Very Virtual

I went the the Barnes & Noble site today to purchase an eBook for my Nook. I've done this many, many a time for many, many a year. I purchase, I download to the device, I read. It's a great way to read a million books and not have to carry them all around or find storage space on nightstand, desks, shelves, and every corner of my house, which is where they would all be just by the sheer numbers I read. So, I bought a new eBook.

I tried to download it to my Nook. I got the error, "Format Not Supported". I never got that before. So I went to the Barnes & Noble website it sent me to, www.barnesandnoble.com/support. There was only a place that had frequently asked questions and a button to chat. There wasn't a phone number in sight. So I opened the chat, put in my order number, told them my error and a customer service agent came on line and then immediately ended the chat. She ended the chat before it started. It was like she read my comment and thought, "Oh, no...not going to talk to that customer," and clicked end. I opened another and re-entered my information. This time they actually chatted, briefly. "How would you like us to resolve this?", he asked. 

"If I can't download the eBook, refund my purchase".

"Okay. Anything else." (There was the copy and pasted information about the length of time depending on your bank to receive the refund).

"How can I tell if I'm purchasing an eBook that isn't going to download?" 

"On the right hand side of the book cover will be a question mark. If you click there it will show the devices that are compatible."

"Oh.  Good info. Thank you, that's all."

The chat abruptly ended. Bing! They were gone. Chat ended!

That was quick and felt a little rude. I went back to check on the question mark they talked about. There isn't anything like that anywhere on the book. I checked the product details. It didn't mention anything about device compatibility, only that the format was eBook. Great. 

This was never the sort of customer service I used to receive. Here was nothing that felt good about this experience at all. Isn't that important any more with customer service, or am I just so not able to deal with the entire virtual world we are living in. Why couldn't they just give me a phone number? 

Gads, I'm old. So is my Nook (1st generation). Maybe I need a new device. No. Maybe I'm just getting really old.

TT