Thursday, May 01, 2008

Barnes and Noble's response

I received this response from B&N's customer service:

> Date: Thu, 1 May 2008 11:59:58 -0400
> From: service@barnesandnoble.com
> To: glory's email address
> Subject: Re: General Question (KMM21013458I15977L0KM)
>
> Dear Customer,
>
> Thank you for your e-mail.
>
> As booksellers, we carry thousands of books whose subject matter some
> may find offensive. Over the years, we have received countless requests
> and demands to stop selling everything from The Merchant of Venice to
> The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Rise and Fall of the Third
> Reich, even The Living Bible.
>
> At Barnes & Noble, we take our mission very seriously - to be a valuable
> resource to our customers, bringing books and ideas to the public. We
> live in a diverse culture, and that diversity is reflected in the wide
> range of interests, philosophies, and lifestyles of our customers.
> The guiding principle we use is to offer every book in print and allow
> our customers to decide what to buy and read. After all, freedom of
> choice is at the very heart of our democratic society. It is
> understandable that some people may strongly oppose the content of a
> particular title and choose not to purchase it; we respect their
> opinions. In return, we ask that our customers respect our
> responsibility to offer a selection of reading materials as diverse as
> the society in which we live - the very society that grants the freedom
> for these materials to exist.
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Robin
>
> Customer Service Representative
> BarnesandNoble.com
> http://www.bn.com/
>
>
>
>
>


And here is my response:

Thank you for your timely response, Robin.

However, this response does not address the suggestion that I posed. I do not object to the merchandise being sold. I instead suggest that it be shelved differently so that customers can more expediently find the books that they want to find without having to weed through unrelated books. Is there a possibility that this can be done, and if so, please let me know if, as a customer, I can assist with this effort.

Thank you,
[glory's gov't name]

Please notice that I gave my name and was responded to as "customer," and that my issue was not actually addressed. I suspect that the message I sent was scanned and certain buzzwords triggered a form-letter-type response. Not good enough. I'd rather have a "no" than a non-answer.