my new first look for books is nerdbooks.com
Published June 8th, 2006 in toolsBack in the day, I loved spending time (and money) in Taylor’s Bookstore on Beltline in Addison. It was the mecca of technical books in the metroplex. They carried lots of titles on technical subjects back before the big-box Borders and B&N was around, and they were much deeper then than the rivals that outlasted them are today.
At the Dallas UPA meeting last week, I learned about Nerdbooks.com. I’m not sure how they’ll compete with the likes of Amazon online, but for me it is great that they are based here in Richardson, and have a store front you can visit. If you struggle with instant gratification like I do, you can check the inventory online, then drive over to pick it up in less time than it would take to ship. The inventory is huge (over 20,000 titles in stock) and there are comfortable chairs to sit in while you sample your selections. They even have a free soft-drink fountain setup in a comfortable lounge.
The store is on the east side of Central just off Collins; its a potentially dangerous trap for me now being on the way home from many clients.
Support a local good guy next time you need a technical tome.
I purchased a book from nerdbooks.com, requesting expedited shipping. The book arrived 6 days later. I called the company to inquire about why I had paid so much for shipping and still ended up waiting such a long time for the book to arrive. The man who I talked to said that they sell books through a large number of vendors and can’t give me any information on my order. I asked if I could provide my name and address so that they could figure out which vendor the transaction had gone through. The person on the phone said he was really busy and did not have time to look at every one of his websites, or through thousands of books to figure out which order was mine. I politely asked him if we could work together over the phone to figure out which vendor was used and he literally YELLED at me! I’ve never been spoken to so rudely. I was amazed that such horrible “customer service” exists and I will never, ever purchase anything from this company in the future.
That is a bummer, Jenny. I’m sorry you had such a bad experience. I haven’t ordered anything from them through the mail, and likely never would anyway. I find them handy as a “brick and mortar” store where I can thumb through a copy before I purchase, or see that they have it in stock and take it right away without waiting for shipping. And based on your experience with the shipping, maybe that’s a good thing.
I hope you find other recommendations that I make more rewarding.
Jenny -
I am the owner of nerdbooks.com. I’m not sure who you spoke with on the phone, but we don’t yell at people as a matter of course. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times that we’ve ever raised our voices at a customer … and we’ve had many thousands of customer interactions in the past eight years of business.
Please note that when you order directly from the www.nerdbooks.com website, you’re ordering from us — from nerdbooks.com. If you order via 2-Day Air or via Overnight, we will ship that same (business day), and you will get your book in a timely manner. Our average time to get a book into a box is 1015 seconds … just under 17 minutes.
However, if you choose to go to a site such as half.com or alibris.com and order, please note that you are NOT ordering from nerdbooks.com. You are ordering from one of these two companies, and you are their customer. We participate in third-party program such as these primarily for the “advertising benefit”. If you choose to order through one of these “middleman”, you will pay more money, and the service that you receive (from them) will not be nearly as good. We will not be able to help you much unless you can provide details about your order such as the date is was placed and the order number. Please understand that these companies store your information in their databases and do not pass all of it along to us; we are limited in how much we can help in these instances. Again, you are NOT ordering from us when you order in this manner. You’re ordering instead from half.com, Amazon, or alibris. They, in turn, are ordering from us and then instructing us to send the book directly to their customer - you. What these companies tell their customers is “expedited shipping” is not what we would define as “expedited” … it’s UPS, DHL, or FedEx GROUND service. This can easily take up to six working days to arrive. On our site, we give our customers three shipping options: Overnight, 2-Day Air, or Ground. Pretty simple. Unfortunately, we cannot control what other companies say or advertise to their customers, nor can we dictate the language that they use to convey information.
Beware — if you pay $3-$5 for “expedited shipping” to a company, this will almost never mean that you’re paying for 2-Day Air or Overnight Service. These services cost much more than that.
I hope that this information helps.
Dave Henley
dave@nerdbooks.com
972.470.9611
I too live in the DFW area and also used to enjoy going into the nerdbooks storefront to buy my books.
Unfortunately, last time I went in I had an terrible event happen.
Apparently the owners of this store are somehow related to some dog animal rescue cause (which is very admirable by the way) and they let these dogs run around the retail storefront with the customers.
On my last visit, I took my 6 month old baby (in a stroller) with me and as we walked in my daughter was attacked by one of the dogs. As I pulled the dog off of my daughter, some guy that worked there (the owner I think) came out and bowed up on me like he wanted to fight me because I pulled his dog off my baby. His specific quote was “obviously you brought something here that doesn’t belong” as he refered to my baby strapped in her stroller.
Obviously I got out of there as soon as possible and won’t ever buy from these jerks again.
If you value your safety, I would stick with ordering online or just buy from somewhere else.
Hey, Jason. I’m very sorry to hear about your experience. Another one of my friends had a similar experience and blogged about it. If you read his story, you’ll see that it was very similar to yours.
Your stories corroborate that the owner seems to care more about his dog at the store than his customers. For me that’s very sad because personally the value proposition is to fulfill my need for instant gratification rather than waiting on shipping. That need doesn’t outweigh how my friends are treated though. I most likely won’t be heading back now myself.
Sorry to hear about your experience. Let us all know if you find an alternative local source of current tech books.
I just took my last trip to Nerdbooks. Upon entering the door did not close behind me. I took approx. 5 steps and then turned around and closed the door. Apparently, this was not quick enough for the owner who rather than put a spring on the door would rather berate customers. I got the same degrading speech that other customers have commented on…. We really needed to pick up a ton of books, but there was no way we were going to make a purchase after being treated this way. As we exited the owner tried to give us a smug “Have a nice day”… When we did not respond he followed us outside to tell us that “he did not appriciate it being disrespected in his store!!”. This guy is a moran. I hope that anyone that purchases books from this company never has to deal with the staff. In their words, “We only make a dollar per book”…
That is a real shame about the shopper whose child was attacked by dogs at NerdBooks. If this is what happens at their “hospitality center”, I’d hate to visit the complaints department.
I never even made it to the store, but encountered ill treatment over the phone, when all I was trying to do was find out if they were open. You know, maybe to buy something.
The guy wanted me to read some Post-It Notes on the front door, but was quite rude when expressing this. Why not put such information on the website? I found the books I need at Richardson’s public library (http://www.cor.net/library). Their staff is always friendly and helpful, and I’ve never been attacked by dogs or people there.
Richardson is a great town, and Texas a great state. Most of us try to act in a way that will reflect positively on our community. If this gentleman cannot learn civility, perhaps he would be better running his business elsewhere, or closing his retail front.
@Foo - I enjoy the main Richardson Library as well. I retreat to a study carrel in the basement there when I need to switch off from mobile phones and people at the client or office and get work done.
Needless to say, I haven’t been to Nerdbooks for well over a year now. Such great potential, such a shame.
I’ve been there a few times and had a great experience. I love dogs, so I found it great to have them there. When I first saw a dog walking around, it kinda freaked me out because I thought I was seeing things.
The owner, or at least I think it was, was very nice to me and very helpful. Maybe it’s because I knew how to open and close doors and like dogs.
Plus the front of the “store” doesn’t look like a real store front, so maybe some of you should think it’s not very family friendly.
Before going there the first time, I noticed it’s not in a very “store fronty” area, so I emailed them and asked if they even allow people there, he said yes, but it’s not really a store, but a warehouse with shelves. I expected something very different but it was a lot better than a warehouse would be.
I would highly recommend this place.