Complaint Review: Barnes & Noble

I purchased a Barnes & Noble Nook Color eReader from Best Buy on April 14, 2011. About a month later, it began randomly powering off. I called Barnes & Noble Tech Support and after attempting a software reinstall, we determined that the device needed to be replaced under the one-year warranty.

No problem - Barnes & Noble has a rapid replacement program that sends you a replacement Nook Color while you prepare yours to be shipped back. The problem was they had no record of my warranty being registered in their system. They blamed the problem on Best Buy and apologized and asked me to call back in seven days to give them time to enter the device's serial number in their warranty system.

When I called back a week later, they said the serial number was still not registered in their warranty system so they could not process my warranty claim. They asked you to call back again in 48 to 72 hours and again ask for a warranty claim.

Really? How long does it take to enter a 16-digit number into a system? The device has been registered with Barnes & Noble to purchase e-books since the day I bought it, but somehow it's not in their warranty system?

I told them I wasn't making any more phone calls and that they needed to call me back when the warranty registration is complete and my replacement device is being shipped. That was yesterday - if I don't hear from them within three days, I'll be calling Corporate.

My advice to anyone buying a Nook Color is to pray that it doesn't break down, because the warranty may be "missing in action.'