RedShelf

I got this as a law student who prefers textbooks. I was disappointed that I had to use Redshelf with a westlaw ebook purchase. I'm writing this review because I can't access my book during class and it keeps freezing when I try to highlight. This is the worst ebook app I've ever used. It basically only lets you look at the text instead of utilizing the helpful augmenting tools that are the whole reason for using an e-casebook.

My ebook worked great the first half of the semester, but I lost access to it after that. Redshelf was no help, and despite numerous emails, I still don't have my book back. My grade has suffered as a result, and they aren't even helping me get a refund. Save yourself and your grades, get your book somewhere else.

Stay away from Redshelf, incompetent company full of gross negligence. Their product I paid for cant be used in my medical class. If we operated in our medical profession like Redshelf, we be sued for gross neglance. Redshelf made my classes much harder and they have zero customer service or help. Stay away use your money wisely.

It's just a convenient place for students.
And I guess not only for them, because you simply insert the book's title or some keywords and it offers you a very broad range of books and you will definitely find osmething you are looking for.
Other than that, as I am fond of audiobooks, this service comes in handy in this regard too. You can have your text voiced aloud after selcting needed pieces. So, no troubles in understanding what they are doing whatsoever! Props!

Not sure what these negative reviews are about. I read all my books on RedShelf and I love it. The books are less expensive and have built-in tools like flashcards and definitions. They also just came out with an app so you can download your books to read offline.

I was trying to purchase my ebook with a U. S Credit card but being physically in Canada. Reached out that evening to submit a request. Mentioned it was time sensitive. I got an e-mall back from "Marshall". IMMEDIATELY. He removed the conditions and I purchased my book within minutes. This is hands down quickest and one of the best customer service experience I had. Plus, we joked back n forth and seem like a stand up gentlemen. Give him a RAISE and Promotion STAT.

I spent almost as much as I would have spent on a print edition (~$200), but with this: 1) I can't copy text; 2) I can't download chapters; 3) I can't view the content offline without downloading some app that I couldn't get to work anyway.

Hey guys - I paid you $200 for a book. Why do I have to continually log in to see it? Why can't I save it to my hard drive so I can access it offline?

RedShelf is a nickel/dime operation - I expect better from an academic-oriented organization. At least a print book I could have re-sold. I won't give these people another penny.

Great customer service from Angel Ruffin in my order #*******. The ebook wasn't showinf up, but I was able to retrieve it.

This garbage company seems only set on making as much money as possible from college students, which isn't something too crazy to think on. Textbooks in general are massively inflated in prices anyways. For reference, I am INDEED a college student currently getting two degrees.

But here's the main issues:
1. These morons couldn't even manage to create an actually useful manner to browse 'online' textbooks with their trash proprietary viewer. The search function takes forever to actually search, and can't even combine words to search for phrases, so enjoy getting 50 mentions of a common word in your phrase like 'the'.

2. They only allow copy-pasting up to a certain percentage of the book, which isn't necessarily an issue but is stupid since you HAVE to copy/paste in their own proprietary(stupid) way. I myself found a way around this garbage, so search for yourself how to circumvent this if you're forced to use this trash.

3. You CAN'T ACCESS THIS $#*! OFFLINE. (At least, in a way that isn't needlessly restrictive.)

These people behind this company are easily one of the main reasons why people move to pirate textbooks, beyond physical textbook prices. Search for your.pdfs before you decide to give these scam-artists your money, please. They certainly don't deserve profits for such lazy implementation, one couldn't imagine it's too difficult to copy-paste a textbook.pdf from the publisher(LMAO).

Redshelf seems to have decided to unnecessarily complexify the smooth experience that reading on a PDF offers. To go from page to page, you need to click on a small right/left arrow at the bottom of your screen instead of just scrolling down. The browsing bar is horizontal which makes scrolling using a regular mouse impossible. I bought a book for academical purposes and I had to forget using it during an exam as the browsing is painful and extremely slow. I have to mention that I am working on a computer and that the experience is probably better on a kindle style device. The book I bought only allows printing 10% of the total content to a PDF which is basically useless.The experience was overall nothing less than frustrating.

Thank you for helping out, it was so fast that I didn't need to stress out much. I emailed midnight and slept and woke up with my problem solved.

A next to useless web application. Note taking, highlighting, flashcards, search, and downloading for offline are all non-functional features. Top that all off with unnecessarily long loads times to turn a page of text, and you've got yourself a properly miserable reading experience. A big pdf document is infinitely more useful. Red Shelf is merely an effective way to implement a pay wall to texts.

I love having access to online books. As a part-time student who works full-time, RedShelf makes studying easier and more convenient. Being able to use the books offline is also a great perk.

I only have one frustration that keeps popping up... being able to clear my offline sessions when a previous offline session has become disconnected. To be more specific, I will download an offline session to use. Before I can clear it, the bookmarked link stops talking to the offline cached version. However, the Redshelf website doesn't know I can no longer access the cached version, I am blocked from starting another offline session, and the "clear your offline session" link disappears. After the error appeared, I cleared the cache on every electronic device I own, and it still doesn't solve the problem.

Is it possible to make the "clear your offline session" link not disappear regardless of whether or not the website thinks I have an offline session cached to my computer? Or, as an alternative, could there be an option under "My account" to clear all secondary devices or sessions attached to the account? I'm thinking about how Amazon allows you to disconnect devices under their "Device Management" page.

Those suggestions would allow me as a user to solve a pretty easy problem without being tied to the help desk schedule. Thank you!

When you are buying your textbook you are presented with the Orwellian options where you have to choose whether or not you want to be able to copy text from the book. I am just trying to work on a project and copy text to be able to properly cite something and of course you are blocked from copying it, why would you want your pdf to be functional or anything anyway? These textbook companies are all leeches

It stores a temporary file in cache in ONE device so if you need it elsewhere you must first delete that copy which wipes ALL books from cache. It's a ridiculous setup. You cant easily go from laptop to phone, etc. and forget it if your first device is elsewhere and you can't erase it to add it to the new device. The need to allow REAL download of books you bought and own. Not on cache where you can easily wipe it out and all your other 15 books from this semester. For professional careers (law, medicine, engineering, etc.) where you study for years to take a state board you need easily 50 books to review and this place just doesn't allow for that access. Big disappointment.

My entire Anatomy textbook was blurry as if they took a screenshot of every page and sent it through so many forms (. Png, pdf, etc.) until it got blurry. I could not read a single word and could not: copy or paste, no highlighting, couldn't download the textbook, you could barely zoom in. I requested a refund, I guess you do get what you pay for. The only reason I made the purchase was because it's the only E-book version of this Textbook that I could find and I didn't want a hardcover. Not worth it, I don't know why they have good reviews, am I the only one this has happened to?

Redshelf is renting a textbook for double the price that Amazon is renting the same book. I asked them if they would be willing to price match or refund me the difference and was denied that courtesy. Despite bad company policy, the customer service was quick to respond and professional.

RedShelf is absolutely dog water. It is horrendous. I don't like it all. It makes you enable all cookies and tries to steal your private information.

I have been submitting help requests for 3 weeks, but each time they just make it solved without even trying to reach me.

I cannot download ANY ebooks at all on any device. When I try to, it says "Publisher only allows 1 copy downloaded, please delete it from iPad." But it's not even downloaded on my iPad (that's where I'm trying to download it) so I can't delete it from there. So I can't download it on any device.

Only got 1 reply from them ever asking a question I had already explained in the original ticket, I replied right away, and they've ignored me ever since (2 weeks ago).

They are quick to respond, have excellent customer service, and are so friendly and professional! I really appreciate the help and will definitely be using them again.

I reached out about an issue with the app in October 2021. As a student, obviously, a prompt response is needed to address a current problem. I got a response weeks later. The response was defensive and not helpful for the issue that still existed. I am not a fan of ebooks anyway but -for this course. It was the most cost-efficient option. NOTE: The search feature does not highlight each parameter found by page number, so you never know where the search item is without going through the entire list. NOT HELPFUL.

It's awful to navigate. It was so hard to get to the next chapter, add a highlight, bookmark, look up words and just load the page. It's almost completely unusable. Would not recommend.

Picture this, broke college student, $100 book, buys it, THE BOOK NEVER OPENS UP. Only errors. Fails course. Really simple story.