Friday, March 09, 2007

Dear Borders,

I would like to rant about my unsatisfactory visit to one of your stores tonight. Your Borders Rewards email included a note about your 4-for-3 Mysteries and Romance promotion. I saw the small print--"Least expensive item is free. Selected titles only." But I didn't think that by "selected titles" you would mean such a very limited selection: 18 books at the store I was in. And I was in a big store--the one at Madison Square Garden.

How likely is it that I'm going to actually want 4 books out of the 18 available in this offer? Um, very small. Which I guess is the point, eh? It got me into your store and I didn't get ANYTHING for free. I wish I could say I left without buying anything, but I can't. I'm a sucker apparently.

But your plan has backfired, Borders. Because I really went out of my way to go to your store. I broke my "never-go-above-14th-St" rule. I battled the crowds around Penn Station. Do you think that I am going to do that again after feeling so completely ripped off? Not any time soon, that's for sure.

So you just lost one customer. Pfft!

I bought two books: Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair. (I've never read anything by her. Can someone tell me if they are a series or can I read this one first? I wanted Gabriel's Ghost, but they didn't have it.) And Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh, and that's a huge compliment to Singh because if I was willing to wait a few weeks, I could get this book free at work. But I wanted it now and paid full price for it.

And can I just say TGIF?! It's been one of those weeks where I felt like this:




I will surely be more cheerful tomorrow. :)

8 comments:

~ames~ said...

Hey Jennie! That's too bad about the selection. But at least you get to buy books. LOL

My week was kind of similar, very stressful and to top it off, I got sick. But I'm so thankful that it's the weekend now.

Megan Frampton said...

FWIW, the Borders at Kips Bay (33rd and 2nd) is good.

nath said...

Oh Jennie! That sucked! I hate it when they have such restrictions, because there's always a catch!

Hopefully, you'll have a nice week-end.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry that the trip -out of your way1- sucked.

Games of Command has gotten good reviews at Dear Author and by Bev(BB). I bought it at Borders last week and it is TBR. Not a series. Gabriel's Ghost is pretty good, too. And I've read a net rumor that Sinclair is working on the follow up to GG.

reviewer said...

Oh that sucks! I bet they were just trying to get rid of shitty books.

Jennie said...

Ames--Yes, this week was just waaay too long. Sorry to hear you're sick! Maybe the weekend will cure you. :)

Megan--I work on the west side, so I don't often get over there, but I'll keep it in mind. The Borders at MSG is just too busy and crazy.

Nath--I know logically that there's always a catch to these deals, but still I hope for something great. I'm too much an optimist, maybe!

JMC--I did end up with two books, so the trip wasn't a complete loss. Thanks for the info on Sinclair. I'll start with GoC and see if I like it.

Chantal--They weren't particularly shitty books--all big name authors and lots of suspense-type stuff. I can't actually remember exactly now. Ah well.... :)

CindyS said...

That blows! I thought the bookstores in Canada were the only ones who tried to piss their customers off!

You guys used to have a store called Media Play and I remember the first time I went there they had the buy 3 get the 4th book free - I was so shocked cause we never had sales like that. Now Chapters does it about once a year and they don't advertise it at all. Bastards.

I hope you are having a nice relaxing weekend.

CindyS

Jennie said...

Cindy--I never seem to get to the bookstore at the right time for sales either. And even if I get sent coupons, I'm hopeless at remembering to take them in and use them. Bah. They should give me a special person discount. Just for being me. Eh? LOL.