All right, this post is mainly for my fellow Canadian bloggers, as I doubt that besides them, many of you use Chapters/Indigo online to order books :P However, feel free to comment and share and let me know how it is done in the States or internationally.
Okay, so let me put you in context before ranting... In Canada, the biggest bookstores chain is Chapters, which actually comprises Chapters, Indigo, World's Biggest Bookstore and Coles bookstores. In fact, if truth be told, Chapters suspiciously look a lot like Barnes and Nobles in the States... and that's where I mostly shop for my books.
All right, so most everyone knows that I have the "Must Have It NOW" syndrome when it comes to books... so if I can, then I'll shop in the actual bookstore and not online... However, Chapters online has great deals for books over 10$ (9% off), 14$ (24% off) and 25$ (34% off)... and so I usually order hardcovers and trade-size books online... Plus shipping is free over 39$...
Oh, I almost forgot... there's also pre-ordering. I mean, I have pre-ordering books on Chapters online down to an art. After many trials, I figured out that if you want to pre-order some books and receive it before the release date, you have to aim for 3 weeks in advance. Longer than that and your order get lost somewhere (proof - The Magical Christmas Cat... I pre-ordered that one about 1 month and 2 weeks in advance and I got my copy two days after release date)... Order it later than 3 weeks in advance and I don't know, they're too busy processing the other orders I guess and you get it late. 3 weeks is just about the right time.
So all this sounds great right? And it is... till things change :( and things have been changing lately :( First, I don't like the whole community thingie. Chapters online is very much like Amazon where you can post reviews and so on... Granted, not many people participate as with Amazon, but so what? There's already Facebook, MSN groups, blogs and so on... so why would I want to sign up to another community? Second thing I didn't like is the website revamp... They didn't change much, but just enough to annoy me. I don't like to see the synopsis of books when I'm searching for books. It takes place and it's distracting. Okay, so it's very minor, but I don't like it...
Last thing that I've just discovered this morning and which promted this rant... Chapters online freaking changed their shipping policies for pre-ordered books. Now, every pre-ordered books will cost 5.99$!!!! If the total amount of the books bought (including pre-ordered books) is over 39$, then you still get free shipping, but ONLY for the books in stock. Doesn't that suck? Why, oh why, did they have to do that? Well, I know... apparently, it's because the pre-ordered books are shipped individually, but so what?
I was thinking of pre-ordering books on Amazon now... However, you rarely receive those before the release date and then, I remembered... to get free shipping at Amazon, you had to group all the items of your order together so they would only do one shipment. Ugh, no good either.
I guess it means that I won't be pre-ordering many books in the future... Probably only the hardcovers of my very favorite authors... It sucks. So yeah, there you have it... I don't like changes :( Changes are bad and evil and rarely to our advantages :(
