Posts Tagged ‘Textbook’

Publishers Introducing Packets to Rip Off Students

While I don’t think this is happening at Marietta College, I’m posting this because its could happen here eventually if we’re not careful.

The Consumerist is reporting on the plight of students at many other schools who go to buy books, only to find that they can’t find a deal because the books they try to buy do not exist.  Publishers have begun selling books in packets, which do not have to have the same ISBN number as the textbooks inside them.  Therefore, you can’t buy a used book that does not exist.  The packets also do not tell you what books are inside until you open them up, so trying to search for a book by title doesn’t work either.

You can read more about the infuriating problem of packets at The Consumerist.

Chegg.com: Rent Textbooks, Save Money

Over at The Consumerist, they highlighted an article from Clark Howard on Chegg.com, a textbook rental service.

Chegg.com is like the Zappos of the Textbook industry, in a way, as you pay less for the book than you normally would, don’t pay for shipping back to their warehouse at the end of the semester, everything is recyclable and made of recyclable materials, and they plant a tree for every book rented.  Better yet, they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if it turns out you don’t need the book, or the quality of the book is not what you had been promised.

Now, you may be asking yourself, what’s the catch?  Well, there really isn’t one that i can find.  The length of a rental is 125 days for those on the semester system, 85 days for those on the quarter system, and 60 days for those poor souls taking summer classes.  Considering that Marietta’s semester is 15 weeks long, and only uses 105 days, you’ll have plenty of time to ship the book back on time.

Their rental rates are based on supply and demand, so a popular book will be much more expensive to rent than a less popular one, so some savings may not be as good as others.

If you really fall in love with the book you rented, you can buy the book from Chegg (they charge you on top of what you paid for the rental and shipping, then tax is applied).  You can also extend rentals from 15 to 30 days, all the way up to another full semester.

On the flip side, a 25 percent penalty fee is assessed on books not postmarked by the return date listed on the account.  If your book is one week past due, you are charged the entire price of the book, as they assume you want to own it at that point.

The site has been around since 2004, and has claimed to have saved over $42 million dollars for students nationwide.  If you’re up for trying it out, then go for it.  It seems like the cheapest option out there, as far as textbook shopping goes.  Just remember that this is only one of many options, so make sure that you use our book-buying guide and save yourself some money this year!