Nook 3G & Nook WiFi Experiencing Connectivity Issues

BEST BUY SALES ASSOCIATE SAYS NOOK 3G CAN SURF WEB OVER 3G

This story just gets better by the minute. Right when I started to doubt myself on the Nook 3G free web access issue, I got a hot tip from someone who commented on one of my blog posts about the Nook. He told me that Best Buy was telling customers that the Nook 3G did connect to the web over the free 3G service. I had to investigate!

I called Best Buy in my local town posing as a potential Nook buying customer. I asked the sales associate if the Nook 3G would connect to the web over 3G for free, because I was interested in the device if it did. She told me that it would. Not only that, she said it was a huge advantage because the Nook 3G creates its own hot spot to get on the Internet, and that you don't have to buy a wireless router at home to get the device on the Internet. I asked her a second time to make certain that she was in fact telling me this, and she confirmed it.

One of two things is going on here... either the Nook 3G units sold at Best Buy are different than the ones in B&N and truly access the Internet for free, or somebody at Barnes & Noble forgot to send a memo to Best Buy to shut them up about putting the word out that it does connect to the web for free like the Kindle 3.

This is all very interesting after I had a conversation with a part-time B&N employee who bought a Nook 3G in September that she swears connected to the internet without a WiFi connection (she has no WiFi at home). Funny how her Nook 3G will no longer connect to the web as of recent.

I think the network was so overloaded by free Internet-seeking Nook 3G owners that B&N had to shut it down and limit the 3G use to book purchasing and connecting to the B&N bookstore. If it is true that they never intended to give the impression that the Nook 3G would connect to the web for free, they are still at fault for improperly training their sales associates, who led us all to believe that the device would serve up free Internet access.

This all adds up to a lovely mess for Barnes & Noble. I'd love to hear them explain their way out of this one. If you have had contact with Best Buy and have been given the same story, please share it with me in the comments!

Last but not least, my official blog post on the recent Nook 3G developments will provide you a good read and yet another place to share your thoughts.

REPORTS OF NOOK 3G CONNECTING TO WEB PRIOR TO CHRISTMAS RUSH

This just in! I have 2 unofficial reports telling me that the Nook 3G did in fact have the capability of surfing the world wide web (spelled out for emphasis) over its free 3G wireless network!

The first report comes from an actual Barnes & Noble employee. We will call her "Jane" to protect her identity, and I will not reveal the location of the B&N Bookstore that she works part-time in. She purchased her Nook 3G in September of 2010, and one of her motivating factors was the free 3G service for life. Jane does not have a wifi network set up in her hoome, and she decided to purchase the Nook 3G as a result. She was under the guise that the unit would connect to the Internet via 3G.

Jane purchased her Nook 3G and loved it. She remembers showing her son that you could access the weather channel and check the forecast over the Internet using her Nook via its free 3G service. She stands behind her story that she connected to the web via 3G but now cannot connect to the web. Something has changed since she purchased her device!

The network was so overloaded during the holidays, I believe it was during this time that Barnes & Noble knew that they could not serve the free 3G web surfing. I am convinced that something is being covered up. I will hopefully have yet another piece of strong evidence to support this within the next few days. Stay tuned!

BARNES & NOBLE FLIP-FLOPPING ON 3G INTERNET STORY

Still helping my friend who got a Nook 3G for Christmas, I decided to go to the Barnes & Noble store to get to the bottom of the issue with the 3G not accessing the Internet. What I was told was very shocking. Store employees told me that though they thought the 3G service was supposed to be able to access the web, it does not, nor was it ever supposed to. I smell a rat!

When I helped my friend to choose an e-reader for his wife for Christmas, we were both told that the Nook 3G would access the Internet using its experimental browser which was still in beta. We were told that it would be slow and buggy, but it would be able to access the Internet. The main reason my friend's wife wanted the Nook 3G was to be able to check her email and get on Facebook to read messages while at home or on the go. We were assured that the device would do exactly that.

Since Christmas, I have heard several reports of new Nook 3G owners having problems accessing the web through 3G and also WiFi. Barnes & Noble staff did confirm that there was a compatibility issue with the WiFi broadcast over CenturyLink Internet, a local provider of ours. That made no sense to me, because Wifi is WiFi. It shouldn't matter who your ISP is, WiFi is just Internet data sent over the airwaves. But that was a side note.

The store employees told us that they also thought the Nook 3G was supposed to be able to access the web, but they were now uncertain. They called the "Nook Expert" on the phone (we don't know where the expert was located) and he confirmed that not only does the Nook  3G not allow general Internet access through its 3G service, but it never did in the first place.

We were all shocked to hear this. Before Christmas, the fact that the Nook 3G could get on the Internet for free (and forever) was a major selling point. That made the extra $50 worthwhile. But why would someone pay $50 to be able to download a book from the B&N online store that they are already paying money for, and not access the Internet? Who is ever in a situation that they have a book purchasing emergency, and they must have a book right on the spot, in their car, out in the middle of nowhere? Seems to me that nobody would find it worth the extra cost when you could simply go find a WiFi hot spot somewhere, or just connect the Nook to your computer via USB.

One of the store employees stated that she thought the 3G service for $50 extra just for downloading was worth it, because she had no WiFi network at home. I asked her why she would pay $50 instead of just hooking up the Nook to her computer. She said she did not want to hook her device up to her home computer. I thought that was an interesting answer, but to each his or her own, I suppose.

I did a little more digging and decided to call a friend who bought a Nook 3G a few months ago. I was sitting right there in the Barnes & Noble store when I made the call. My friend was at work but still answered the phone, and i asked her if her Nook 3G would access the Internet while on 3G and not WiFi. She said yes. I asked her if she was totally sure, and she said absolutely, because she has no WiFi network in her house. I asked her if she would call me later in the evening just to confirm that she has Internet access with her device, and she said she would.

My other friend with the newer Nook bought during the Christmas rush traded her 3G version in for the WiFi version and took a $50 store credit. She was very frustrated and annoyed, because she too had tested a Nook 3G in September of 2010 at the store, and saw the unit accessing the Internet while on 3G and not the store's WiFi. I was there to keep the peace and make sure the swap went smoothly. The store employees were very accommodating and understanding, though neither were really sure about what was going on with the 3G access problems and the changing of the story on the part of the store.

I am going to post an update after I hear back from my friend who has had her nook for 3 months, and if I can work it out, I will run a side-by-side demonstration of how the older Nook 3G devices will access the net while the newer ones will not. Either way it turns out, B&N will have some explaining to do.

NOOK 3G & NOOK WIFI HAVING PROBLEMS CONNECTING TO NET

I had a handful of friends who received either a Nook 3G or Nook Wifi device for Christmas 2010, and they are all reporting the same set of problems. They are as follows:

• The device won't connect to WiFi signals when available
• The device won't connect to the Internet when 3G service is available
• The device will connect to the Barnes & Noble Bookstore without a problem
• The swipe-to-turn-a-page feature is not working properly

I decided to investigate this for a non-techie friend of mine. I called the toll-free support line for Barnes & Noble, and I was put on hold for several minutes. They warned me with a recording that call volumes were extremely high, and it may take a while to get to a customer service representative. After 5 minutes, the call was terminated after a recording told me to call back later, apologizing for the delay and high call volume.

Next, I called my local B&N bookstore to see if I could get some insight on this. I spoke with a store representative and asked her if she knew of any issues going on with the Nook 3G and Nook WiFi, and I told her about the technical support line being swamped with calls. She said there were definitely problems, and lots of people calling in. She confirmed that several people were complaining of not being able to access the internet using their Nook 3G service. She did not mention problems with WiFi access. She claimed that the problem was not the device, but with AT&T. She also claimed that people were reporting problems with their cell phones getting on the net with AT&T accounts also.

This made me wonder a bit. First of all, I have never understood how B&N and Amazon would be able to offer a device with free unlimited 3G internet access while the big data providers like AT&T were getting rid of their unlimited data plans due to network overloads. How is this possible? One would think that paying customers (ones using cell phone data packages) would have precedence over free 3G users that own e-readers. Considering the fact that every hand-held device has its own identification to associate it with an account holder, I figured that the network must be distinguishing between  the free 3G access users and cell phone data plan users. The proof? I was having no problems this same day connecting to the net using my iPhone.

It makes sense that this problem would be most prevalent after Christmas, while a fresh new load would be heaped on the data network from all the new e-reader owners. The B&N employee did tell me that they were thinking that the problem would be solved in a matter of days. This might have been the canned answer, assuming that users would even out their use after Christmas. But none of this explains why the Nook e-reader devices are also having problems connecting to the internet using the WiFi capability.

The last issue was the fact that the "swipe" page turn gesture was not working on several devices owned by friends of mine. I asked the store employee about this, and they claimed that you've got to swipe the bottom touch screen panel by every so gentling applying a "feather touch" instead of giving normal finger pressure. You can only use the page swiping gesture after the bottom control screen goes black. It's supposed to be an alternative to clicking the buttons on the side of the device for page turning.

Having a Nook 3G with unlimited 3G internet access is very tempting, even though this device is very very slow, and only features a black & white display. My prediction is that Barnes & Noble will work with AT&T and probably resolve the network issues and get the poor little e-reader kick started once and for all. It seems to be a great device.