I am still stewing and I need SD to help me complain

[zodiac66]

I am still stewing and I need SD to help me complain

I finally bought my anthopology book. It was a couple weeks late arriving from the
"publisher" to the bookstore. I use the term publisher loosely.

This company specializes in providing text books to universities based on what text they want included/excluded from the book. Let me elaborate on how wonderful this is:

1. There is only half of a book. Anthropology is divided up into 4 main components and somehow the linguistics section is missing.

2. Not only is it half a book, it is not bound. It is looseleaf with a three hole punch. So, I had to not only buy the book but something to house said loose papers.

3. The quality of the paper is akin to the cheap paper you buy at Office Max.

4. About thirty pages of text is clearly copied. They are in black and white whereas the pictures should be in color. I also have a few blank pages in there.

I paid over 50 bucks for this monstrosity and I am not happy (that is not including the binder I had to buy).

I so want to complain and let them know from a student standpoint, their service sucks.

 

[Sokar Rostau]

Are you sure you're talking about a textbook and not a course reader?

I bought a course reader for ~$30 for my Media Ethics class and it has 200 photocopied pages from about 20 different journals and books. I don't have an issue with it because the pdf's were put on webCT and I couldn't be bothered printing them out (it would have cost the same). It was a huge time saver for me especially when I discovered that the relevant chapeter from a book I needed for my final essay was in the reader, saving my arse because some bastard hasn't returned it to the library yet. At least mine was produced by the university and was bound.

 

[Yaboosh]

I have 300 pages of reading to do for this coming week for one of my classes, and it is all copied from various sources. The main problem is the quality. It is so blurry that upon printing, it is nigh impossible to read. So not only do I have a huge amount of research to read through, that is already ridiculously hard to translate into english, but the actual text is ridiculously hard to read. Stupid class.

 

[Amra]

I paid over 50 bucks for this monstrosity and I am not happy (that is not including the binder I had to buy).

I so want to complain and let them know from a student standpoint, their service sucks.

You should complain. That sounds so unfair to you.

 

[AeroJonesy]

Lots of professors do this to save on cost. The whole book may have run you $150 or more, which probably also would have brought you here complaining.

I've had professors do this, and I appreciate the fact that they saved me $100 on a book I'd probably sell back to the bookstore anyway.

 

[zodiac66]

Lots of professors do this to save on cost. The whole book may have run you $150 or more, which probably also would have brought you here complaining.

I've had professors do this, and I appreciate the fact that they saved me $100 on a book I'd probably sell back to the bookstore anyway.

Anthropology would NEVER come close to your price.

 

[PatMaGroin]

That book probably would've gone for 150 USED if it were complete, I'd be thankful for the cost, but I can definitely see where you're coming from with the quality.

 

[zodiac66]

That book probably would've gone for 150 USED if it were complete, I'd be thankful for the cost, but I can definitely see where you're coming from with the quality.

Oh no..my biology book was only a bit over 110 bucks. No LER class has that expensive of a book.

 

[PatMaGroin]

My physics book was 140 used, Calculus was 120 used, my computer class was 110 used.

So far I've spent more on books than I have on tuition (scholarship).

 

[AeroJonesy]

Anthropology would NEVER come close to your price.

Bwah? A simple Amazon search of Anthropology text books from high price to low price returned quite a few expensive books - over $150.

 

[zodiac66]

Bwah? A simple Amazon search of Anthropology text books from high price to low price returned quite a few expensive books - over $150.

Not for an intro class.

 

[superdave]

sorry...i am ranted out for the night...i spent the afternoon accusing proctor and gamble of providing terrorists with WMD's...they of course are denying any involvement with terrorist cells in canada...i think they are going to send me coupons for free chips if i shut up. :jig:

http://forums.diabloii.net/showpost.php?p=4808910&postcount=9039

 

[Bortaz]

$140 used for General Biology, plus $98 for a new lab manual.
$92 for Microcomputer Apps book, plus $64 for Office 2003 manual.
$128 for Lifespan Growth and Development book.

 

[zodiac66]

I am complaining about the quality for the price.

 

[AeroJonesy]

Now, I'm just going out on a limb here, but I'd assume the price is so high because the professor has pulled material from more than one source and has to pay royalties or whatever to the authors of the sources used.

 

[superdave]

the angle i would use is the late delivery....tell them you don't need it anymore because that part of the class is finished...if it was me i would just run the thing though my photocopier(it has a sheet feeder and a collator)...make a dozen copies and sell to my classmates for 1/2 price....yes i know you can go to hell for copyright infringement. :devil:

it can't hurt to see if you can get some $ back...wait until there is some nub kid working and put the fear of zodi into him. :evil:

 

[Yaboosh]

Regardless of any differences here, I think we can ALL agree that it really blows having to pay this much for a shoddy product. Textbooks are all overpriced, especially if you use the university bookstores.

 

[Bortaz]

Especially when they continually change "editions" each semester, and won't buy the old ones back from you, after shafting you with the price in the first place.

 

[AeroJonesy]

Agreed. Textbook prices blow in general. And I'm sitting next to a bookshelf with 8 law textbooks, 1 law supplement, and 12 engineering texbooks.

I'd rather have my $2000 back...

 

[superdave]

Especially when they continually change "editions" each semester, and won't buy the old ones back from you, after shafting you with the price in the first place.

i was cheap(poor actually) when i went to university...i usually made due with the previous year's text...i found out the hard way the first semester that their buy back policy was a joke.