TextbookRush.com

The customer used our USPS pre-Paid label to ship the books to us. Contrary to the customer’s statement, we do not have anything to do with the scans that are updated on the USPS website.  When a package is arrived, we scan it and send the customer an email, but nothing we do can impact the...

status of the USPS Tracking Website.  The USPS website currently states that the item is in transit to us – but not delivered to us.  Based on the length of time that the status has not changed, we’d assume that the package was lost in transit by the USPS: https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction.action?tLabels=[redacted] Date & Time Status of Item Location August 20, 2017, 9:41 am In Transit to Destination On its way to COLUMBUS,OH43218   The short response: We cannot process any Buybacks that we do not receive, and we have not yet received this one. Because we do have so many issues with the USPS, we provide directions online for customers who select the USPS over FedEx to purchase their own insurance on the shipment.  If the customer heeded this advice, we would refer them to the USPS as this time. The longer/more detailed response: We offer USPS shipping due to its convenience, but it is not our default shipping method and it is provided with a variety of instructions and warnings online because of the significant number of issues we have seen in the past.  These include the examples below: ·        This cautionary text is shown onscreen next to the button they have to “click”  to generate a USPS label:  “Convenient, but not insured or trackable. Your postal carrier can conveniently pick up your package from your home.” ·        Additional information about it is available if they select the “?” icon: “We issue a prepaid FedEx shipping label by default when you submit your buyback. The FedEx label will include insurance up to $100 per package. If a FedEx shipping label cannot be issued you will be issued a USPS shipping label. Insurance is not provided with the regular USPS shipping label. TextbookRush is not responsible for lost or damaged items, and you will not be paid for items we do not receive.” ·        Further information is provided on our Buyback FAQ page under the “Shipping” tab: http://www.textbookrush.com/help/faq/buyback-faq.aspx. “What is the advantage of using FedEx over USPS Ground?  FedEx guarantees delivery in 1-5 business days. Each order shipped via FedEx is automatically insured up to $100.00 per package.  USPS Ground usually takes 4-14 business days to arrive. We strongly suggest you purchase insurance when shipping your buyback to us via USPS Ground; however, optional insurance for USPS Ground packages is not an expense TextbookRush covers. TextbookRush is not responsible for packages lost or damaged in transit.” We pay for the shipping costs for books sent to us, and FedEx is usually more expensive than the USPS. We gladly offer the more expensive option as our default because we have so many fewer issues with FedEx. As is our stated policy, we have only paid the customer for the item we received. We would recommend that they contact the USPS about the insurance we recommended they purchase.

I reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find the resolution is satisfactory to me. Without your intervention, I may never have actually received my book back. Your pressure has facilitated the timely shipping of the item which was mysteriously delayed. Again, thank for your assistance.

We appreciate the consumer’s thoughtful and passionate response to this issue. We’ll address their concerns as best as we can. Our reputation is paramount to us. We do have a dozens of Revdex.com Complaints and Reviews, but this is out of tens millions of orders and millions of Buybacks, representing a tiny fraction of our customer transactions. While we are proud of this record, we understand that consumers do not see the entirety of our Customer Service record – just the complaints and reviews. Because of this, we take every complaint and review seriously, and try to respond with as much detail as possible. In this case, we have a conundrum. We have no proof - and have made no assertion - that the consumer is engaged in fraudulent activity. We have only stated that there are some points in our records where their account and transaction information matches account and transaction information of an account that we have closed for questionable activity. We want to publicly state that these data points are likely inconsequential, and have no bearing on the consumer. Our review was made more difficult because the consumer is using a different email address on the Revdex.com Complaint than he uses with us, but he has verified transaction numbers for us to feel confident in our conclusion. We have acted “out of an abundance of caution” by closing the customer’s account, and are not implying anything beyond that. Our Buyback FAQ (http://www.textbookrush.com/help/faq/buyback-faq.aspx) includes these phrases: “Selling under multiple accounts is not permitted.” “One account per household.” This is basis of the account closure. However, our conundrum is that we cannot provide one customer with any Personally Identifiable Information for another customer/account, so we are unable to explain this further. Our Privacy Policy restricts us from doing so, and is outlined on our website here: http://www.textbookrush.com/help/policies/privacy.aspx Additionally, we do not believe that the consumer is in any risk of being a victim of fraudulent activity in relationship to this issue, but we do suggest that he - like all consumers - remain vigilant in maintaining their cyber security and privacy. We will likewise remain vigilant about our business security, which is why we decline to respond in a public forum to his question on how someone would commit fraudulent activity against a Buyback Company such as ourselves. We believe that is it against our best interest to provide those details. To summarize, we have simply chosen to end a business relationship with the consumer, and wish him well.  While we regret any frustration they have felt in response to this, we have done so as an industry-standard/best-practice action that we would do again in the same circumstances.

The customer created the Buyback on our Website on August 9th (it was still August 8th in the Pacific Time Zone, though).   While the customer states he shipped the package that week, the FedEx Tracking does not show that it was accepted by FedEx until nearly a month later, September...

6th.  By the time the package arrived to us, the quote had expired, and the price of the books had dropped. The customer was provided messaging online during the transaction about how to ship the item, and the timelines for the quote to remain valid. Additionally, when our system checked the tracking number and found that there was no record of the package being in transit, we sent an email to the customer on 8/19 that included this text: So far, our records indicate that your order #[redacted] has not yet been received in our warehouse. ·        Please remember, all packages must be shipped within 5 business days. ·        If you're running late, please be sure to send it within the next couple of days and your quotes will remain valid. The email also included a link to the pre-paid label to use for shipping the item. However, as stated above, the package was not registered as being received by FedEx until September 6th.  By the time the package arrived to us on September 12th, the quote had expired and the books were purchased at the current price as of that day, and were immediately made available for sale to other consumers.  The check was issued the next business day, September 13th.  We regret that the items were not shipped in a timely manner, but we were not at fault for the delay.

We are sorry for the frustration with this order, but there are some important details that the consumer has not addressed that will clarify the issues involved. The customer seems to be very confused with her order, the delivery/tracking, and her communication with us:...

·        The book was not purchased from us, but from a Marketplace Seller who lists their inventory on our site.  Our Marketplace Sellers do not provide a “guaranteed date” for delivery, but a date range. Additionally, We do not offer a “2 Day” delivery for Marketplace orders. Marketplace Sellers do have 48 hours to ship an item, and it is possible the consumer is confusing “shipped” with “delivered”. ·        While she complains that we only provide email support, she did use our online Chat to contact us on 11/2/2017, and had this comment: “I gave the tracking # twice above but will give it a third time this message, not counting the 5 I have previously documented and sent [redacted]).” ·        The order number above is an Amazon order number, but not an Amazon order we processed. She was asking us about an order with a different company – not TextbookRush or one of our Marketplace Sellers. ·        “not ONE TIME HAVE MY MESSAGES BEEN RETURNED BY YOU "CUSTOMER CARE" (11/2/2017). We have copies of multiple correspondences from us to the customer and the marketplace seller starting on September 7th, 2017.  The customer is simply not accurate in this comment. ·        The customer contacted us by email on 9/6/2017 at 3:36:33 PM. We replied to her, and copied the marketplace seller on 9/6/2017 at 4:15:57 PM – less than 45 minutes later. We have a series of emails that followed this pattern of a prompt response.  Despite this, the consumer has stated we never replied to her. ·        We have had two Live Chat sessions with the consumer, which shows we have an alternate method of communication other than email, and that the consumer has used it. We do not know why they have stated we do not. ·        The customer states they had to drop their class “two weeks in” because of the late delivery.  To reiterate, the item was ordered on the 1st, and delivered on the 8th. We are not aware of how this caused a “two week” delay for the consumer. The book was delivered during the timeframe provided. ·        In her emails to us, the customer references dates and time-periods that we do not understand: o   “they were delivered weeks past YOUR DELIVERY DATE”. o   “The money given to you for this book needs to be returned as it was supposed to be shipped in a timely manner.” o   The data shows that the package was delivered on September 8th – which is the last day of the delivery timeframe. The package was not delivered late.  The delivery can be viewed on the USPS Website here: https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction?tLabels=94[redacted]54.  The customer was notified of this as early as September 12, 2017.    However, the core issue is that the consumer has not been refunded.  This is because the Marketplace Seller has not yet received the book as a return.  The Marketplace Seller provided return instructions, including a ship-to address for the return, on September 11, 2017. The Marketplace seller stated: 1. To begin your return, simply submit a return request through your textbookrush.com account.  2. All returns must be mailed to our return center, located at:  Return center  P.O. Box 803600 Dallas, Texas 75380   3. We will issue you a refund upon receipt of your returned item.  Please feel free to contact me if I can be of any further assistance.    We do not see any record of the return request being created. Additionally, the customer states that they returned the book back to the same address it was shipped from, and not the return address provided: “When the book did finally come in I took it down to our local post office and shipped it back to the return address on the shipping label and this was also paid for out of our own pockets since there is no way of contacting anyone at this company except through email which is not convenient at all in this day and age since we then have to wait until your staff decides to email back.” We have asked the customer for the tracking number for their return multiple times, but from what I can see, we have not been provided a legitimate tracking number for the return shipment of this order: “I gave the tracking # twice above but will give it a third time this message, not counting the 5 I have previously documented and sent [redacted] (114-4###-###-####853).”  (This was not an order number for an order from us, but rather an Amazon order number). In the chat on November 2nd, we asked the customer for the tracking number three different times, but were provided with: “I sent the order number I have”  (which was an order number, not a tracking number, and not an order with our company). “Your company billed my account!!! You do the research” “I'm not sure she does shes not answering” Without a valid tracking number showing the delivery of the return to the Marketplace seller, we have nothing to verify that the order was returned. The customer will be refunded by the marketplace seller when and if the item is returned to them. Until then, there is nothing further we can do to assist the customer unless they can provide a valid tracking number for this return.  From the review completed today, it appears that neither the Marketplace Seller nor TextbookRush has made an error in the processing of this order.   However, it does appear that the problem lies with the customer's failure to follow the return instructions and get a valid tracking number.

After a detailed inspection, we were unable to confirm that this item was a Publisher-authorized copy of the text. Because of this, we were unwilling to buy it.  We have the right to refuse the purchase of any item, and exercised that right in this instance.

We appreciate the customer telling us that they used our online email portal. That requires the customer to enter their first and last name and order number when they contact us. We have no record of any communication from that system with anyone using the last name of the consumer. Our first communication from the customer was sent from the customer's Comcast email account on January 9th.  The customer was provided this reply to her email:Please email us on 2nd February 2018, if you do not receive your check within 45 days from the original date of issue and include your current address (or PayPal email ID) so we can send a new check. A new check can not be issued until 45 days have passed, as all checks are marked "Void after 45 days" and cannot be cashed after that point. Payments cannot be reissued if more than 90 days have passed since the order was submitted. We'll be happy to reissue the check once it is voided at 45 days.

Typical response. There is no reason for a package to take over 14 days. You get reimbursed for the shipping cost. You also closed my account with textbookrush for no reason. If you were guilty of a scam you wouldn't have closed my account.

I asked for my books back prior to payment being processed.  They should have been sent back

The consumer's item was not damaged, but was
a different
edition of the text than what he quoted usWe can see how the email that was
sent could be confusingThe message was under a header of "Damaged Titles",
but the message itself was "item received has no value and cannot be
purchased."
The consumer quoted us a US Student Edition of the text, but
we received the "Special Indian Edition" of the same textbookThat is not an item
we are purchasing, which is what was reflected in the messageWe will return
the item to the customer as a courtesy

We contacted our Accounting Team who have confirmed what we have told the customer. They have this specific information: The credit shows as being Approved and Settled to card ending [redacted] on 6/16/17. We again refer the customer to her bank to confirm the last 4 digits of the credit card...

number and the seek information from them on why the refund hasn't been applied to their account.

Our business model
is designed for individual students who
sell their used textbooks to us at the end of their termThe "consumer" in
this complaint is a bookseller who was selling us quantities of
individual books that exceeded our systemic limitsThe consumer has been
notified of our policies on multiple occasions in the recent past, and was
given specific instructions on how we would allow him to participate in our
Book Buyback program even though he was not our target marketHowever, the
consumer has stated that they did not feel the need to follow our posted policies
or instructions emailed to him specifically:
From the consumer's latest email (5/14/2015)
"Here's the deal - you can not apply quantity limits
collectively"
"If you disagree and deny my sellbacks as described I'm
happy to escalate this issue."
"Do not apply quantity limits on a multiple site basis or
I will escalate this issue."
The consumer also admitted to creating a software program to
create bogus Buyback transactions on our sites The bogus transactions can impact the prices
to be paid to legitimate consumers, dropping the value of their books
"I am a computer programmer and created those other accounts
to test an application I am building that aggregates textbook sellbacks quotes."
(From a different email on 5/14/2015)
We, like any business, reserve the right to choose who we
can and will do business with, and we have decided that is in our best
interest, and the interest of our consumers, to no longer engage in any
business activities with this consumer.

I did ask for resolve as I stated I’d at least like the amount insured refunded? I’m confused as to the communication I was sent, why was this entered as information only and not a complaint?

We have made the fair offer of store credit. We regret that the consumer has chosen to reject this offer, but it is the only accommodation we will make.

I was told by Textbookrush.com that they will not refund my access code. I am aware that I purchased an access code, that is not the issue. The issue is that the access code they sold me does not gain me access to the book. The publisher (McGraw Hill) hasn't carried this book (Connect Core Concepts in Health 13th edition) in years, and this access code is useless. I paid for access to this book, and the access code they sent me does not give me access to this book. In addition, the people at Textbookrush.com informed me that they would not refund my money, because I opened the access code. Two different individuals working for Textbookrush.com informed me that they, in fact, will not refund my money, and that one of them told me "you got what you paid for". I did not get what I paid for, because I paid for access to the book. I would appreciate it if someone from Textbookrush.com would email me and guarantee a refund.

If we purchase a replacement book it will be a brand new copy from the Publisher, but we do not require a brand new textbook from the customer.  They can search for a used “Good” condition book (no stains, no water damage, no obscured text, not missing any pages, etc)., or even ask a classmate who was in the same class for their text.  If the customer can replace the book within 2 weeks, we can issue a refund of the purchase price minus a $9.99 late fee.  Regarding the USPS, we do provide instructions online that the USPS is not insured, and that we prefer FedEx as the default carrier (which also includes $100 of insurance per package).

You DID NOT solve or even TRY to solve the issue you created. Your policy and customer service are unethical and immoral, and you KNOW IT! Shame on you for taking advantage of college students who are trying to better themselves by already shelling out 50K for a degree and trying to get some money back from books just to help pay BILLS! Buddy, you are truly only harming your own reputation by the choices you've made. Please burn in hell and don't look back!STAY FAR FAR AWAY FROM THESE SCAMMERS PLEASE!!!

We’ll try to address each facet of the complaint in full. The customer was shown the “Buyout” price (the amount that would be charged in total for the book) during the checkout process.  It was shown prior to their accepting our Rental Terms and Conditions, which she did when she placed the order.  The price is dynamic based on the publisher’s list price. It can actually drop during our rental period if the list prices of the books change.  However, we do not raise the price of the “Buyout” if the list price increases. We would only lower it. The $1 amount is a pre-authorization to make sure that the credit card is valid. It is not a charge nor an attempted charge. The consumer can ask their bank for more information on the $1 pre-authorizations, but it was not an attempt to collect funds. The customer states that they returned a book to us for a refund in May. We never received it, and we never issued the customer a refund. There was no inquiry to us at that time. The customer did not contact us again until the order was marked as Past Due, and emails were sent about the Buyout Charge. The customer states: “I printed YOUR return label, doesn't it have its own tracking number” The issue is that the customer returned this item for a refund – not as a rental return. We do not provide a pre-paid rental for a “return for a refund” order, and as such, it would not have any postage or a tracking number. We provide an address label only – a label that has our address, their return authorization number, and a bar code. The bar code would have been scanned as soon as it was received, and we have no record of that happening. If the customer did ship the item without adding their own shipping payment/method, the box might have been returned to them as “Postage-Due”, and we would have no record of it. We did not address the consumer’s communication with the Postmaster General of the United States Postal Service as we were unsure of whom she was referring to.  The customer stated: “I just spoke with the post master general and he said the government changed the system and they can no longer get any tracking numbers. He said his best advice is to tell you that the book was mailed on May 16th from New York and it should have arrived in Ohio on may 18th. The post master general told me to tell you to look at every single book that was received on the 18th.” Our confusion is that the Postmaster General of the United States Postal Service – from our experience – does not get involved in individual shipment issues, and that post is currently held by a female. The customer refers to her conversation with a “he”.  Regardless, we have thousands of books coming in and out of our facility daily, and many books have a high turnover rate. We cannot shut down our warehouse operations to look for single book that we have no record of being returned. We’ve been willing to assist the customer despite the threats against our company: “I will also spread the word far and wide about the incompetence of your company to everyone I know, not only am I a law student with hindered of classmates, but I am also a professor at a college with 20,000 students, I will spread the word very quickly as to the despicable, incompetent, disorganized, thieving company this is.” We are proud of our record of Customer Satisfaction and fairness over the years. While we do have hundreds of complaints about books that we have not received or we received damaged, that is out of tens of millions of orders.  A fraction of a percent of our customers have issues such as she is describing, and if it turns out to be our fault, we make it right.  This is why we have simply asked the consumer to provide us with the email she referred to just two weeks ago (8-14-2017). With that - or any other confirmation that we received the book - we’ll apologize for this undue frustration and close out the rental without any further delay.  We’ll even issue a refund for the original order price, as that would also be due to the consumer. However, we would just need some bit of evidence that the book was returned as stated.

We apologize for the delay and frustration that is has caused. When the customer's Buyback was processed (a couple of weeks ago), the final step of moving the Buyback into a "processed" status in our system was not done. This caused the payment to be in limbo.  I have made the change today, and...

the payment should be issued overnight.We apologize for that delay by our Operations Staff, and the error by our Customer Service team member who did not identify the problem when we were contacted.  That will be addressed internally.This was our error, and we again apologize for the frustration it has caused.

the solutions textbookrush has offered are unreasonable. First of all, to get a “copy”of the text I would have to purchase a second one to send to you. Sure I would get your refund, but would simply be paying for a second book. Secondly; I have already gone through the process of contacting the USPS who has said they will do everything they can to confirm whether or not it was an error on their part. But, if they cannot find anything than I am still left wondering how a thoroughly taped package can “lose a book” from inside while being shipped. Why is it that the USPS shipping labels you provide cannot be marked as priority shipping so that things like this can be avoided? You have a customer who chose your business because he needed a cheaper way to acquire college textbooks, and instead he is paying 5 times what he initially prepared to spend because of a “shipping error.” I understand you as a company have to make money and I understand that risks are involved, but you have to look at the population of customers you are selling to and should be trying to protect them. You yourself noted that USPS is convenient which is why you provide it as an option, and therefore I would think you would find a way to protect your customers that use them.