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Barnes & Noble's Nook server woes rectified

For the second year in a row, Barnes & Noble's servers couldn't handle the influx of new Nook users on Christmas Day.

David Carnoy Executive Editor / Reviews
Executive Editor David Carnoy has been a leading member of CNET's Reviews team since 2000. He covers the gamut of gadgets and is a notable reviewer of mobile accessories and portable audio products, including headphones and speakers. He's also an e-reader and e-publishing expert as well as the author of the novels Knife Music, The Big Exit and Lucidity. All the titles are available as Kindle, iBooks, Nook e-books and audiobooks.
Expertise Mobile accessories and portable audio, including headphones, earbuds and speakers Credentials
  • Maggie Award for Best Regularly Featured Web Column/Consumer
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David Carnoy
Nook owners couldn't download e-books on Christmas Day. Barnes & Noble

Over the last couple of weeks we've been writing about how all the e-reader manufacturers have been talking up their robust holiday sales.

Well, there can be some downsides to success, as Barnes & Noble's servers apparently couldn't handle the influx of new users on Christmas Day and continued to experience trouble into Sunday. This is the second year in a row that Barnes & Noble's server issues have kept new Nook owners from buying e-books on Christmas Day.

Across the Web and on Twitter, people were complaining about the problems. For instance, CNET user Ridermom wrote a scathing review of the Nook Color, which received an Editors' Choice award and has had mainly very positive reviews from CNET readers:

I have a product that can not be used because Barnes and Noble server is not working. So all I hear from customer service is to be patient and it should be working by Monday afternoon. So I have a $250.00 product that can not be used and Barnes and Noble will not [give] any compensation to their customers. So after 2-days/6 hours of trouble / and 2 hours of phone calls. I think the Nook is going back to the store tomorrow!!!!

We can't tell you why this inexplicable snafu happened again. But suffice to say that while Barnes & Noble was presumably prepared for the onslaught, the technology didn't cooperate as planned. The good news for Nook owners is the system is working fine now, a day or two late for some.