Here's an interesting little bit of information that I discovered today. I preordered Fannie Flagg's I Still Dream About You (out today from Random House!) back in July at the price of $17.55. As of this morning, I honestly couldn't remember if it came out today or next week, so went to the B&N website to check the release date and discovered #1) it did indeed come out today (yay!), and #2) that the price was dropped to $13.97 (double yay!). I was rather happy on both counts, since #1) my book should be shipping today, and #2) that I was getting it for a lesser price. Well, I was only right on one of those counts.
It turns out that you pay the price that was being offered at the time of preorder, regardless if the price goes down on day of release. You have the option of canceling the order and placing a new one, but that's only if you discover the price change before your item is shipped, which I didn't until I got the notice today that showed it had shipped, but at the higher price. I called their "help" line, and their suggestion was that I purchase the book again at the lower price and then return the original item to a store for a credit on the higher price.
Now, maybe I'm just irritable today, but that totally rubs me the wrong way. If you preorder an item from Amazon, for instance, "...the price we charge when we ship it to you will be the lowest price offered by Amazon.com between the time you place your order and the release date" (quoted from their Pricing help link) and I just assumed that everybody did that. I guess I was wrong. It seriously makes me want to reconsider ordering from B&N again in the future.
So, I don't know that this really makes all that big of a deal, but it's just something that I thought that I'd pass on to my readers, just as an FYI.
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