Books-A-Million — Local services in Lancaster

There was a time when customer service and honesty were trademarks of doing good business. My experience shopping with you today has shown me that these qualities are absent from your store's manner of business. Upon approaching the counter and ringing up my items (without ever asking if I found everything or how I was doing), Megan proceeded to sell me your membership program. With twisted language, she led me to believe that I was only paying $8 & receiving a free gift card when in actuality, I was paying extra to get a flimsy piece of cardboard not nice enough to share with someone else as a gift (which I would have expected had I been "buying" a gift card anywhere else). Throughout the process, she told me, "Its showing up this way but it works out once you get the gift card." I understood her to be saying that the gift card would be deducted at the end. However, when the transaction was finished, I ended up paying $25 instead of $8 for the membership. This took my personal total up to $87, which was more than what I had intended to spend. Yet, I was prepared to accept that; simply sharing that she may want to change the way she represented the membership to other patrons in the future in case others were not in a position to spend beyond their means. Instead of being polite or showing any empathy for me as a customer, I was met with rudeness that seemed to imply it was my own fault for considering their membership program. Again I was ready to cut my losses, when she edgedly flung out, "You want me to cancel it?" (neither with concern or grace; almost challenging me.) I decided to take her up on the cancelation. Had I thought faster on my feet, I would have returned my whole order right there and then and walked away. But I was interested in what I had found and so we began the process of only returning the membership. When the numbers once again were not working out on the receipt, I challenged her. To which she said it would work out once she returned the gift card (sound familiar?). A bit frustrated by this point, I evenly countered that I would hold the gift card in my hand until she could show me how the math worked out. At this point, she reached across the counter and yanked the card out of my hand and acted as if I was trying to get something for free rather than hearing my concern over whether I was receiving my whole refund. After a few minutes of doing math myself, I understood what she had intended but was treated as filth rather than a paying customer. As I walked away feeling ashamed for needing to watch my spending closely, I heard the encouragement of two other sets of patrons following me out, affirming my concern and commenting that "you couldn't pay us enough to shop here again" and "their membership is a scam." I tend to agree with...

Disappointed to see the store rebranded as "BAM". I couldn't even find it at first because of that! But man, do I love browsing bookstores. Sadly, it doesn't translate to sales, because I know I can find most things so much cheaper online :-/ the lighting in this particular store was also extra dim too - almost felt like it was trying to compete with Hot Topic or other clothing stores, even with semi- loud music playing. I didn't buy anything, but I probably would have if my purpose that visit wasn't to meet two friends and we then needed a quieter place to talk. It's not a library and there are no tables :-D. I do tend to judge bookstores on their astronomy section. And they actually had one- all 5...

Not giving my money to this store again. The prices alone are a big negative, everything was priced at the absolute highest cost you will find anywhere. The checkout is what repulsed me. I'm already giving them my money for the product I choose and yet I'm forced to hear multiple attempts to get more of my money. First is a suggestion for a related product I "might have missed", then an upsell to their buyers club for a percent off, then a "as a special gift to you today we'll let you buy these other things", and worst of all the emotional manipulation of "would you like to buy this other thing as a donation to support our military?" Unbelievably overbearing and laborious checkout process left...