Company information:
TEXTBOOKS.COM
Missouri
United States
Textbooks.Com buyback policy is misleading, unclear, and a ripoff.
I sent a textbook back for the guaranteed buyback price.
The quote creation date was 12/22/08 guaranteeing a certain amount. They list the book and an expiry date. Then under policy reminders on the same page, they say that "Books must be received in 30 days for full value", indicating that as long as they receive the books within 30 days that you will receive the full value of the quoted price.
I brought the book to UPS to be sent back, and my tracking doesn't show it was picked up from the location I dropped it off at, but from another city and gives a date further out than when I dropped it at my local UPS. Then, from there, it took a few days to get back to Textbooks.Com. Neither UPS or Textbooks.Com know the date it was dropped off in my town at the local UPS store, (I called my local UPS store to ask if they had a record and they don't), but Textbooks.com is going by the date it was brought to another location and then the date they had it in their warehouse.
When I called Textbooks.Com, the person who answered told me that HE knew the policy and remembered what the website said (of course he would, he works there). He said that it is on the website when you order the books and since he remembers that, everyone else should 6 months after ordering a book...He argued that expiry means it expires and I should have figured out myself that "Books must be received in 30 days for full value" applies only to books that aren't guaranteed buyback even though there is nothing indicating that on the quote creation page or anything else. What else do you go by but the quote creation page with the buyback packing list on it?
Their buyback and quote policy is extremely unclear, and they do not work with the customer at all. It is simply the customer's fault & problem that their policies are misleading and confusing, and they don't give an inch. The guy didn't care that I told them we would no longer do business with them unless they honored their quote because of the misleading wording which would make (I'm sure too many) customers miss the deadline to get full buyback. I consider this fraud - like bait and switch. The entire reason we didn't return the book to my daughter's school was because Textbooks.Com offered more cash back than the school. We ended up losing more than the school would have given us by trusting Textbooks.Com.
By the way, if you go by what the representative said instead of the 30 days policy, it means they gave me 7 days (including weekends, Christmas and New Years holidays) to get the book back INTO their warehouse...They try to make it as difficult as possible and a near impossibility for the customer to get it to them on time, especially since 2 holidays were in there, as well as weekends.
