textbooks
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—>If you're going to school at a Florida state university, your fee burden just grew a little bit lighter: More »
—>Robert ordered a defective textbook from Amazon, which let him return the book outside its 30-day return policy. Amazon let him do so without trouble, but that wasn't even the coolest thing the e-tailer did for him. When Robert received the next book, with the same defect — it too was missing codes he needed for his lab — he decided to go to the school bookstore to buy a copy with the codes he needed. The CSR told Robert he could keep the second book and gave him a full refund. He writes: More »
—>It's that magical time of year, when the bright, shining faces of college freshmen fall as they take their first look at modern textbook prices. Reader S., a manager at a college bookstore, read our post yesterday about custom college bookstore "packets" used to prevent students from purchasing their textbooks used. He sent us some tips about how to spot and avoid special profit-seeking textbook bundles, and how to actually save some money by...purchasing from the college bookstore? More »
—>Students who prefer to shop for textbooks online are encountering a hitch in their efforts. University and College courses are increasingly using bundled versions of textbooks that come with their own ISBN number. School book stores sell the packets as a single item, because their contents don't come itemized. More »
—>The college textbook racket is a cruel exploitation of a captive market, and book prices seem to rise faster than Google stock. More »
—>This story is a little old, but was just brought to our attention this weekend. Elsevier, which is sort of the Death Star of academic publishing, was caught offering $25 Amazon gift cards to professors who gave the book five-star reviews on Amazon. More »
—>Abel's Copies is standing by their strict "No Refunds" policy even after ordering the wrong course packet for reader David. The workers at the off-campus bookstore near the University of Texas at Austin insisted there was only one instructor for David's course and that they couldn't order a new course packet unless David paid in advance. When David got home, he realized that Abel's sold him the wrong packet. He called the store and learned that Abel's had the right packet in stock for $25 less than he paid—but Abel's refused to issue a refund... More »
Need to save money on textbooks? Textbook Media offsets the cost of its digital copies by inserting ads at chapter breaks. BookSwim rents textbooks. Also see these old suggestions, and today's morning deal. More »
—>Don't order textbooks from Indoo.com if you need them right away, because they're a little casual with their shipping. Joe ordered two textbooks on September 5th. Four days later on September 9th, they sent him an email saying they'd been shipped via USPS Priority mail. They hadn't arrived by the 16th, so Joe emailed to ask what was going on. They responded that actually the books had been shipped on September 11th via USPS Priority and that "the arrival expectation is 4 to 5 business days." Joe received one of the two books yesterday, on September 17th, which would have been 5 business days after the 11th. Still no sign of the other book. More »
—>R. Preston McAfee, a Cal Tech economics professor, is annoyed at how overpriced textbooks are. "'The person who pays for the book, the parent or the student, doesn’t choose it,' he said. 'There is this sort of creep. It’s always O.K. to add $5.'" To fight back, he's foregone the potential six-figure advance traditional publishing would have granted, and published his textbook online for free. More »
