Ahem.

[rolanni]

Dear Barnes and Noble:

I am yesterday in receipt of your threatening letter, sent to an address on which the forwarding order has long expired, commanding me to file a W9 before January 22 or face fines and reprisals from the IRS.

No, I am not faxing my social security number to a machine that, for all I know and suspect, dials into the mail room at B&N corporate.

You acquired Fictionwise in March 2009, and could have contacted me any time during the intervening nine months in order to acquire an updated W9; you had a working email address; a telephone number; and a PayPal account direction.

This "emergency" is not of my making; it is of yours, and I will be pleased to explain that to the IRS.

Sincerely,

Sharon Lee

Comments

[lagilman]

did you see my rant about the original letter? I tore a strip off that guy... was NOT pleased with them.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

Morons. A lack of planning on their part should not constitute and emergency on your part.

I wonder if any of their offices are near Boston? It sounds like they need competent Project Managers and I'm looking for work.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Wow, this seems to be happening to quite a few authors I follow on LJ. Stupid B&N.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

What's a form W9?

(On second thoughts, I probably don't want to know. I'm a non-resident alien, under no obligation to pay the IRS taxes. It's bad enough keeping up with what HMRC, who I am liable to pay ...)

According to the W9

[elgordo303.livejournal.com]

Failure to furnish TIN. If you fail to furnish your correct TIN to a requester, you are subject to a penalty of $50 for each such failure unless your failure is due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect.

Seems like B&N are storing up ill will to no purpose ...

[zola.livejournal.com]

I can't stand Barnes and Noble and refuse to purchase anything from them.

I have been boycotting them since there was a problem with one of my orders (went to old mailing address despite updating my info on their site) and they wouldn't lift a finger to help me retrieve the books--UPS would have gone by and attempted to get the package back, but Barnes and Noble had to ask them since Barnes and Noble had shipped the order.

They kept my money, too. I asked them if it was worth a permanent loss of my business, cancelled the other pre-order and haven't shopped there since.

Maybe they think they're too big to fail.

[laurajunderwood.livejournal.com]

I didn't get a letter because according to what I was told by Wildside Press, my collection Magic's Song was not going to be listed anymore (contract ran out in 2008--all rights reverted to me).

So imagine my surprise when I looked on the B&N webside and discovered my former Fictionwise title was actually listed for sale.

I have tried to contact Wildside, but get no response. Meanwhile, I did email B&N and asked how they got permission for a book that was technically out of print and therefore unavailable, but they wrote me a silly note about where to find their author/publisher faq.

Dorks.

I plan to write again, and it won't be as nice of a note.

Laura J. Underwood