Cheap College Textbooks

Renting Cheap College Textbooks

Online- A Review of Campus Book

Rentals

If you are exploring different options for finding cheap college textbooks, and are considering renting your textbooks, you may have come across CampusBookRentals.com.

This article covers a few of the points to consider about renting college textbooks, and possibly getting your books from Campus Book Rentals.

What they provide is simple enough. Instead of buying your textbooks, say for top dollar from the college book store, or online at Amazon and spending hours searching, you can rent your exact textbooks from Campus Book Rentals for the specific length of time you’re going to need them.

We’ll take a look at some of the problems about acquiring college textbooks in general. They are expensive, yes, but further than that:

• After years in school, you collect very heavy boxes of textbooks that you may never have to look at again (as most things in life, it will probably boil down to 2-3 books that are your go-to reference books.)
• They may be stolen.
• You have to take the time to acquire them.
• You end up in long lines at the college bookstore.
• When you’re done with your classes, if you don’t want the books, you have to spend time selling them.
• If you drop a class, you still have the book.
• It can be very stressful getting all of your books in time for your classes.
• Your teacher can always decide to change textbooks in mid-class.

Without a doubt, dealing with the books can be a hassle.

Campus Book Rentals started up in 2007. They are based in Ogden, Utah.

Campus Book Rental – Superhero/Date from Vaughn Armstrong on Vimeo.

Not exactly old-timers, but they are pioneers in the field of renting cheap college textbooks, and been successful long enough to sort out the bugs in their business. They started out with a solid business concept, and judging from their feedback, they’ve done a good job in developing and executing their business model.

Following are some of the key points in their operation.

1. They cover all shipping costs; for you to receive your books, and to return them. This is a pretty big deal, the cost of shipping a lot of heavy textbooks has to add up, as the whole idea of renting your books is to save money, it’s smart of them to cover this.
2. When you open a free account with them, you have access to live help to answer your questions. This is actually an important point as well. Dealing with a company via email, that takes a day or two to respond, will tremendously increase the stress level when you’re under the gun to get your books before classes start. Being able to give fast answer, and you being able to get fast answers, is key to survival in any business.
3. You get a 30 day money-back guarantee. You may decide to drop a class, or you may in fact want to try a different textbook. In either case you’ve got 30 days to make up your mind. Here’s another important factor they’ve implemented. They have no doubt been listening to their customers, this one right here is probably what keeps their long-term customers coming back.
4. They have a number of rental periods, to accommodate different student schedules. Your choices include for a quarter, a semester, or for a summer period. Here again is a smart policy, as they are accommodating students with standard schedules, post-graduate studies, or accelerated program classes.
5. They have a grace period, after the rental term ends, of 15 days. This again is obviously a response to customer feedback, and is a smart policy. The reality of college life encompasses make-up exams. Your key classes may be what you focus on with a tough major, but then you don’t pass one of the less-important exams. And so you arrange a make-up exam, in order to keep your GPA up. It can make the difference having those particular books on hand an extra couple of weeks.
6. on top of this they have 15 & 30 day rental extensions, and for any classes you take over completely a 30% discount on renting the book again. Here again are real-life student demands they are providing for. By doing so they are giving value to their long standing customers, at the expense of an extra quick buck.
7. They offer rental insurance. The cost for their insurance by all accounts is nominal. Purchasing insurance is always something to consider only on a case by case basis. At times it is, and at times it isn’t worth the cost (think of consumer electronics extended warrantees, for something that should last anyways.) With the rising costs of college textbooks, the black market for these books has exploded; in this case it does make sense.
8. You can return a book with highlighting and written notes added, without worrying about them nit-picking. Here again, a smart policy based on a realistic appraisal of the realities of college life. Don’t send back a textbook with doodles from a bored day in class (use your notebook), but this does recognize that it’s always good to get a used textbook that already has some of the highlighting and note-taking already done.
9. If you do decide to keep the textbook when you’re done with that class, you do have the option paying the difference to buy the book.
10. Finally, if you have any college textbooks you want to sell, you are able to do so through Campus Book Rentals.

This has covered the main points of business of Campus Book Rentals.

It’s pretty easy to spot a company that was founded and operates from a strong philosophical background. As a strictly financial operation, they tend to think in terms of long-term customer retention, than in short-term profit.

Often times they have a philanthropically mindset. That is the case with Campus Book Rentals. As they’ve grown, they have donated more and more to charitable contributions. Among the organizations they’ve donated to has been the “One Laptop Per Child Foundation”, as well as elementary schools in poorer neighborhoods, to which they’ve donated educational supplies, sports equipment and, big point here, their own time.

All in all, their customer feedback shows a strong sense of exchange and providing value. Campus Book Sales should be at the top of your list of options for finding cheap college textbooks.

Interested in renting college textbooks? Simply follow this link: Cheap College Textbooks for Rent