Always read seller reviews

[dlundblad]

I made a huge mistake of not reading the seller reviews of a company that I bought a school book from. The company has 81% approval with a lot of complaints about wrong book shipped and or not responding to emails. The university book store wanted $160 for a book, which I found for $85 shipped. After a few days had passed without receiving a confirmation email, I emailed the seller last night and have gotten no response. I then retried the order number today and found out that it shipped... From Bangkok. Thankfully it is being shipped via FedEx. So far they have not wronged me, but not getting a confirmation and shipped email bothers me. It bothers me more when when they send me email offers for sales etc, but not my confirmation email.. which they did. The book was classified as an alternate version which means it has a different ISBN and cover page with same content as the US version. That doesn't bother me.. I just realized today that the description doesn't state whether or not it comes with a tutorial CD. This is my fault.. I should have looked into it a bit closer. The school book store offers these books used without the CD I am assuming and the CD isn't listed in the required materials list either. I can only hope that it either comes with the code or the code isn't needed. The instructor for the class is to be announced or I would have emailed them to see what was needed. Rant over. Lesson learned.

 

[OneEyeJack]

Is the book a pirated copy?

 

[99Saturn]

That's one of those black and white soft cover international editions or something else?

 

[NMBurb02]

Is it in English?

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted By: 99Saturn

That's one of those black and white soft cover international editions or something else?

Might be this. I haven't heard of companies doing this until I ordered it. I sure hope its in English. It being pirated doesn't bother me as long as I get a pirated CD too. I doubt it is. An online school book store is using them as a seller. * The description did say it was an international edition.

 

[99Saturn]

Originally Posted By: dlundblad

Originally Posted By: 99Saturn

That's one of those black and white soft cover international editions or something else?

Might be this. I haven't heard of companies doing this until I ordered it. I sure hope its in English. It being pirated doesn't bother me as long as I get a pirated CD too. I doubt it is. An online school book store is using them as a seller. * The description did say it was an international edition.

Not pirated and I believe technically fully legal still depending on how it is resold (like new, new opened). Cheaper paper, some images could be omitted due to royalties, etc. but the content is the same. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textbook#International_market_pricing It was a big thing for Taiwanese classmates that I had, they cost bringing them back in their suitcase was literally 1/6 of the new out the door price. good deal, except for resale in the future, though maybe that is not such an issue any more.

 

[dlundblad]

Found this which cleared up a lot. Link Resell value doesn't bother as much because it is for a degree specific course. I plan on keeping it for future reference anyways.

 

[NateDN10]

I did this a lot in college - the softcover international (usually SE Asia) versions of the books are still in English but much, much cheaper than the full US versions, which can often run over $100. I ordered them from Amazon sometimes or abebooks.

 

[Smcatub]

Yeah, the international editions are usually softcover or three-ring bound, sometimes black and white but with the same content as the US versions. I've bought more than a few and they've always been in English when I received them. And with all the classes I took that came with a code with the book, the code was for a homework website (ie 'Mastering Chemistry'). And you could always buy the codes separately. There's sellers on eBay and Amazon who will ship you a code, but e-mail it out beforehand so you can get in and do your work before the actual piece of paper with the code on it shows up in the mail.

 

[rjundi]

In college I used to go to engineering library and check out the course book for the semester. It worked with a few renewals

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: rjundi

In college I used to go to engineering library and check out the course book for the semester. It worked with a few renewals

Oh you were that guy...

 

[sicko]

Originally Posted By: 99Saturn

That's one of those black and white soft cover international editions or something else?

I got one of those once, it was good enough for a bit, but that's it. The paper was so painfully thin that you could almost read what was on the other side of the paper. But it saved me some money and fortunately we didn't need the book much for the class.

 

[dlundblad]

One of my other books I was able to get from Walmart and use the site to store option. They provided me with a order number and a tracking number once it shipped. It is being shipped down to Kentucky. What the heck!