. We are back to having only 1 book (10 purchased) and even our books downloaded last night are now missing.

I have never had issues with our iPad. This device was suppose to be our solution for purely books, magazines, children books. NOT IMPRESSED with BN!!! Tech support reps are not well trained either.