Barnes & Noble Reviews 

LATEST UPDATE:
B&N Customer service just emailed me refusing a pro-rated refund, claiming I already used the membership in previous months, while completely ignoring that my account has been frozen and unusable for 18 days! They claim the system is "undergoing updates," yet their website is fully operational to take people's money. If it's not ready, why isn't it shut down for maintenance? Telling me my membership is "good to use until 2027" while giving me a blank screen is an absolute farce. Total corporate gaslighting and scam. I am filing an official complaint with the BBB.

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UPDATE (In response to Barnes & Noble's clueless reply):
Look at their automated, completely off-topic response below - it perfectly proves how much they disrespect and ignore their customers. Stop giving me your generic template about adding shipping addresses!

Let me make this loud and clear: I did NOT just lose my address log; I completely lost my paid PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP, my accumulated rewards, and my entire account access. Your customer service acts like they have absolutely no idea what is happening, despite me sending multiple emails with screenshots for over 2 weeks.

Telling me to "respond to the request for more information" when your team has been ghosting my refund requests for days is a joke. This is gaslighting and a textbook definition of a scam. You took my money for a Premium subscription, wiped out my data with your broken update, ignored my refund, and now you reply with this nonsense. Absolute scammers!

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It has been over 2 weeks since my initial complaint regarding my missing data after their website upgrade, and my account remains completely empty. Despite multiple inquiries, the support team has only provided vague, generic responses without giving any concrete timeline. I requested a pro-rated refund for my Premium Membership and my missing rewards balance 3 days ago, but they are completely ignoring me now.

I did absolutely nothing wrong; this entire nightmare is due to their failed data migration. While their broken website continues to operate and take people's money, they show zero urgency in fixing severe backend errors for existing members. This feels like a scam - they break the system, yet the paying customers are forced to suffer the financial and emotional consequences.

I used to love buying music CDs here, but I will never spend another dime at Barnes & Noble. Absolute worst customer experience. Avoid their Premium Membership at all costs.

They are selling AI books and you can't trust anything in their store at this point. They have sold us all out to the machines

Account login goes round and round in circles.
No help from customer services.
Cleaning cache or cookies or using a different browser makes no difference as I keep on telling them. A useless organisation.

The books take way too long to arrive in the mail. The paperback book quality is bad. Pages fall out, and some pages haven't been trimmed correctly and random pieces hang off the pages. We paid the annual membership fee thinking it would be a good deal, but the long delivery time coupled with the book prices and quality make it worse than just buying from Amazon.

I have been an online customer for a very long time, Nook. A week ago I tried ordering a couple of books. But I couldn't get into the website. I thought I was doing something odd so I stopped at the local store and was told they are launching a new site with a new site builder. Called the customer service number, 3 times since then. Message was be patient, system will be functional within hours or at most a couple of days. More than a week has passed. Today I was able to order three books but wasn't able to checkout. System told me I needed to update my profile. Which I did. Still can't checkout. In fact I can't get into the site at all. First wants me to confirm I'm human and then to enter email address only to be told they don't recognize me. I've never checked their reviews before but I can certainly see why they only garner 2 stars. Come on guys, I only want to order some books to go with the 300 to 400 I've ordered in the past. Fix the system or Amazon may see me buying from them.

A failed gift card transaction resulted in multiple calls, several support tickets, conflicting information from customer service, and hours of my time. After a supervisor manually pushed the order through and it shipped, I later received a notice claiming I still owed money and risked account restrictions.
The problem was not a lack of payment but a failure in Barnes & Noble's internal gift card processing and reconciliation systems. Customers should not have to navigate multiple escalations to resolve a payment issue that originated from the retailer's own systems.
I expect this type of disorganized process from a small business with limited resources, not from a national retailer. Barnes & Noble needs to improve how gift card authorization failures and payment reconciliation are handled because the current process creates unnecessary confusion and frustration for customers.

VERY…VERY..VERY DISAPPOINTED!
okay so everyone can see my reviews by now and they are all 1 star because this company only does 1 star treatment! No one answers my emails! If they do it’s all a copy paste one! My refund is supposedly issued 3 weeks ago! Its a surprise to me that a “supposedly “ trusted American company shows this much low quality service and customer care…what a shame! Give me my money back!!!

I have been a BN customer for decades. I have been a book club member since it came out and have upgraded to the premium membership when it came out. I have never had a bad experience going into a physical store.

All that said, the website is an unmitigated disaster. The latest "upgrade" is nothing more than an excuse to delete all my wishlists without any real improvement to my web experience. I had years of books on my wish list that are now GONE. Their excuse that they didn't delete anything after Sept 2025, is NOT true. Of the 12 different lists I had they managed to "save" 3, all of which predate Sept 2025.

I have clicked on the "deals of the day" many times to see a number of the books at full price. I regularly clicked on the "less than $2.99 ebook" list and it's not usually see many of the books that are at full price NOT $2.99 or less.

I don't know if they have "fixed" this with the new website or not, but when trying to buy books I have gotten the death spiral of having to log in over and over again, having my payment declined (using a gift card that is on my account) and finally giving up after 5 attempts.

Overall my experience with the website is horrible.

I’ve been a loyal Barnes & Noble customer for many years and have spent a significant amount of money both online and in-store. Unfortunately, the recent website update has been extremely frustrating.

I had a large saved list of books built over time for future purchases and references, and after the update, my entire list disappeared. What makes this even more disappointing is that the website states customer lists from September 2025 through today should still be available — yet mine is completely gone with no way to retrieve it.

For long-time customers who invest time organizing their collections and wish lists, this is a major issue. I expected better data preservation, communication, and customer support during such a major platform change.

I sincerely hope Barnes & Noble addresses this issue and improves the experience moving forward because many loyal customers rely on these features.

Amazing service

Walked in on a rainy Saturday with no plan, just needed to get out of the apartment. Stayed for two hours.

The fiction section was actually organized in a way that made browsing easy - staff picks had little handwritten cards explaining why someone liked the book, which is way more useful than a generic "bestseller" sticker. Picked up two novels based purely on those notes and both were great.

The café in the back had decent coffee, not Starbucks-tier but good enough to sit with for a while. Read the first chapter of one of my books right there before buying it. Nobody rushed me, nobody hovered.

It's the kind of store that makes you remember why physical bookstores exist. Hope they stick around.

Barnes & Noble’s website feels like a cozy bookstore you can wander through from your couch. It’s easy to find what you’re looking for, and the recommendations actually feel helpful instead of random. I like how clean the pages are—nothing gets in the way of checking out a book’s details or reviews. Searching is quick, and the filters make narrowing things down simple. Checkout is smooth, and I never feel lost clicking around. Overall, it’s a calm, well-organized place to browse for your next read, and it captures a bit of that classic bookstore charm in an online space.

I went to Barnes & Noble in Daytona Beach to find a book for my grandchildren about the 250th anniversary of the United States. They had “Spring” displays, “National Parks” displays, “Banned Books” displays, but the clerk told me they had nothing regarding this monumental historical celebration. So disappointed that many of these large chains disregard patriotism.

It ASTOUNDS me that companies scratch their heads and wonder why they can't generate more revenue, espeically when you spend 20 MINUTES on their website trying to place an order and then say F it, I'll go to the 'zon.

B&N why does your website suck so bad?!?!?? It can't be and isn't THAT HARD to build a checkout process that is smooth and seamless. Don't you want people buying from you in store AND online?!?

Just more money i had to give to 'zon b/c not only does B&N NOT carry the book I wanted in store, the website refused to let me buy it, burying me in an endless loop of sign in, error, sign in, heres your cart, sign in, heres your cart, sign in, error......

Preodered product on there website just to wait for it to come damaged. I go to the help chat im disconnected from help chat 4 times they ask for pictures and I'm disconnected again. Would never recommend them to anyone whatsoever

Ordered an E gift card. Hours later, it wasn't received by the person. No email explaining why. I called, talked to 4 different people, before I could get them to send the gift card out! BEWARE.... Had I just ordered it and assumed it was sent, they would have just kept my money, and never sent it out. That was obviously their plan.

This review is strictly regarding the Nook division of Barnes and Noble but still is a reflection on the corporate culture and structure of Barnes and Noble.
For over 4 months, I have been trying to get in touch with someone from Nook. I have been UNSUCCESSFUL for over 4 months. I have contacted B&N customer service. Customer service doesn’t even have a contact person or a phone number for them to contact someone within Nook.
They are completely useless.
So I contacted multiple times Nook at the email address that is the only point of possible contact. I expected to reach a real person at the email address. However, that is not true. Instead I get a repeatable nonsense AI generated response that is again useless. It can’t provide any help. How utterly frustrating.
If I had known how poor, actually they aren’t even poor as there is absolutely no help and no hope of getting help, I never would have tried to publish a book on Barnes and Noble.
Learn from my mistake. DON’T TRY TO PUBLISH A BOOK ON BARNES & NOBLE!!!

Very unhelpful - bordering on rude - customer service representatives who didn't even try to assist me in resolving a query.

Do you enjoy jumping through thousands of hoops and wasting several hours of your time?

Do you like to shop at online stores that provide those wonderful features compared to all the major book retailers?

Do you feel a sense of companionship with the multitudes of people worldwide who have the some outstanding experience with the Barnes and Noble website?

Then you'll love to shop there!

Good luck trying to close/deactivate account. You have to fill out a detailed "Data Deletion" form, then wait 45 days!!! OMG, seems like every online company has turned into a scam.