So, every semester I would check our college online bookstore and get the ISBN for our books that semester and search www.chambal.com to see if I could find the book cheaper.

So, nothing different this semester...checked online and the ISBN's weren't listed. So, I called the bookstore and asked them for the ISBN and they said they couldn't give them out anymore...that they had been told by the college that they couldn't do that. WHAT???? :angryfire I asked her why...she didn't really give me a straight answer (and I couldn't really understand her and didn't want to sit there and try to figure it out).

But I know why!!! They want you to order from them and not get it cheaper online! Now, the only way I can get the ISBN to be certain I get the absolute correct book is by going into the bookstore at the college and getting it that way (which is not convenient for me at all with a full-time job and a baby).

AND...I am taking an online course this summer and she said I HAD to get my book from them because now they have some kind of web code with the books...come on - as if everyting else isn't expensive enough...now your going to try to force the students to buy books from you that I could have gotten for 1/2 the price online? Whatever!!! Just a little frustrated...thanks for letting me vent! :smackingf

My bookstore did the same thing. Dirty rotten, greedy vermin. I think the school ought to forbid them from doing it. Of course the school will not. They are getting a cut of the bookstore's profit.

I had to drive down to the bookstore, peel the labels off the ISBN (with no employees seeing me) and quickly write them down. Then I'd go home and get my books off of half.com.

I have always bought my books online but I just use the name, author and edition to order, and I never used the ISBN. I don't know if I have just been lucky, but I have never gotten the wrong book.

When the ISBN is in question I take the time to go to the bookstore and manually write down all the ISBNs and a short description of the cover.

I have always bought my books online but I just use the name, author and edition to order, and I never used the ISBN. I don't know if I have just been lucky, but I have never gotten the wrong book.

Yes. I did this on a couple of books last semester, and it was ok.

Our bookstore started doing this about a year ago. AND they even stopped letting you go in and get the books off the shelf yourself too. It's all roped off now and an employee has to go get the books for you. I just get the title and edition and author off the website and buy them online.

Ours has been roped off for a couple of years. I thought they just did it to prevent theft.....little did I know.

We have a discount store right across the street from campus that I often buy books at. I don't know how they get the information, but if you tell them what class you are taking they will get you the right book. The books are the same quality as the ones at the campus store. I have been known to buy from the discount store, and then resale to the campus store.... I am sneaky too.

Our campus just started doing this. After researching the author, title, and edition, I was able to find the correct books. Since they don't show what the cover looks like with the online campus bookstore, I looked up all the above information on Amazon.com and was able to find out what it looked like, and then get the IBSN number, then go out onto different sites to find the best price. Very irritating and time consuming, but i saved $60 bux on a $200 dollar book by researching prices online!!!

Very worth it!

Ironically, after researching a particular book for one of my classes, I ended up finding out the best price was at the bookstore becuase it was an edition that comes out a few weeks before class starts. Sheesh!

Yes, this is a frequent practice and it can be very frustrating, but easy to work around. I've never seen a bookstore employee that refuses to let you see the book in person (Heck, I always check books that I'm potentially buying used to see what shape their in.)

So as previous posters have said, you document all of the info and easily look it up on half.com or Amazon Marketplace and (usually) you will find a boatload of used or new texts available at a deep discount.

If bookstore employees are being difficult, don't hesitate to make your feelings known, you are a paying student at the institution and you don't deserve to be treated in an ill manner. You always have a right to purchase the required text wherever you please.

Also, in terms of courses that have "webcodes" attached to texts, you can usually ask them to sell you the code separately for a nominal fee. Go directly to the professor if the bookstore hassles you!

I have always bought my books online but I just use the name, author and edition to order, and I never used the ISBN. I don't know if I have just been lucky, but I have never gotten the wrong book.

That's the problem...they don't give you ANY of that information!!! No more Author listed, no more edition number, etc... So, it's impossible for me to order it! If they had all that, I'd take my chances, but seriously, I have no information to go off of!! Just annoying!

Also, in terms of courses that have "webcodes" attached to texts, you can usually ask them to sell you the code separately for a nominal fee. Go directly to the professor if the bookstore hassles you!

Bummer...I already ordered it. Oh well...wasn't terribly expensive, but would have been nice to try to find it cheaper online. What is a webcode used for anyway?

In reading all these posts, I can't believe some of the schools actually rope it off...that does NOT seem right! I am disturbed by the whole thing actually! As the pp said, we have the right to get our books where we please.

In my school's defense (as of right now anyway), the girl that I spoke with at the bookstore did say I could come in and look at the book...so for now, we can get the info at the bookstore, just not online or over the phone.

You could always contact your instructor and ask which book they are using for that semester. In my experience with taking online classes, the instructors I have had have alway posted the ISBN to make sure we all got the correct book.

How weird.. thankfully my school hasn't started that.. I always go in early to get the prices so I have on hand what I need to spend anyways... EEEK!