Don't Get a Nook
by Sean Smith
(LA)
I want to warn people out there who are thinking about buying a nook from Barnes and Noble. First off, their customer service is abysmal. I can't tell you much time I wasted on the phone with customer service trying to get that stupid nook to work properly. The reps don't know squat about the actual functionality of the nook. And the worst part is, I had a defective one and they still made me pay a 10% restocking fee to return it. Bastards.
After owning a Sony 505 since it first came out I thought it would be nice to upgrade to a new reader with wireless. I didn't want a Kindle because I already have a bunch of e-books in epub and pdf format that would be completely useless on the Kindle, and I didn't want Sony's new touchscreen model because of the glare. I wanted a 6" reader so I decided on the Barnes and Noble nook.
Big mistake.
I thought it would be an upgrade from the 505 since it's two years newer, but it is more like a downgrade.
The speed at which it turns pages is flat out ridiculously slow, even with the latest firmware update. How can a new reader be this slow, I ask. Some books are better than others but many of the ones I have from places like Gutenberg take like 3 seconds to turn a page. And I'm not exaggerating. Perhaps if you only want to buy e-books from Barnes and Noble it's fine, but most of their e-books are in their own format when they are supposed to be epub.
The nook's pdf handling is a joke, even re-flow is useless because it sends lines all over the place, and this must be the only reader on the planet that doesn't have landscape mode. So all my pdf e-books were useless.
The 3G was broken on my nook. It worked the first day and then never worked again. Only Wi-Fi worked. After several frustrating calls to customer service, and after basically getting blown off by them, I took the nook back to the store that I bought it from and attempted to return it.
They wanted me to exchange it for another one but I declined because I decided I wanted a brand that actually worked without the hassle of rude and unhelpful customer service (after 1 hour on hold on the phone I want nothing to do with you, B&N).
I told the rep that I wanted my money back because I was not pleased with many of the nooks capabilities and their misrepresentation of facts, saying it supports pdf is a stretch of the truth and also saying they have the largest library of e-books is a flat out lie because most are from Google and are better formatted from anywhere else.
But I still can't believe the guy insisted on charging me about $26 in re-stocking fees on a defective unit. He said that they have to charge that no matter what if it has been opened.
F*** that. I'll never shop at Barnes and Noble again as long as I live.
If you are considering buying a nook, take it from someone who has already been there and get something else. There are many better options out there.
