Ebooks from Barnes and Noble, grrrrr

[panthera]

OK, I've been an ebook fan for years, books here in Germany are obscenely expensive and I would have gone broke without Amazon and www.gutenberg.org.

Unfortunately, this evening my folks told me about a book which would be useful for one of my classes. Unfortunately, because the book is currently only available through Barnes and Noble and Amazon. I've been boycotting Amazon to punish them for derating gay and lesbian books, so decided to go to BN.

OK, fine. Went through the hoops of registering an account (they couldn't find my old one, nor that of my parents). Got that done, ordered the ebook.
They cancelled the order, de-authorized the credit card as stolen.
After one solid hour with VISA (great service) and another frustrating eight calls with BN, I now have the book on my computer, the VISA card is working again and I am seriously the biggest fan of Amazon, ever. All is forgiven.

Never, in all the years I had used Amazon did I have this nonsense to put up with. I abandoned them after they started downrating gay and lesbian books a while back (yes, I know, we had a big fight over it and it turned out in the end that it really was a christianist employee who had intentionally done it and could we please skip the flame war?).

The excuse from BN? System glitch. So sorry.

So then I went to unlock the book and guess what? They had my name off by one missing initial on the credit card! The whole whoop-d-whoop. What's the point of automated data entry if your computer can't enter it correctly? The idiots who designed the system at Barnes and Noble assumed your account name is the same as your credit card name...but want your full name for the account. I mean, who the hell puts all their names on their credit card for the love of joe????????????

I think it's time to accept Amazon's apology and assurance that the christianists have been fed to the lions.

Sheesh. So where does everyone else around here buy their ebooks?

 

[maytagbear]

Sorry

about the lousy service from B&N.

However, about books, I am an unashamed Luddite, and either go to the library, or actually buy the things.

If I had a Kindle or similar, I would either drop it, or forget it on the bus, or drop it in the bath tub.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[panthera]

Lawrence,

If books in a language you want to read at the moment were five times the price bound, as in electronic form,...and you had every single book shelf stacked three deep...you'd be desperate enough to make the jump. Trust me.

Would have been much more fun talking to you. Tomorrow?

 

[j2400]

Electronic books do have their points, but--for now--I'm sticking with the old fashioned type of book. One factor is I spend enough time using a computer for other stuff, it's nice to be able to read something that's not on a monitor.

Price difference does not make a difference, since most of what I actually buy is used...often at rock bottom prices. Everything else comes from the library.

Another minus for e-books is that I'm under the impression they probably can't legally be resold or transferred to others in the US.