Confusion and annoyance with Barnes & Noble

[Wally Q]

So I was going through my checking account and stumbled upon a charge from BN which turns out to be a renewal charge for the free two month trial I had over the summer. Meaning this has been there since September and I’m just noticing now. Their website has been telling me that my membership has expired since Sept. 26 (the charge was made on Sept. 27) and I’ve had quite a few orders during the Criterion sale and I’ve missed out on coupons because I wasn’t a member.

I called their Customer Service and the guy was nice and everything he tried just didn’t work. After being on the phone for 45 minutes, he said it would have to get passed onto the next level in upper management and that would take anywhere between 24-48 hrs.; meanwhile, when I asked if there was a way to get enrollment changed to the day I get the membership changed to whichever in January, he said since it was a glitch and I should have had enrollment in September, there’s nothing they can do about it.

So I’ve had a BN membership for three months and missed the Criterion sale with the extra discounts and I can’t have the difference made up? A little annoying.

Any advice, guys?

[MoulinBlu]

Did you specifically request them not to renew the trial membership, as is stipulated in the trial membership agreement? If so, they should provide you with a full refund, especially if you haven't taken advantage of any membership benefits since. If you don't want it cancelled, they can't charge you for three months of service that you didn't receive due to a technical problem on their end. If they will neither provide a refund nor a 3 month extension to your membership, I would at first threaten to contact the BBB and maybe the Attorney General's Office. If that doesn't get the ball rolling, then you're only other recourse is to do just that: contact both, as well as dispute the charge on your account, if it's not too late.

[Wally Q]

I'll move forward based on whatever decision they make, whenever they make it. I don't really want to go to that extreme but if they come back with a response that the membership is dated Sept. 26 and will either expire or renew on that date in 2012 instead of giving me a new date of 1/13/12-1/13/13, I'm just gonna ask for my money back. At least if I wanted to, I could just reapply for the date I wanted. That or I'm just going to ask to speak to an immediate supervisor or someone in a position higher to talk it out. I may not be a big BN customer but I did spend near $300 without the membership benefits during the November Criterion sale and in my defense, I could have spent more had I been able to use the services that I paid for but wasn't allowed to because of their technical mishaps.