Barnes & Nobles, Borders near end of life

[PsychoPere]

If the computer system is telling them it isnt in stock in the store when it is, how is that the sellers fault and not the systems?

It sounds like a few failures, all of which ultimately come down to human error (though I don't mean that as an excuse, merely as a reason). Based on my experiences dealing with retail pharmacy inventory, I'm sure there are many possible causes for #2 and #3 in my quick list below.

1. The employee who sent the confirmation of the product being in stock, but not arranging for the product to be delivered to the counter where such reservations are kept.
2. The inventory system for displaying a number of units on-hand on the website, whether was number was accurate or not.
3. The in-store inventory system at the counter informing the employee that there no units of that product in stock.
4. The employee for not arranging for another employee to double-check the shelf for the customer.

 

[cardinal biggles]

If the computer system is telling them it isnt in stock in the store when it is, how is that the sellers fault and not the systems?

A human being has to respond "Yes," "No," or "Partial Quantity" to the request (e.g., if you want 4 copies of a book but they only have 2 on-hand). BolianAuthor says he got a "Yes" back, which means someone took the time to give a wrong reply to a book they either couldn't locate, or couldn't be arsed to locate. Regardless of whether the on-hand quantity showing in the system was correct, a human, not a computer, sent him an incorrect response.

Once the error was revealed, the proper procedure would then be to have a manager manually update the on-hand quantity in the computer so this wouldn't happen again.

 

[BolianAuthor]

A human being has to respond "Yes," "No," or "Partial Quantity" to the request (e.g., if you want 4 copies of a book but they only have 2 on-hand). BolianAuthor says he got a "Yes" back, which means someone took the time to give a wrong reply to a book they either couldn't locate, or couldn't be arsed to locate. Regardless of whether the on-hand quantity showing in the system was correct, a human, not a computer, sent him an incorrect response.

Once the error was revealed, the proper procedure would then be to have a manager manually update the on-hand quantity in the computer so this wouldn't happen again.

That's true, and you had an excellent point with your last reply, that the seller should have been able to check, when I asked her to... the fact that she just blew me off was bad customer service, which *gasp* results in an unfavorable view of the company.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Was this an isolated incident, or part of a pattern in your transactions with Barnes & Noble? Did you ask to speak to her manager about the poor service you received?

 

[BolianAuthor]

It was the first time that human side of their system screwed up, I'll admit that... usually I'm just frustrated that their computer says that a book isn't in-store, and so on... but the fact that multiple copies of the book were physically there, and the clerk refused to acknowledge that, let alone check to see if I was correct was what ticked me off so much.

It's like that Seinfeld episode with the rental car reservation... her job was to secure a copy of the book for me, and she refused to do it, so she knew how to take the reservation, but not how to hold the reservation, which is really the whole idea of the reservation... the holding.

In hindsight, I could have gone to a manager about it, but at the time, I just wanted to get my purchase, and go home.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Well, I definitely sympathize with your frustration there. For her to blow you off without taking a second look or asking another bookseller for assistance was poor customer service.

I know from day-to-day experience that inventory errors happen all the time; things aren't received properly, things get mislaid, things get stolen. My store allegedly has one copy of that new Autobiography of Mark Twain floating around, but nobody can find it anywhere. Still, a complete breakdown of customer service like that is totally unacceptable, and I'm sorry that happened to you.