Thomas R.

I tried selling my textbooks to BookByte for the first time. This is what I wrote in my complaint to the FTC:

BookByte is a website that both sells and buys textbooks. I used their site to verify the value of 5 textbooks I wanted to sell. My total of quoted prices was supposed to be $107.25. I mailed my books within their delivery window and the condition of the books were good. I got a PayPal payment of $70 from Bookbyte. They no longer provide customer service over the phone, so I had to e-mail them asking why I did not get my full value,

The person I was speaking to over e-mail is Rachel S., their Customer Service Lead. She said one of my textbooks, "Multinational Business Finance" is a *teacher's edition* and they cannot buy back this book. Disappointed, I asked for them to send that book back. She said it's their policy not to do that. I had no indication that my textbooks is a teacher's edition, nor can they prove it to me other than their word and that "they inspected it twice". I can sell that textbook to a few other providers, and they are taking it for free. We've exchanged several e-mails and I told them they're blatantly ripping me off and that I would file a complaint with the FTC. After several e-mails where Rachel implies it's my fault for not reading their policies thoroughly enough, her recent e-mail notified me she had a *supervisor* look over my case and they would give me a 50% value of the book as a *courtesy*. I don't know about their business as a seller of textbooks, but as a buyer, it's a slippery slope of dishonesty. Going back to my e-mail confirmation, they word my buyback as "quoted prices" which Rachel referred to as not the exact value they had to pay, which is subject to change. And the fact that they're keeping my property without giving me cash they told me I would be given once the books arrive is THEFT.

I still have the original e-mail invoice of this textbook to prove my ownership. And not only did attempt to get away with keeping my book because of their company policy (which any company can establish and edit whenever they please) and not at all make an exception to give my book back (not even suggesting I pay them a delivery charge), but attempted to give me only HALF of what they promised to give me AS A COURTESY. They would argue those prices are subject to change and that I would be okay with that risk if I decide to do business with them--my takeaway. That's not a service, that's a bait-and-switch. They either need to start operating honestly or not at all.

If I bought a book from them and I decided their copy (which I've never seen before until I get it) does not meet my standard, would it be fair for me to pay you the value I THINK it's worth by asking my credit company to cancel the charge and pay a fraction? No, that's not fair, right? Well, that's the kind of business Bookbyte is pulling.

Did Bookbyte not pay you the value of your books and just kept it without even the option of returning it to you? File a complaint using the Complaint Assistant on the Federal Trade Commission web site. If there are enough complaints, justice will be served.

Bookbyte--I hope the $42 was worth it.