Letter to the Editor
Policies and plunders in the bookstore
Issue date: 4/3/07 Section: Forum
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I had a bad experience with the Mount bookstore of which I wanted to the rest of the Mount community. It involves a bookstore policy that is not only completely absurd, but which was also incorrectly applied to my situation and undoubtedly many others.
On February 26 I went to the bookstore and bought a book for one of my classes. I already had a copy of the book prior to purchasing it from the bookstore, but I thought I had a different translation because my book was published by a different company. My objective in buying the book was to have the correct translation to ensure that I was on the same page (pun intended) as all of my classmates and professor. I had no intention of returning the book and fully intended to make notes in it, bend the pages, and so on.
After purchasing the book, I realized that, although it was published by a different publisher, it was the exact same translation as the book I already had, and it even had the exact same page numbers. In other words, it was the exact same book with a different publisher.
Okay, no problem, I thought, I'll just return this copy to the bookstore since it's the same exact version. It was new and unused and I had my receipt, so there was no doubt in my mind that the bookstore would allow me to return the book.
But they did not. I went to return the book three days later on March 1. When the staff there told me that I could not return it I was immediately baffled. They agreed that the book was new, unused, in its original condition, and they could plainly see that I had my receipt, yet somehow they claimed that my request was unreasonable.
The basis for their claim that it was unreasonable for me to return a book was that their policy stated that it was unreasonable. The line of the bookstore policy that they cited was the following: "Full refund if returned within the first week of class, in your original form of payment with a receipt."
Okay, let us examine this line. If you return a book to the Mount bookstore within the first week of class, you get a full refund provided that you have your receipt and original form of payment. That is what the quoted policy says. The issue is that the policy makes no specification about what their return policy is after the first week of class. It does not state that books can only be returned the first week of class, but simply that books can be returned the first week of class.
On February 26 I went to the bookstore and bought a book for one of my classes. I already had a copy of the book prior to purchasing it from the bookstore, but I thought I had a different translation because my book was published by a different company. My objective in buying the book was to have the correct translation to ensure that I was on the same page (pun intended) as all of my classmates and professor. I had no intention of returning the book and fully intended to make notes in it, bend the pages, and so on.
After purchasing the book, I realized that, although it was published by a different publisher, it was the exact same translation as the book I already had, and it even had the exact same page numbers. In other words, it was the exact same book with a different publisher.
Okay, no problem, I thought, I'll just return this copy to the bookstore since it's the same exact version. It was new and unused and I had my receipt, so there was no doubt in my mind that the bookstore would allow me to return the book.
But they did not. I went to return the book three days later on March 1. When the staff there told me that I could not return it I was immediately baffled. They agreed that the book was new, unused, in its original condition, and they could plainly see that I had my receipt, yet somehow they claimed that my request was unreasonable.
The basis for their claim that it was unreasonable for me to return a book was that their policy stated that it was unreasonable. The line of the bookstore policy that they cited was the following: "Full refund if returned within the first week of class, in your original form of payment with a receipt."
Okay, let us examine this line. If you return a book to the Mount bookstore within the first week of class, you get a full refund provided that you have your receipt and original form of payment. That is what the quoted policy says. The issue is that the policy makes no specification about what their return policy is after the first week of class. It does not state that books can only be returned the first week of class, but simply that books can be returned the first week of class.
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