GearWERKZ TechBlog

Well, my experience with the Barnes and Noble eBook Reader app and the store started off pretty good. I started the app and logged in to find several free books waiting for me (peep the GearWERKZ Twitter feed). Of course, I was then unable to download any new books that I wanted to read. Interested in checking out Freakonomics and The Shack, I was stymied by the B&N eBook store's front-end and back office. For whatever reason, my default credit card did not clear. When a second card also failed, it became clear to me it was not my cards, but Barnes and Noble. Financial transaction handling is not easy, and there are a lot of places for it to get monkied up.

Follow up:

What frustrated me more was the poor way that the Account Management front-end handles getting through issues like this or allowing the account holder to address them of their own accord. Peep the email below. Hopefully, B&N can get this figured out tomorrow. I have better things to do with my time this week than be on the phone with them trying to sort this out. If it does not go off without a hitch and takes too long, I'll be downloading the Kindle Reader and targeting a Kindle instead of a Nook (provided the same problems do not occur). I have used Amazon for a long time, and know that the updates to Barnes and Noble's front end that I recommend below are things that the Amazon site does allow. If I get to another coffee shop visit befire this is addressed, B&N will have lost their window to give me good reason to go with a Nook, as I consider an eBook reader and its store and other associated services part of the ecosystem that I am buying into for the cost of the hardware. I really like the Nook, so I hope my better experiences with ordering items and digital downloads from Amazon do not away me away:

"My first experience with the eBook Reader and the storefront tonight has been very
frustrating. While I am sure that there are some reasons for that outside of your
control, pls take the feedback below as items that should be addressed on your end:

1. the Storefront and account management front-end should allow me to delete credit
cards. If it does already, it is buried somewhere that is not intuitive.

2. It is highly unclear to me why my transactions failed to authorize. I even entered a
second card to the site after the first failures. In each subsequent registration of a
card, the site never asked me for the card's security code, which must be essential to
clearing the transaction, I would think. It only asked me the first time for the first
card. I was also not able to update the information of the first card I registered; there
is no "update card" option. So if I entered the card number incorrectly, or mis-entered
the security code, there was no way to correct it. Whenever I tried to enter the same
card and update its info, it just took it as the same card.

First of all, since there is not an ability to delete my card's info, I would like the
data for both card's I entered tonight to be wiped.

That is hopefully the point we can start from tomorrow morning when I call in. I would
very much like the time to explore the B&N eBook Reader app, and new books, before making
my decision to purchase a Nook or a Kindle. Your support in completing this analysis
would be appreciated. Thanks.
- Vr/"