e Books with Barnes and Noble Gripe

[Erakad]

I would like to buy an E Book for my wife for Christmas. Personally, I think Barnes and Noble probably have the better product, but after 2 weeks plus of trying to checkout on-line and being rejected because I'm assigned to a US military base in Japan, I've given up. I understand when they won't ship to me, but when they won't allow the shipment because of the billing address...obviously they just don't want the business.

Anyway, part gripe with Barnes and Noble, and part grasping for other's experience. My understanding with Kindle is it's a great product, but doesn't accept PDF format. My concern with the Sony product is although I've been told it accepts PDFs, it doesn't have access to (as) many books. Once again, the Nook did both....but apparently they just don't want to deal with us overseas.

This is very frustrating as something so simple has turned into the nightmare before Christmas...at this point, I've heard it all from B&N, now looking for other options.

Rob

[ddbach]

Check out the recent Kinder post - misspelled discussion on e-readers.

IIRC - Kindle can do PDF but you have to send PDF to somewhere by e-mail? and then it comes back as Kindle format. Newer Kindle no removable memory, original Kindle can use SD cards.

CyBook products (I have 2 yo Gen3) read both Mobipocket (free download for computer) and PDF but no wireless downloads. Possible to use multiple purchase sites but not Amazon or B&N. Classics available online free if past copyright as PDFs.

Sony eReaders popular but no personal experience. Not sure what format they use. msReader, Mobipocket, PDF or ?

[930LDR]

Amazon is pushing out a firmware update that will provide native pdf support as well as rotating screen mode (similar to the iphone). I've had mne for a year and can't say enough about it.

[stomachmonkey]

you can't have it shipped to a friend in the US then friend can forward to you?

[David McLaughlin]

Barnes and Noble is not selling nook outside of the country. The main reason for this is because the 3G network can't be used. As it is, you can not get a nook shipped before 01/15/10 unless it was ordered mid October.

nook beats kindle with the touch sreen navagation screen, WIFI, replaceable battery, more e-titles, book lending, SD card memory boosting. Both do PDFs now from what I've heard but neither do it well.

Erakad,
One of my jobs is at a local B&N. If you really want one, PM me and we can work something out on the side.

[Erakad]

Thanks David, but at this point I think I'm going to purchase a Kindle. Please don't take my rant personally, I truly appreciate your offer.

Background info, I'm in the USAF stationed in Japan. As such, US goods and services are a bit hard to obtain, so I do quite a bit of my purchasing on the web. Although there are plenty of sites that won't ship overseas, until now, I've never run across a site that wouldn't SELL to me because I was stationed overseas. To say the least, I take policies such as this as an indication of disregard toward US service members. In this case, the "drama" has hit the 3 week point, and IMHO B&N (or their customer service reps) are ignorant of US military basing and entitlements, as well as, their own website. You'll see from their last email to me that they don't consider APO/FPO addresses to be "US addresses". Likewise, they told me they don't accept Paypal or Pay by Phone, although the website clearly shows this as an option. Top this with a website that is so agonizingly painful to purchase/"attempt" checkout, plus exceedingly slow customer service responses, and you have a company that shouldn't be doing business on the WWW. My only wish is that someone higher in the B&N chain will read this and provide a fix.

For the record, the response from the B&N pinhead customer service supervisor:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for inquiring about nook, the world's most advanced eReader!

Currently, nook is not available for sale outside of the United States.
You must have a U.S. based billing address in order to purchase a nook.

We appreciate your interest and suggest that you check our website at
nook, eBook reader, eReader - Barnes*&*Noble for the most current updates.

Sincerely,

Derrick
Customer Service Supervisor
Barnes and Noble
Barnes*&*Noble - Books, Textbooks, Used Books, DVDs, Music, Toys, Home & Gift

[David McLaughlin]

Sorry I couldn't help. The company as a whole is a bit slow and somewhat closed minded. The pay is bad but I like my coworkers and it's always an entertaining night. Good luck with your Kindle and thank you for serving our country.