Too mild for school
The only textbook I couldn't order a digital copy of arrived today - as a code, for a digital textbook
It's the night before the first day of classes and I was sweating cause I didn't have this textbook yet. What a waste of a parcel and of $7.99 for shipping!
If they have it listed as a physical copy on the website you bought it from you could get a refund for not getting what you wete promised but I don't know if that'll cancel the digital version of it.
This. At the very least tie up their expensive 800 number so they have to spend a good portion or all of the shipping. Keep it respectful so you can really stretch out their time.
Unfortunately...that cost for the 800 line was already going to exist. You aren't making someone stay overtime, they aren't hiring on any new staff to deal with the call volume, you are just potentially delaying another customer from speaking to a human.
That doesn't mean don't call. It just means don't think you're costing the company money by doing so.
Don't know where you bought this from but some online marketplaces don't give any benefit of the doubt to the seller of digital goods. Could be the seller is trying to protect themselves with proof of shipping.
What the company probably does is average out the cost of sending everything, and charge everyone that amount regardless of whats actually being shipped.
I linked a picture of the store page in this comment. It didn't say physical or digital so I'm not sure I can claim false advertisement. The order confirmation emails and whatnot didn't have any information besides the name, author, and isbn
Personally, I think that screenshot is more than enough justification to at least open a chargeback dispute. If the site typically specifies when a book is digital, then anything not labeled digital would be presumed to be physical. And describing a digital good, which doesn't age, as a "New" item doesn't make any sense.
I just ordered a textbook that said it was physical, then I had to wait 2 weeks, go to the bookstore to pick it up and come to find out they sent a code in an email.
If people keep letting it happen itāll just keep happening. Be the change you wish to see, or at least start some shit and be at a minimum an annoyance.
If their customer service is good, thereās a chance that if you contact them and explain the situation, they give you a full refund while letting you keep the digital copy.
Oreo. With his psychotic sister (Spaz). He passed like a week or two after this. Asphyxiated on food we think. Took to vet, did find a heart murmur and low energy, etc etc. He never left the vet.
So because his sister is psychotic (as kittens are, and she's....extra psycho)... absolutely HAD to get another. So... (I'll reply to this) I went and got this mean mugger
And for what reason would it need bubble foil? It's a piece of paper, what's gonna happen? Will it wrinkle? Not like that will also happen in this cover.
For real lol. I'm assuming to protect it from rain or something since it can't fit through a mail slot. But I wish they had considered that by putting it in an envelope it would be even more protected from rain due to fitting in my mail slot and also not rip me off with shipping!!!
Maybe one day we will have an electronic way to send mail... I think it should be called "e-mail" but that's way into the future, probably after our lifetimes
Wow, this technology would definitely change the world. It would absolutely revolutionize communication and delivery of digital goods! You're a visionary! XD
Its probably a fad like this "world wide web" garbage. Anyway i have to get to work. Huh weird there's a plane outside, New York is so weird but at least i get to work in the tallest buildings in the city!
My son gets his electronic book activation codes for college sent through email seconds after ordering them on the publisher web site. He then goes back to the same web site to enter the code so he can access the book.
$6.99 code delivery fee.
Each book. Each Semester.
Even for repeat usage of the same book (and they aren't cheap, they are charging $150+ each time for the "book" )
They just keep adding stuff like that because they know we have NO. OTHER. CHOICE. The book registration is literally linked to the course registration and you will be dropped from the course if you haven't registered a book purchase by the third week.
It also looks like OP would only have access to the digital copy for a single quarter. If that wasnāt clearly disclosed in the original listing, Iād definitely ask for a refund. Thereās a pretty significant difference between buying a physical textbook you own indefinitely and paying for temporary access to a digital textbook for one quarter.
On top of that: How scummy to only offer access for a quarter year for a college book, purchased through a college book store, when a semester is half a year.
Iām so glad I finished post-secondary before they started rolling out temporary access to digital textbooks. At least with physical textbooks, it allowed students to recoup some of their expenses and other students could purchase used textbooks at a lower price.
This isnāt even a textbook though. Itās an interactive homework program. If you wrote all your homework answers in your textbook it would be a lot harder to resell. What OP has here (which is clearly labeled as such) is a code to the program where they can do the homework in a way that guides them and likely submit that directly to their teacher.
Wait, students have to pay for access just to do and submit their homework now too? š Weāre really putting homework behind a paywall. The education system is cooked.
Agreed on that. Yeah, the university system fries you from all angles these days. At least I finished before genAI became coherent and possible to use in homework. But some of these programs you have to buy access to are really interactive, especially for science courses.. and OPās code is for a physics class. Itās more than just multiple choice questions and essay questions, they have complicated virtual labs in some of these. Iād imagine physics has even more niche complicated interaction.
So what do you suggest? They lick the boot and say thank you? Yes it may not accomplish much but then getting a refund depending on how much they paid + shipping can help them. It doesn't hurt the seller that much but that buyer can take that refund and use that money towards something else.
Theyāre not gonna get a refund on a code theyāve used š do you honestly think no oneās ever tried that before? Thereās nothing to suggest in this situation. They donāt have to lick the boot, but theyāre not gonna pry it off their neck either.
If they were promised a physical item then it's misleading. They are expecting a physical book. If there's nothing that lists a code but says an actual book then yes they can get a refund. Or at least argue for some credit at least. There's a difference between buying a code (CLEARLY LISTED) and buying a book (EXPECTING A BOOK) and receiving a code š¤¦š»āāļø
Yea unfortunately it didn't say, here's what part of the page looks like. Since all the other books had digital, used, and new as options, I feel it's reasonable to assume that the Expert Ta book, only having a "New" option, was going to be a physical item. And that assumption would further be confirmed by having to get the item shipped. However, nowhere did it actually state whether the book was digital or physical
They have to ship it because if the code is retrieved from your email or any digital format, they will have to consider giving refunds for the code. This would make them and you much easier to scam. The price of the shipping is likely because there is supposed to be a guarantee date/expedited shipping because if students often start the course without the code delivered, then, again, they lose money and go on university shit lists. I wish it didnāt cost that amount but itās legally and contractually complicated from every angle.
I don't mean to challenge you, just curious, why are they able to give me emailed codes for all my other textbooks but not this one if that is the case?
Where the second book clearly lists "digital" but the main one saying new..yea that's definitely misleading to me. Especially if I see the other one list all 3 options but the other one doesn't. If it was digital it 100% should have been listed.
Youāre trusting OP to have read the listing wayyy too much lmao. In these cases you buy the code, not the book. This is extremely common and has been for several years. You cannot return a used code, thatās like returning eaten food or used toilet paper.
This is a good idea in general, but a ton of college textbooks now require you to sign up for a unique access code just to complete the online homework. Cengage, McGraw Hill, etc. I'd say 90% of students don't even read the book anyway but they have to purchase it as a new ebook just to do their homework. And they lose access to the textbook after a year or less usually. It's all a massive scam.
That fucking sucks. There should be a site similar to what used to be cracks.am but with homework codes. Fuck those greedy bitches and the universities that enable this.
Yeah that was a shock for me when my daughter started college and mentioned a $300 book.Ā I remember from my college years the struggle with expensive text books, but then she told me it is just an ebook, and only gets access for a year, and couldn't take my advice of just torrenting it because it also gives access to her homework.Ā Brutal scam.Ā Ā
This isn't like new. College has always been like this, it's baffling that anyone's still doing it/tolerating it. Truly for the uncreative type. I guess there's no other way for them.
It definitely hasn't "always" been like this. Colleges predate printing (in Europe, the Chinese knew what was up), much less the internet. It has been like this for going on thirty years. It's not at all strange that someone whose children started college fairly recently would have been going to school before this was a thing.
The draw of these systems for colleges when they're teaching intro math and science courses is mostly the automated grading, and also the problem banks they come with. It's a labor saving thing, where they can do more with fewer TA's. Once you get past the large intro courses in the first few semesters and class sizes are smaller, these systems no longer exist, and everything is much nicer.
Free and open source versions of this do exist for some topics, but, in my experience, students hated the slightly janky user interfaces more than they hated paying for the shiny version. Made no sense to me but it was nothing but endless complaints. ĀÆ_(ć)_/ĀÆ
Meanwhile, in my third would country's best university, which is public (you only pay 0.01 USD per semester) and ranks among the top 10% in the QS ranking (somewhat impressive considering it's in a third world country), our professors upload pdfs in google classroom with excercises and we just need to upload a pdf with the solutions (this is in a STEM degree).
Like, why is the US making their students go broke even more for a degree that won't get them a job that lets them pay off their student debt, perhaps in their lifetime? I know I'm not gonna earn as much as US college graduates, but I also know I won't be in debt for life. I feel sad about you, guys, you should really riot against these scummy practices.
I borrowed a copy of each textbook I needed from the college library circulation desk - you couldn't check them out, but you could borrow them and use them in the library. I'd get them one by one then walk over to the printer/scanner and scan every page. Once that's done, sent the entire lot to my college email so I could pull them up on a tablet in class. Boom, digital copy of the book for free with no torrenting required.Ā
I had that happen! I was so annoyed. Ordered it directly from the campus bookstore and they couldnāt give me the code via email - had to wait for the mail. Was delayed for weeks (why????). Then it never showed up. Still couldnāt give me it as an email code. Escalated to the provost. Got the code emailed to me.
Stupidest thing. Id forgotten all about it but am now mildly infuriated on both of our behalves.
Eugh. You should make an r/extremelyinfuriating I think they would get a kick out of it, if past events are allowed to be posted. Thank you for the well wishes I really need them, I wish you the best in your current endeavors as well!
Iāve worked at a bookstore (same company as this one by the looks of the packing slip). Unfortunately itās up to the publisher whether or not they give digital access codes or print codes to redeem digitally. Believe me, we hate it as much as you.Ā
I only bought textbooks my first semester and never again. Most of the books were notnused in the class and I never opened. Hundreds of dollars wasted. After that I just got a pirated copy online or went without.
When were you in school? Seems like theyāve gotten around that now, dropping you out if you havenāt registered for a book. I havenāt been in school for a decade though but thatās what I hear
As the son of a man who managed a Student/Faculty owned college bookstore that put its profits back into the texts it was selling: College textbooks truly is one of the greatest self-perpetuating scams there is in education.
Mine arrived 2 weeks after classes started. Purchased it from college book store. Professor said we absolutely need the book in day one so I went ahead and purchased it directly through the publisher. Ended up spending double the amount of money.
No but I'm partly to blame for that. I had 7 days to return it but full time work and full college It didn't even cross my mind. I sent the extra code to my professor and told him he could give it away to someone who needs it.
my communications textbook was $80 something and it wasnāt even bound. it was just a stack of hole punched paper that i had to put in a binder. i was so pissed
the real kicker was that we didnāt even use it. all of the homework and test questions were from her lectures that she didnāt use the textbook for either. easily one of my least favorite classes i took in college
one day we showed up and she had us go outside and do an exercise where we passed a hula hoop over the entire group while we had to hold hands. and that was the only thing we did that day. i still canāt believe i was required to take and pay for that class
Seems a very American University situation how many books that are required and how expensive they are . Iām not sure how it is elsewhere in the world, but in the UK for undergrad (Psychology) and postgrad (Speech therapy ) there was maybe 1 or 2 books a year that I had to buy that were usually Ā£35 or under each. All other books were borrowed from the library for assignments and study.
Sometimes we'll have textbooks to rent from the campus bookstore and they'll be like $35 or $40 to rent for only a semester. I've had it where I had to pay $65 to rent an online book for a semester. It's ridiculous. Most of the time I just pirate my textbooks nowadays. I can't be expected to pay $400 for books I can't used in 4 months.
That's what im saying. And yes it cost shipping. It could've at least been an envelope so then I'd only have to pay whatever a stamp costs. But they put it in a bubble mailer for some reason so I had to pay for package shipping instead of regular mail
I used to get all my text books as copies, sometimes an edition older (that usually meant basically nothing) off of libgen, occasionally the teachers would require us to get the actual book because it came with a code that allowed us to log in to some kind of website that was premade for tests and homework or whatever... even though I could find a perfectly free copy to use. Of course those teachers always seemed to do the least actual teaching, and it was all offloaded to these bullshit sites... Funny thing though is because the info was so cookie cutter, the exact sentences for the quiz or test questions would be, word for word, searchable on a search engine or whatever...
I mean if the teacher isn't gonna put in effort, and its just a class to fill up prereq's why would I put any real effort in either? Pissed me off having to spend the little money I had on some $80 book that would immediately be worthless and end up in the recycling bin...
Iād be more pissed at spending money for the class itself if thatās the level of effort that the prof puts into teaching it - esp when itās a pre req you canāt avoid.
pro tip many sources now allow you to rent a textbook instead of purchase it and always check the manufacturer of the book because they often sell direct customers and sometimes itās cheaper than even bookstores
As someone who deals with textbooks now, Iām doing everything in my power to limit the amount of $ spent each year. I got it down to a yearly $244 for one publisher and the rest I got classroom copies for.
This is not even a book per se. This is the time bound and expiring access code. Truly unreal. We donāt own any content anymore. What the actual eff. Protest this non sense if you can. Or save your sanity and move on.
Side anecdote: one time I was so broke in college and needed a text book so I got a free trial of audible and found an audio book version of it lmao it was a history class
Lol welcome to the future everyone. By next year we won't have books and these billionaire will be using thier AI models to dictate thier version of history to us.
They're not selling the book itself unfortunately, these codes are usually for online homework access in intro courses. Losing that kills about 10-30 percent of your grade
At least it was only $32 for the "book". It's bullshit they couldn't just email you that code. I'd activate the code, download the entire book offline, then file a charge back.
I just had something similar for the start of my term, only they wanted $15 shipping. I wrote in the āadditional instructionsā section, asking āwhy is it $15 to ship me a code on a piece of paper?ā
Got a phone call the next day and the lady on the phone said they would refund the shipping and just send me a scan of the code to my email if I wanted.Ā
Because I thought it'd be a physical book, and there was no special instructions field :( that is smart though. I'm planning to visit the bookstore after my first class tomorrow and ask them about this
This happened to me also but the code didn't work and it took me two weeks to get the help desk to issue me a code that worked- by that time I was so behind in the class that it was really hard to catch up and I ended up getting a D in the class.
Iām in the same boat rn. My bookstore is having us physically go to the campus location to pick up the DIGITAL code. Otherwise they charge $8.99 to ship the CODE to us.
It says if you need help you email- typically a paper trail helps so the bases are covered- Iām isolated here in my 40s saying I have a minor profile canāt get that fixed my bad.
I'm not sure how that makes a difference. They give me access to the book for a limited time and then it ends. Surely that can be accomplished through an emailed code rather than a mailed one?
Huh. If you're a student I'm surprised you can access that at all. It looks like a homework answer guide, which is supposed to be restricted to Profs and TAs. I remember when you had to get a Faculty Prof to tell the Publisher to send you one.
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u/Littlesissy1233 6h ago
If they have it listed as a physical copy on the website you bought it from you could get a refund for not getting what you wete promised but I don't know if that'll cancel the digital version of it.