BookRenter.com Inc.

BBB recently reviewed complaints on file for Bookrenter.com and identified the following concerns:

1. According to the consumers, they are receiving books that are deemed "good" so the consumers (students) use the book and return it in the same condition it was received, then are told upon returning the book that the book is not in satisfactory condition and the consumers will be charged.
2. Consumers also questioned why books that are advertised as having supplements, but are known by the company to not have supplements, are priced higher than those that are not supposed to have supplements.
3. Finally, consumers were concerned that they were receiving poor customer service.

Bookrenter.com satisfactorily addressed the above issues as follows:

1. Each book that is returned by a customer is graded based on the criteria of our 5 condition rating system. A ticket is created in our system by our receiving team for each unacceptable book to be viewed by a trained staff member to determine whether a damage fee should be charged or not. We investigate to see whether there were any previous tickets created by Customer Service that note whether the customer may have received the book in poor condition. We also investigate to see who supplied the book to see if the customer received the book in a previously 'used' condition or whether they received the book in 'new' condition. A customer will receive the benefit of the doubt in cases of minor damage when they received the book directly from a 'used' book supplier. We take into account the number of previous rental orders the book has had and determine whether the book may be 'unacceptable' due to normal wear and tear over the course of its life. A new process has recently been put in place at our receiving facility to have an experienced staff member review many of the 'acceptable' books (which is the lowest rated condition before it is unacceptable) to verify that the book truly is 'acceptable' before it is stocked and ready to be shipped out to a new customer.
2. Our pricing engine does not recognize (an) ISBN with the presence or absence of the supplement. The price is ultimately determined by supply and demand and our system treats the two ISBNs as different SKUs so when they have different demand patterns or supply costs the prices diverge. I understand why this would be confusing - and unfortunately due to the complexities of our systems, this is not easy to fix. We have tried many times in the past and it is a very large undertaking from a technical perspective. I realize this does not likely remove your concerns in this area - but please note, this is not by any means intentional and is 100% driven by our engine which prices and purchase both new and used ISBNs in real-time. When we buy used books we have no way to confirm the presence of the supplement which is why we mention this on the product detail page.
And please note - we most definitely do NOT price books higher that say they have supplements (as student's may perceive). Everything is driven off of the ISBN and whether or not we have that book currently in stock, or have to purchase it.
3. We have a world class customer service team. They are the hardest working, most dedicated group I have had the pleasure to work to with. As mentioned above, we overstressed this team during our peak season with technical issues that directly impacted customers. The customer service team was quickly overwhelmed, and the contingency plan we had in place was not sufficient enough to keep up with the volume. We have a manager available during all customer service hours (typically there are 2, and more like 3 or 4 on duty during peak periods). The customer who contacted BBB very likely called during the week when we were experiencing call spikes. Managers were available, they just weren't able to keep up with the escalating call volume. Since this time, our Director of Customer Service has developed a much more robust contingency arrangement in the event this ever happens again. But I would like to communicate that everyone in our building is well aware of what occurred and a great deal of our time is dedicated to ensuring it never happens again. Our customer's happiness is core to our business.

Type of Entity

Corporation

Incorporated: September 2009, DE

Business Management

Contact Information

Number of Employees

150

Business Category

Books - Textbooks New & Used

Service Area