The following rebuke has the potential of being quite a marketing annoyance for your Nook Color. When it comes to moderately advanced technical issues with the Nook Color your technical support staff adds no value to owners of these devices. They in fact can cost owners of these device hundreds of dollars in lost opportunity cost and money. My recent experience with BN’s technical help is proof of this statement.
This admonition stems from the inability of the BN technical staff to deduce and subsequently solve a Nook Colors WiFi connection problem. Although the staff members are very personable they do not possess the core knowledge base to solve this type of Nook Color problem. This lack of knowledge cost the author of this article $199.00 in service fees and over ten hours of lost opportunity cost. Instances like these do not bode well for the Nook given its competition and the competitors associated services.
My odyssey began when my device would not connect to my home Wifi network I took it to one of the local BN stores knowing there would be a Nook kiosk in the store that might be able to solve my problem. After several failed attempts the staff member helping me spoke with somebody on the phone who suggested de-registering the device. After verifying the software version the technician did that. The de-registering and subsequent re-registering worked. However it wiped out all of my book data. Before leaving the store I spent some time retrieving all of my books and magazine subscriptions. I was not able to finish given the fact that I had other appointments that day. I intended to finish the process once I got home.
Once I got home I again tried to connect the Nook to my network. The Nook exhibited the same problem; it received a WiFi signal but would not connect to the internet. I contacted the BN technical support via live chat and explained the situation and the previous attempts at fixing this problem. They told me to power off the Nook then restart it. We went through the exact same procedures that were completed previously. The BN technician alluded to the fact that it might be a router problem. I told them that all of my other WiFi devices worked fine in my home. The BN technician responded by suggesting I disable the security settings on the router. At this point I needed to call a representative of the router company.
The router manufacturer required a $199.00 service contract to turn off the security and then reset it. I agreed to do this because the BN technician emphasized the point that all BN store Wi-Fi signals are not secure and the problem may lie in this area. Furthermore the router technician agreed to try and help solve the Nook connectivity problem. After giving control of my computer to the router company they spent four hours checking every setting possible to make sure the problem was not in the router. The router staff verified that the Nook was indeed receiving a signal by having me cross check the MAC address registering on the Nook to the devices registering on the router. While the router technicians were checking my devices I used another family lap top computer to “live chat” with a BN technical support staff member. My intent was to update the BN staff and make any additional changes they might suggest while I was connected to the router staff via phone line. The router staff willingly agreed to check anything the BN staff suggested. The BN staff member suggested that I power down the router again. It was at this point I realized the limit of the BN technical support staff knowledge base. However the BN staff did make one new suggestion. He told me that I should call my internet provider (Comcast) and inquire about additional security settings that they might be broadcasting. He also said to go back to the BN store and check again to see if the WiFi was working there.
I queried the internet provider and found out that there are no additional security signals broadcast via the router. Frustrated I typed the phrase “Nook Color WiFi problems” in a Google search engine. To my complete surprise the solution popped up in the BN support page. Can you imagine how frustrated I was when I saw that? The problem lie in the fact that the router was sending out data faster than the Nook could read it (150Mps v. 54Mps (Nook)). The solution was written by somebody not in the employ of BN. It also lambasted the BN technical support people for not being aware of this problem. Adding to my frustration was the fact that I asked the Nook technicians to think of any other differences in WiFi networks that might be checked. None of the BN technicians thought to check download and upload signal speeds. I finally called the router people back to change the settings to those recommended in the lambasting article. The changes worked but I spent another 70 minutes on the phone with the router technician. My Nook immediately received a signal, connected to the internet and I was able to complete my book down load.
To conclude it is very hard for me to believe that your support staff was not able to discern the WiFi problem. The solutions they suggested were no profounder than those listed in the owner’s manual. It would seem to the common person that upload and download speed issues are something support staff should be aware of. The inability of BN staff to properly address this issue amounted to me spending $199.00 and losing over ten hours of economic opportunity. When you consider the fact that somebody other than BN’s support staff derived a solution to this problem it becomes evident that my case is not isolated. It would follow that other Nook owners have also lost opportunities and money stemming from this technical issue. Having established the likely hood that other owners have experienced the same problem it would also follow that this issue has the potential of being a marketing nightmare to distributers of this device given the options in the e-pad market.
Steve Moran
