http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 2 Sep 2008 11:27:34 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-744315 I have worked for B&N for 4 years now, and it is a good place to work. I have seen mostly good Customer Service from my fellow Booksellers. The people I work with are educated kind people who like working retail. Occasionally I have seen some mistakes in Customer Service but mostly my fellow Booksellers do a great job and get personal compliments from our Customers. Sometimes the Customers are rude, but mostly our Customers are educated kind people who like shopping in Barnes & Noble. At my store we operate like a family and treat our Customers like we would want to be treated. Sometimes we have to clean up messes, but that is ok, it is our job. The best part about being a Bookseller is that we put books in our Customer's hands, and more books is never a bad thing. Thanx for listening and go reread To Kill A Mockingbird, it's a great book! 744315@blogcritics.org Tue, 2 Sep 2008 11:27:34 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-743127 I'd like to make a comment to the person who said all the negative booksellers should find other jobs: First of all, assuming you're a customer, WAY TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY. Aside from poor management (which only exists in SOME stores), customers can cause the largest percentage of our unhappiness. I happen to work in a fantastic store with great employees and management. I take pride in working with books and being involved in the literary community. I manage to adore my job DESPITE asshole customers. See, your attitude is the exact problem. You view us as service people and nothing more. And because we are service people, the public tends to view us as inferior and they behave accordingly. You think customers are entitled (we'll talk more about this later) to treat us like shit because of the positions we hold. And your answer to us when we complain? "If you don't like it, then find someplace else to work." Let me ask you, since you have it all figured out, do you like everything about YOUR job? Every single little aspect of it? Can you honestly say that there aren't things you would change if given the power? I'm betting your answer proves my point. Moreover, have you never said one negative thing about your job? You're a liar if you say otherwise. Oh, but we're not allowed to complain. Where would you have us complain instead? To the asshole customers? Yeah, that would go over well. If we cannot have a healthy channel for us to vent our frustrations (such as forums), would you prefer that we resort to workplace violence instead? Or maybe we should run right out and find that dream job that you seem to have. The real problem is that we live in a society that promotes single-minded self-interest only. A winner-takes-all society. Sink or swim, right? What happened to compassion for other humans beings? What happened to being polite and considerate? Customers are like a bunch of entitled two year olds: mine, mine, mine, now, now, now! Having to wait or be told "no" is simply unacceptable! And, damn-it-all, you better have an f-ing smile on your subservient face while you jump at my every command. Or find another job. I pity you really. You live in a deluded world of rainbows and lollipops where no one is ever mean. And if they are, you certainly do not complain. You grin and bear it and take it right up the ass. YOU ARE A SAINT. Maybe YOU should work in retail! What you really need to understand is that in this game of survival us retail warriors are really the fittest. We put up with verbal abuse, entitled and demeaning behavior from customers, low pay and shit hours, all with a smile (albeit insincere) on our faces just so people like you can shop in complete obliviousness. You just remember that the next time you think someone in retail should find another job if they need to complain. Afterall, if we all left, who would serve you? 743127@blogcritics.org Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:24:44 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-742964 I work at BN and I completely sympathize with most of the complaints because I see the shit go down every day. I see my coworkers be assholes, I see the management be lazy. But I do have to say, the customers do tend to be hard to deal with. ESPECIALLY the ones who've never had to work retail. I make an effort to know my customers and have become good friends with some. I don't like my job, I don't like the company. But some of your comments are very generalized and you need to take into account that you were insulting all of us which is a gross generalization. 742964@blogcritics.org Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:40:26 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-741931 You might consider me a negative bookseller. One reason I use this forum to complain is that there is a chance -- no doubt a small one -- that maybe someone at B&N headquarters is reading this, and what I post might motivate some executive to change something. It's true that most of the folks up in New York already think that they've got everything figured out, but there might be one or two of them who have open minds. One thing is for sure: trying to get anything changed through internal corporate channels (such as the chain of command) is hopeless. Indeed, my store manager tells me that his/her hands are tied. B&N claims that it welcomes suggestions from its employees, but if I want to submit an idea to the company's suggestion site, I have to do so on my own time, on my own computer. If B&N can't occasionally grant me fifteen minutes on a company computer to propose something that might help the company run better, then I have to conclude that B&N isn't really interested in my views. And since B&N isn't really interested in hearing from me, you can be sure that I won't be calling their Loss Prevention Hotline if I see any merchandise vanishing. I won't steal it myself, or help anyone else steal it, but don't expect me to report it. 741931@blogcritics.org Mon, 25 Aug 2008 01:59:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-741673 In regards to all the negative booksellers out there. If you are so irritated with your job, why not find a job that is better suited for you. It's obvious that you are not happy, why not find what your best at instead of complaining about a job. You are not forced to work there, find another job and stop complaining. 741673@blogcritics.org Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:39:28 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-740870 If you're a polite customer, chances are BN employees will be respectful back. I've worked at Barnes and Noble for over a year and some of my customers are great. I've been praised and thanked so many times. And some of my customers are awful. I've been sexually harassed and verbally abused. But not every job is perfect. And not every retail store is perfect. Life goes on. 740870@blogcritics.org Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:28:07 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-740328 in regards to post #128, hours, scheduling, and hiring: no one explains to you when you are hired that you are forever part time unless you take a lead postion. it is not worth the money and extra hours to accept this. don't do it. our store hours have been cut dramatically. we are told it is based on sales. yet, we are and have been actively hiring for months. when we hire new people, they recieve the same amount of hours as people who have been there 3 years! very few new employees stay with us. this is training time wasted, and hours given to morons who can't show up to work. it takes a very long time to learn all the ins and outs of the store. instead of giving the extra hours to employees who know their job and do it well, they hire more part timers so our hours don't get above 25 a week! this starts a reaction of angry and frustrated employees, which leads to poor work ethics and an "i don't give a fuck" attitude. things don't get done as they should be, and the store crumbles. i have asked 3 different managers (over 3 years)to explain why they continue to hire when the rest of the store is suffering. i get a lot of lame excuses and don't believe any of it. barnes and noble is cheap, and would rather weed out poeple who make more $, have insurance,and paid time off. they want to go through the hassle of constantly training new employees, which stresses out the rest of the store, managers included. now our store manager has cut our shifts to 4.5-6 hours. employees who have been there for years went from working full day shifts at maybe 3 or 4 days a week, to 4.5 shifts 5 days a week!!! not only is this a waste in gas, it is a waste in our time. this company pushes to hire "career minded" people. this is a joke. when i asked why we could not just work 3 days a week for the same hours (to save on gas) i was told this was not possible. my manager explains that we have too many call outs and no one to cover. if we have people in the store working short shifts then one of us can stay to help. so now the whole store (except lead positions) works horrible shifts?! why not 1 or 2 shifts a day? why all of us? so stupid, especially when it is a select few who call out constantly. all this because they don't want to, and have a very hard time, writing a schedule to include lunch beaks. lazy! i can handle the rude, nasty, demanding, ignorant customers (most of the time), but i cannot handle a company that does not care about employees who make the money for the company. i have politely tried to get answers through my managers at my store. now i am going to corporate to have them explain it to me. weeding employees out, banking hours, and lack of respect for people who want to come to work everyday and do their job well is making me sick. sales will continue to drop and our ability to help customers is failing because we have no staff! how can we make sales plan if we have no staff???? i hope all barnes and noble booksellers will help me in this crisis because it is only going to get worse. i was told that the shifts being cut to under 6 hours is a NATIONWIDE policy. of course, i am looking for another job. it's a shame too. i really liked my job, but this is too much. 740328@blogcritics.org Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:01:24 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-739688 I hate Barnes & Noble's. Working there for only four months was the worst experience of my life. I had always been a good kid, an avid reader, and it was my dream come true to be hired by a bookstore. What I found was awful intimidating managers who were unfair and got mad at me for every little thing, barely ever giving me a chance to explain or defend myself. They gave me the biggest section in the store-- the children's section-- ALONE. During the HOLIDAY SEASON. Do you have any idea what it's like to show up and see 7 H-Carts, 10 V-Carts, and 15 needy and helpless customers fighting for my assistance? They rarely sent me back-up; when they did it was for 10 minutes, if not less. It was IMPOSSIBLE to complete the job, and then they'd get mad at me for still having carts out on the floor past 11am. Worst of all, one evening, the LOCKED ME IN. I was alone in the kid's section, separate from the rest of the store; the manager never even made an announcement that everyone was leaving and locking up. Next thing I know, the lights are shut and I'm locked in the store, all alone, on a rainy night. The phones were dead. I had no choice but to open the door, sound the alarm, and wait for the police to come so I could explain it to them. And did the manager who did this to me, or the store manager, ever apologize? NO. They never even apologized for the most terrifying experience of my life. I hate Barnes & Noble. This is the Barnes & Noble in Ellicott City, Maryland. I will never set foot in there again. 739688@blogcritics.org Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:13:30 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-739379 A woman came into Barnsie today. She wanted to browse at some books, but forgot her reading glasses. She picked out some reference books that she thought I should search through so that I could find the information that she wanted. Once the facts were found, I could read the pertinent passages aloud and she would listen. I didn't. (No doubt, when she goes to a restaurant she forgets her dentures and asks the waiter to chew her food for her.) 739379@blogcritics.org Thu, 14 Aug 2008 05:20:59 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-738451 I work at B&N and would just like to list the horrifying/disgusting/demeaning customer experiences I or my fellow employees have had: 1. Diarrhea LITERALLY splattered all over toilets, walls, and floors. Then tracked out onto the carpet. As in, DIARRHEA. F-ING. FOOTPRINTS. G-ROSS. 2. Male adolescents "sword-fighting" in the men's restroom. For those of you who don't know what this means picture this: The Lightsabers (neon swords) in Star Wars. Except the beams of light are actually streams of urine. Yeah, take a moment and let that sink in. Like it did on EVERY SURFACE IN OUR BATHROOM. 3. Menstral blood dripping from the toilets and pooling on the floor. Enough said. 4. Semen on books. Not even the sexuality books. If that's not deviant, I don't know what is. 5. When cleaning up a pile of 30 books left on a table in the Cafe, my coworker was ACTUALLY told that we should be grateful. Why? Because if customers didn't come into the store and make a mess WE ALL WOULDN'T HAVE JOBS. Hmmmmmmm... Surely we are also qualified to shovel animal shit at the local zoo. Pretty close to the same thing (please see examples 1-4). 6. I was ringing up a customer who was purchasing a stuffed animal. Only when she handed it to me did I realize that it was completely covered in something akin to saliva from her 15 month old. She didn't even bat an eyelid at my obvious disgust. Does motherhood entitle you to throw all social manners out of the window? Just because you think every fluid that comes out of your child's body is oh-so-cute, doesn't mean I do. So I handed her the receipt - covered in snot. Fair is fair... 7. One day a customer tried to return a book (without a receipt) with a cover that was severely bent and food spilled all over it. May I repeat? Actual food. When I refused to accept the return, she claimed that she bought it like that. As if any self-righteous, condescending, assanine customer would EVER pay full price for a book in that condition. 8. One old man demanded that we change the music (Lation Jazz?) because people "do drugs to this kind of music." Apparently, he's done too many drugs if he thinks any self-respecting Pot-Head would smoke to that crap. Can anyone say Pink Floyd?? 9. We constantly get the requests for the "blue book with the flower on the front" or "that book Oprah had on her show in April 2002" or that obscure out-of-print self-proclaimed "classic" that no employee has ever heard of or can find evidence for. 10. I actually had a customer insult my education because I had never read her author/friend's random Pocahontas history book. Let me repeat. We had the book. We could order more. But there was something wrong with my mental capacity because I had not read the book. Seriously??? 11. One night in the music department an employee was checking out an especially chatty customer. When it was her turn, the customer in line behind her flew into a rage and demanded an apology for making her wait a whole 1.73 minutes. The employee explained that he could not be rude to one customer to help another and she went on a rampage. Literally walked through the store ranting and raving and demanding free books. We asked her to leave but she refused. We actually had to call the cops and have her removed. But, oh no, that was not the end for this Saucy Minx. She prowled the parking lot at MIDNIGHT (when we all got to drag our tired asses home) looking for that employee. True story. We all saw her. 12. A word to local authors: STOP CALLING THE STORE POSING AS A CUSTOMER ASKING FOR YOUR OWN BOOK. Its just plain sad and we almost never have it. Stop acting incredulous about it - especially when you self-publish or use Billy-Bob's Publishing Company out of Poedunk, Nowhere. 13. Every weekend we are overrun with teenagers that are dropped off by their parents for supposed "free teeny-bop daycare services." These adolescents then procede to scream obscenities, fight, giggle, smudge up the sexuality books (ick), hump in the kids section, destroy the bathrooms, tear up the magazines, spill drinks on books, etc. for rest of the night. When we kick them out, we get calls from parents berating us for expelling their "little angels" who also happen to be "paying customers." Paying customers (OR little angels, for that matter) don't split a small Frap-U-cino 12 ways while siting ON THE CAFE TABLES and talking about what shape their pubic hair is shaved into. Teach your kid some f-ing manners and maybe they would be allowed to stay. 14. Another note to parents in this same vein: We are not at fault if you child comes home gay or transsexual, pierced and/or tattooed, smoking and/or selling drugs, fat or anorexic, having sex and/or pregnant, a Nazi, a conservative or a liberal, or diseased just because we sell books about those topics. We have seperate kid and teen sections for a reason: Only certain books are appropriate for children who should be supervised if you don't them exposed to the horrors of this world. 15. While I was checking out a customer, his phone rang. Instead of ignoring it or telling the person to wait a minute, he ACTUALLY STEPS AWAY MID-TRANSACTION TO TAKE THE CALL. With 5 people in line behind him. When I reminded him that I needed payment he completely ignored me and continued his phone call. 16. As you all know, customers are welcome to come into the store and peruse the books before you they do or do not purchase them. This does not mean that it is okay to sip coffee while filling out the New York Times Crossword puzzle in the newspaper YOU DID NOT PAY FOR NOR INTEND TO. I'm pretty sure that's called stealing. 17. We're always happy to greet the customer who decides that the Music Department is the place to play Pocket Pool. AKA: MASTURBATE. 18. *Ahem* Ladies and Gentlemen. Please bathe properly before gracing us with your presence. This includes brushing your teeth, applying deodorant, and putting on fresh underwear. You are not fooling anyone when we can smell you from a cool 20-feet away. These are just some examples of the numerous nightmares employees at B&N or any retailer have to deal with. I will say that for every disgusting or offensive customer we have, we also get 10 normal people. It's just that everytime we have to deal with one of the "others" our soul dies a little inside. So, the next time you customers feel slighted because an employee didn't smile at you in exactly the right way, remember that this particular employee may have just returned from the restrooms after mopping up diarrhea footprints. Let's have some perspective, shall we? 738451@blogcritics.org Sat, 9 Aug 2008 20:42:47 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-737558 The B&N headquarters just sent my location a big new sign encouraging people to apply for jobs in our store. The executives say that it's mandatory for us to set up the sign in a prominent location. Why we need that sign I don't know. We haven't hired anyone in many moons, and the employees we've already got are seeing their hours cut. We currently receive over 200 applications a month. Isn't that enough? Why give job applicants false hopes? 737558@blogcritics.org Wed, 6 Aug 2008 02:03:45 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-736833 I worked for B&N as a Store Manager for 14 years, almost to the day. Some general observations ... You're only as good as your boss lets you be. If your manager doesn't have the skill set required to run a multi million dollar business, the stress cracks are going to show. I worked with many great managers and some that were ... "not so much." What still confounds me is how many of them were medicated (or should have been). Dear Field Management Team, "It's so easy for you to criticize us for not meeting our sales and/or operational goals, so here's my question for you, "When did you work ever work in a store?" You have no idea." (Wasn't that an MTV catch phrase?) Regarding anonymous "We Listen" issues - they all ultimately ended up on our desks to resolve. We didn't work with that many people ... how hard do you think it is to figure out who called? I found value in every employee who worked with me. Not everyone can recommend an 18th century work of literature, but I'm sure if you asked them, they would talk to you at length about the books in the sections they were knowledgeable in. I remember every bad Bookseller. I can talk for days about them. I remember the good ones too. Though they numbered in the thousands, their stories aren't as interesting. Same goes for customers. I remember the crazy ones, the demanding ones, the scammers, the homeless ones, and the worst ones of all ... the residents ... um ... please leave. But the good ones far outnumbered the bad ones. I still see some of my regular customers on mass transit and love discussing books with them. For the record, I loved managing the Bookstore and the Music Department. Managing a cafe, quite frankly, sucked. I hated selling coffee, food, tea kettles, office supplies, memberships, credit cards, electronics, and most of all, Barnsie the Noble Bear. For me, everything went downhill after Tom Tolworthy left the company. Yes, we were a chain, but really, when you need a checklist to keep track of the checklists ... they should rebrand themselves as McBarnes & Noble. 736833@blogcritics.org Fri, 1 Aug 2008 20:04:27 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-736376 I ordered a book for University and realized I had ordered the wrong book. I called within a half an hour and they would not cancel my order. So I had to wait three days for my order to be shipped. Now I am waiting for it to get here to Canada and I will have to return it express post to get a refund!?! Does this not sound totally ridiculous to any intellegent person? 736376@blogcritics.org Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:33:46 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-736372 I've been working at Barnes & Noble for 3 years, and while I can't speak for the employee "mocking" you, I can say that the delay in the order is the fault of our distribution company. Complaining to us about a late order is like complaining to a waiter about poorly cropped vegetables. Take it up with the farmer. Oh, and when people threaten to go to Amazon instead of us (and that is always the go-to threat) nobody who works there give a crap or loses sleep. 736372@blogcritics.org Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:16:44 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-735973 I ordered a textbook from BN.com on July 15th to be sent to my godson in Kenya, and specifically chose to pay an additional 50% of the book's cost for International Air Freight -- just so that I could trace delivery on the book and get it to him before the fall semester of University starts. Lo and behold, when I check the order status, it shows shipping by Internal Express (UPS air freight) but a tracking number that doesn't work on UPS.com for tracing (as advertised). When I call Customer Service, they advise me that it was instead shipped by a Customs Broker via air mail, would arrive another 2 weeks later, and was untraceable. They would credit my account for the lower shipping cost, but only because I had called to inquire -- otherwise, I'd have blindly been overcharged by $20! Furthermore, even though they were advised that this shipment would probably not arrive due to the unsecure shipping method chosen, they won't reship properly -- and won't accept responsibility for failure to arrive until August 19th -- 5 weeks from ordering on an order promised to arrive within 2-3 business days from July 16th! Good Customer Service? NOT! Lost customer, BN? DEFINITELY, even though I have a store 1/4 mile down the road from my house, where I purchase over $200 worth of books a month. Lack of management controls, resulting in consumer fraud? ABSOLUTELY! 735973@blogcritics.org Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:18:19 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-735757 I am a Banes and Noble employee who has left and come back. Alot of my family also works for the company. Its a retail store and its alot like working for any other big retail store, only we get a pretty fabulous discount on book, as well as at other affiliated stores and companys. I would also like to say that retail stores are run by HUMANS who not only make errors but have lives, peronalities, tempers....flaws. I appologize if anyone has been treated bad by a person, but you cant blame an entire company for the way one person, or even a handful of people have treated you. also, of course a bookstore cant keep in all books at all times. most clothing stores cant keep in all sizes. Appliance stores usually only have displays... Even grocery stores have trouble keeping in turkeys around thanksgiving. Its retail. Sell as much as you can at the biggest profit possible. Thats smart business. I can say 85% of the customers fine everything they want at each visit. The rest are happy to wait the 2-5 days it takes to get a book from one of the many warehouses around the country. as for getting things cheeper online. duh. When you dont have an overhead of employees, shipping, and of couse rent! of course your going to get things cheeper. Most prices are from the publisher, and they mark down alot of best sellers to compete in the market against other retailers. Maybe you can save 30 cents at borders, go then. It dosent hurt my feelings that you shop elsewhere. I shop at borders too, there rice krispy treats are fabulous and i love that me and my husband can share a pot of tea there. Oh, and too all the employees complaining about pay, you choose to work in retail. When you accept a job you accept the pay. No one is forcing you to work for nothing. If your work ethic and skills are great, you can get a job someplace else. Get a "real" job if you want 50k a year. I dont want one. I want to sling coffee and books and have no stress. And im good at it so I get raises. 735757@blogcritics.org Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:07:55 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-735275 I work a Barnes and Noble and I see a lot of customers I absolutely disdain writing on these boards. - Wandering around the store 20 minutes after close. (Employees have lives to attend to as well) - Throwing fits because a book is not in stock (There are a million books out there and they cannot all fit in a building) - Demanding a large size cup of water from the Cafe even though we provide drinking cups and carafe on the condiment bar. (Cups are expensive: my cafe would go through a box of cups a day if we did that.) I invite you all to read "Pretending You Care" by Norman Feuti. It's a great book and may allow you to understand why a few of you may have the unlucky "stigma" of rude customer care people. It's a good eye opener and may help you get the upper edge when shopping at retail stores. I even discovered annoying habits of my own. 735275@blogcritics.org Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:33:05 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-733961 I am an avid reader who up until this past year had been a frequent of Barns & Noble. It has been a very appealing store to me ever since I could turn an allowance as a kid, even in more recent times in which a well-paying job allowed me to spend upwards of three, four-hundred dollars a month there, spent between four or so stores in the area in an attempt to find the best quality books, in which I became well acquainted with the overall temperament of each store's staff. But because the customer service in my Dallas-Fort Worth, TX experiences has simply gone from digestible to terrible and the book quality has always been so-so but now is sort of insulting at times (urine yellow pages, creased spines, dusted, defective books abound) I have turned to Borders and Amazon who offer amazing customer service and more realistic prices, respectively, in comparison. I have a few horror stories of my own and was quite pleased to find this site for the sort of group therapy it has provided, but I am also glad to hear from so many employees and what their side of the coin looks like. Most of you employees sound like great people, with the exception of a few whiners. I've worked in clothing retail for a while and no offense, but I along with the rest of the staff have stayed as late as twenty minutes after official closing time while a customer finished shopping and we dealt with it. I understand that employees wish to leave but there isn't need to attack people while they're actually in the process of leaving as has happened to me a few times at a few B&Ns; either conjure a tiny bit of courtesy or find a new job. It isn't easy to stomach but the logic is that employees have made the choice to work at a particular establishment, whereas customers are asked into that same establishment, and as long as business works that way one must either stomach this or find a new means of employment, or perhaps a bit of zen for that matter. =D Anyway the hang-ups could go on forever but I agree with everyone here who speaks of how good the store WAS. RIP B&N. 733961@blogcritics.org Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:35:24 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-733959 Hi, I've been with the same B & N store for almost five years, and while I agree with some of the (negative) comments here, I must put in my two cents regarding what Sad Bookseller said about the cleanliness of her store. That must be a disgusting environment! At the store I work at, the cleaning crew Lysols all the chairs in the morning, as well as mopping all the non carpeted floors. And the carpets get shampooed either once a month or every two months, I can't remember which. Good thing, too, because we have people who like to do charming things like shit on the floor and wipe it on the bathroom walls as well. 733959@blogcritics.org Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:32:37 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-732533 I have been working for BN for 11 years, and just found out yesterday that they cut my hours down to nothing, canceled my health insurance and my paid time off has mysteriously disappeared. I worked so hard there. I loved helping customers, even the cranky ones. Gossiping and backstabbing, however, became a way of life for management. I loved my store, so I spoke up and stood up for people who were being bullied, including me. I was written up for talking back. Now, I'm still technically an employee yet I have no hours and no benefits, and they did not even have the decency to tell me. I called HR for some other reason and found out that way.Luckily I also work in the library system here which is a million times more rewarding and fulfilling, and I STILL get to help all the lovely people find their books. :) Reading these comments, I realize that it is probably because of my salary that this has happened. I made more than even some of the supervisors. I am heartbroken that I worked so hard every day and did my best to give people great customer service no matter what, and after 11 years they toss me aside like I don't matter. PS - What someone said about the "comfy" chairs is correct. We had an old man pee all over one, they set it outside to air out for a day or two and then it went right back onto the floor. Eleven years and those chairs have never been Fabreezed, much less cleaned or replaced. We had a lady defecate on the floor in the book aisles and while they picked it up, the carpets were not shampooed for over a year. I used to see customers walk around barefoot and retch thinking of all the feces, urine, vomit and such that has just been brushed off the floor without so much as soap. PPS - Also, please don't leave your children alone. We had a pedophile who would come and stare at the children. He would follow unattended kids. We contacted police who said it wasn't illegal for him to look (?!) and while as employees we harassed him into never coming back there are a lot of crazies that we have no way of controlling. When we ask you to watch your child it is more for their safety than worrying about the books. Thank you for letting me have my say. Please try not to be frustrated with each other, customers and employees! I am glad to the core of my heart to see there are happy employees out there. For a long time BN was the best job ever and filled my life with happiness. 732533@blogcritics.org Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:23:01 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-730743 barnsie claims that gift cards are good forever, and i've never encountered one that was expired. in fact, we occasionally see an old paper gift certificate, and we manage to get it to work. 730743@blogcritics.org Fri, 4 Jul 2008 03:01:25 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-729726 Has anyone here ever used a B & N Gift Card? How long do they last, or can you use them indefinitely? 729726@blogcritics.org Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:14:39 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-729679 The Steve at B&N story.Working at the Downtown Crossing store in Boston was great for most of the 80s.We had SUCH laid-back managers(but I actually worked pretty hard).Then about 1991 the changes began.All these nasty, patronizing, anal retentive managers came in.I strarted getting yelled at.All these new rules(no reading, etc.).A dress code(since scuttled).I applied at several independant bookstores, but had no luck.For most of the 90s It was up and down-we still had some nice managers come in, but one head cashier was yelling and making snide remarkes to me constantly.The one time I yelled back, she said "I am your supervisor, you don't talk to me like that".Okay:2004-06. More new managers.I'm getting a lot of grief from the new assistant manager, who says "I Want" as if he owns the place,treats me like a child, and seems to do nothing but complain to me about this or that mistake that I don't see how I could have made.I'd had a promotion in '01 and I'd become accustomed to a little more respect, and this was depressing.I'm assigned the hardest sections.Twice I'm called on the carpet, once for missing over 100 returns(I had no idea how I could have done that-I probably signed off on the wrong date-or they were lying)and the second time for missing assignments that weren't put in my mailbox in the first place generally being behind the other lead booksellers-and AGAIN he complained about the missed returns, which I didn't think was fair.I felt i'd been working hard, and didn't understand what their problem was.Why did they wait out months of my doing things the way I did them THEN write me up? Why no constructive criticism? I knew nothing was ever going to be good enough. Well, shortly after that we are told that the store is closing, and there will be jobs for us at the other stores.But months after that, I'm told that I'm not capable of being a lead at the other stores, that they "dont't want to see me fail".They reminded me of an episode where I'd allegedly been told to start pulling non-retunable books but I hadn't.But nobody told me to start pulling them.The assistant manager told me to scan the foreign language section ALL OVER AGAIN to find non-retunables, though someone had obviouly already taken care of them.I was made to think that I 'd been told to pull the books, did pull some, then forgot all about them.No, this was not a habit that would work at other stores.I knew this was a head game.But I was persuaded to take the severance pay package.I've been temping since then, as I've made up my mind never to work retail again. 729679@blogcritics.org Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:03:51 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-729668 Another reason why B&N can't find your book ... In my town, the schools like to give summer reading assignments to their students. Each kid has to read typically four books, usually classic fiction; there's a lot of overlap among the various schools' lists. Our store has set up three "pine" tables (they're really made out of oak but the official Barnes and Ignoble name is pine) to display the most-requested titles. These special tables are necessary because the home office in New York City has grossly overstocked us on summer reading books, and the regular departments don't begin to have enough room. However, the pine tables themselves are insufficient, therefore "waterfall" displays (clear plastic multi-level racks) have been added on the floor underneath the tables. The problem is that we have not sorted by any criterion the books of the summer reading display; it's all random. So if a parent requests a book that's not in its regular department, we have to search through about 300 titles one by one and hope to find the book that the customer wants. This takes a lot of time, and other customers wait too long. Some give up and leave. What's worse, after a week or two the books on these summer reading tables start getting rearranged -- sometimes by careless customers, and sometimes by store employees who need to squeeze in another title because it won't fit anywhere else. So if "Catcher in the Rye" was in a certain place a few days ago, it may be elsewhere now. Further, a copy of one book often gets mixed into a stack containing a different book. For instance, if "Pride and Prejudice" gets stacked on top of a pile of "Huckleberry Finn"s, the Twain book is as good as lost, and the sale is lost too. Need summer reading? Save time: just go to amazon. 729668@blogcritics.org Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:34:46 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/01/26/013100.php#comment-729460 WAHHHHHHMBULANCE!!! 729460@blogcritics.org Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:57:50 EDT