Here is a copy of the complaint letter that I wrote to Barnes & Noble only to discover that not a single person in either the call center or the local stores was willing or able to tell me where to direct my written complaint:

"To Whom It May Concern:

The purpose of this letter is to make a formal complaint about the service I received when calling your call center earlier today. I would like to make a grievance about the following:

1. I was shipped the wrong product.
2. Upon trying to arrange to receive or exchange this incorrect shipment I was lied to. This lie entailed incorrectly negating the possibility of an “in store exchange.”
3. I was placed on hold for 50 minutes while waiting to speak to the manager of a representative at which time the line disconnected me.
4. A third party was able to call into the call center while providing the incorrect name for the order and acquire information about the order including credit card information.
5. Upon calling back to the call center I was again refused the opportunity to speak with a manager.
6. I was verbally accosted while simply trying to speak with a manager.

Any one of the above listed complaints are reason enough in most call centers, which in most cases are considered customer service for the discernable reason that they service customers not defraud, insult or otherwise misrepresent themselves to the customers, for immediate termination of an employee. It would be reasonable for a customer to then assume that it is in fact the policy of this particular call center to offend customers beyond all consideration of repeat business thereby contributing to the gradual and steady decline of business and overall public opinion.

You may thank the prompt and accommodating service of your manager Clarence for keeping this customer from refusing any future transactions, canceling my membership and doing everything in my power as a university professor to stop everyone that I’ve ever come in contact with from doing business with Barnes & Noble. As it stands, my largest concern with this incident is that my personal information was provided to an unverifiable third party. I am strongly disappointed in this company and utterly furious with the treatment of both myself and my personal information. I believe you’ll find at least one of these in direct violation of your privacy policy and quite illegal.

Awaiting any and all correspondence related to the direct resolution of this grievance."