Vitalsource.co

On 5 May 2021, I rented an ebook entitled Biology by Lisa Urry for 90 days from Alibris. After I paid, I received an email link from Alibris, pointing me to VitalSource. I had to create a new account on VitalSource Bookshelf website to access my rented ebook. Fine. I did exactly as I was told. After I successfully logged into the VitalSource Bookshelf website, I could not read the ebook. Never mind, let's try downloading the VitalSource Bookshelf reader app onto my laptop to read the ebook offline, still no luck. Then I clicked on the Launch Courseware button in the VitalSource Bookshelf website. My browser took me to the StudyEdge Facebook page and made me answer 10 biology questions (university level questions which to me are quite difficult) to win some games. To me, this is so fishy. Immediately, I contacted the VitalSource support team and the customer service officer said I can only read the ebook on the StudyEdge website because the publisher is StudyEdge. Fine. I went to the StudyEdge website and there is a ZOOM room that provides help. When I tried to join the StudyEdge ZOOM room, no one was manning it. I could not even join the ZOOM room in the first place. When I emailed StudyEdge, they pointed me back to VitalSource. StudyEdge claimed that they are not a book publisher! Until now, 24 hours after I paid for the rental of the ebook, I did not even get to see the content page of the book. There are obviously some issues with the tie up between VitalSource and StudyEdge. I have just opened a resolution request with Paypal to get a full refund from Alibris, who insisted that my ebook is already "opened" and not eligible for a single cent of refund. VitalSource is telling me my ebook is rented from Alibris and not from VitalSource so VitalSource is not responsible for the refund. This is so messy!