Re: Barnes & Noble Booksellers
Geneva Commons
102 Commons Drive
Geneva, IL 60134
Employees Jolyn and Mr. T.

Greetings, Barnes and Noble

Since I was given a gift card for the holidays to one of your stores, I thought I'd drop by to round out a purchase I had been hoping to complete for many weeks.

You see, I was trying to get a complete collection of DVD Box Sets of a particular television show, namely Scrubs, and, having tried for many weeks (since Black Friday), I was able to obtain only seasons 1, 3, and 4. I had made countless calls, store visits, and Internet inquiries over the weeks leading up to Christmas, but the item simply was not available for purchase. Tonight, December 27, 2006, I went into your Geneva Commons store in Geneva, Illinois, and asked if the item was available. I had the misfortune of asking Jolyn.

Jolyn told me that if the item was not on the shelf, it was likely in "one of those boxes." She indicated a stack of 4 boxes on the floor next to the cash register. She quickly added that she was not going to open those boxes tonight, and that if I was going to buy the item, I'd have to wait until some other time. After confirming that Scrubs Season 2 was not on the shelf, I again approached Jolyn and confirmed that she was going to make me make a return trip of 25 miles and 65 minutes of travel time just because she was unwilling to remove the adhesive strip on those boxes. She confirmed my statement.

I started to walk away, but Jolyn opted to add insult to injury.

She said, "Now you probably think that I'm a bad customer servicer."

I said, "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do."

Jolyn then added, "The store closes in 20 minutes. I am going home in 45 minutes. I am NOT opening those boxes tonight. You can wait 'til tomorrow."

Folks, the mocking tone of this statement raised my shackles. While I am not, for a minute, denying that Jolyn may have been subjected to an absolutely nightmarish holiday season as a retail clerk, let's not forget that I, as a customer, have also endured many, many hours of crowded shopping centers, apathetic sales staff, outlandish prices, and ineptitude at every turn. The tone of Jolyn's voice was akin to that of a spoiled little brat saying, "Nyah Nyah! I ain't doin' what you want and there ain't nothin' you can do about it."

She lured me into my next question, and I fell for it like the sap she was treating me as. I asked to see the manager. She triumphantly barked, "THAT'S ME!!! I'M THE MANAGER!!!"

Imagine another NYAH NYAH NYAH!! there, and you will have captured Jolyn's tone.

I walked away lest I cater anymore to Jolyn's sadistic power trip. I found another store clerk and asked her who the manager was. She said it was Jolyn. I asked if that was the lady in the blue shirt behind the counter in the DVD and CD section. She said, "Yeah, I guess."

I asked if, by any chance, Jolyn's boss was around.

"Sure," she said. "That would be the Store Manager. Wanna talk to them?"

I said, "Well, I'm done talking to Jolyn."

She led me back to a customer service area and made a telephone call. That was when I met Mr. T.

I outlined for Mr. T. my encounter with Jolyn. He repeated it back to me and advised me that he would speak to her about it. Then he offered to open the boxes tomorrow, find the DVD that I wanted, call me on the phone, get my credit card number, and he would ship it to me.

I pointed out the absurdity of this offer. Here I was standing approximately 25 feet from what I wanted to purchase with nothing more than a strip of cellophane adhesive tape between me and my personal holy grail, and he wanted to make me wait overnight and then three to five days to ship an article 25 miles. I told him that I found that to be unacceptable, just as I found Jolyn's attitude to be contemptuous and her disregard for me as a customer to be disrespectful and rude.

Mr. T. shrugged and said he would speak to Jolyn.

I pointed out that I had already dropped off an application to be in Barnes and Noble's little club, and the clerk at the cash register was holding it pending my check out. And that my check out would include another DVD and books being purchased, as we spoke, by my wife, my son, and my brother. I told him that without the DVD in the box sitting next to the cash register, the whole deal was off and we would be walking out the door empty handed.

Again, Mr. T. shrugged.

I rounded up my posse. Indeed, they were holding nearly $200 worth of items. I told them of my encounter with Mr. T. and Jolyn and asked them to forego their purchases for tonight. They agreed. In fact, my wife gathered up all of the planned purchases and marched them over to Mr. T. She said, "Look at everything we were going to buy! Now we're not because you can't get a DVD box set out of a shipping carton?"

Mr. T. said, "Let me put those back for you. Have a nice night."

So, gentle folks at Barnes and Noble, I'd like to congratulate you on having such a wildly successful holiday retail experience to allow yourselves the luxury of flushing away a $200 post-Christmas sale. Remember, that's $200 before the DVD box set. With the DVD box set, it would have been getting up into the $250 range, with tax.

Let me point out - reiterate, if you will - that I was asking for a DVD box set. I wasn't asking for a needle in a haystack. Both Mr. T. and Jolyn indicated to me that there could be hundreds of DVDs in those boxes. However, if those boxes actually held hundreds of DVDs (which I personally doubt), finding that box set would have been comparable to picking an NBA Center Guard out of a playground full of kindergartners. I wasn't asking for the world. Just someone to tear the stinking strip of packing tape off the box.

I can't imagine ever being lured into another Barnes and Noble after experiencing such a blatant disregard for customer satisfaction. My only regret at this point is that I have this crummy $25 gift card taking up precious space in the cash fountain I call my wallet. Whether I go to Border's or Barnes and Noble Booksellers is inconsequential to me. However, let me give you an idea of the kind of business that you frittered away tonight. I will do so by posing the following mathematical problem:

Jack got a Border's Rewards card in May, 2006. His Border's Rewards card returns to him 5% of his purchases in the form of a holiday spending account. From May 15, 2006 to December 1, 2006, Jack's holiday spending account with Border's totaled $65.73. How much money did Jack spend at Borders between May and December 2006?

Bonus question: Bearing in mind that Jack's wife had a separate Border's Reward Card and ended up with $49.27 in her holiday spending account, and Jack's son also had a separate Border's Reward Card that afforded him $27.14 in holiday spending, how much of the total spent at Borders between May and December 2006 could have gone to Barnes and Noble?

Let me close my letter by saying that I also run a website: www.bitchersmound.com. I am posting this letter on that website, as well as your response.

Sincerely

Jack Schultz

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Illinois 60506

(630) xxx-xxxx

December 27, 2006

cc: Leonard Riggio, Chairman
Steve Riggio, Chief Executive Officer and Vice-Chairman
Mitch Klipper, Chief Operating Officer
Marie Toulantis, Chief Executive Officer
Mary Ellen Keating, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
Mark Bottini, Vice President, Director of Stores