What’s worse than paying ridiculous prices for textbooks? Paying a slightly less ridiculous price for a textbook, then never receiving the book or the refund the company promises. In October, more than halfway through the semester, Emily was forced to request a chargeback for a book that she never received. She suspects that the company never mailed it at all, and they also never issued her a promised refund.

I purchased a textbook from ecampus on 8/17/10. On 8/27/10, I was told the book was shipped to me. I was given a USPS tracking number that never worked. I contact ecampus on 9/9/10. I was told on 9/23/10 that ecampus had issued a refund to my account because USPS lost my package. I never received a refund. I contacted ecampus on 10/16/10 to request a refund again. Ecampus told me that they would again issue me a refund on this item. Today is Oct. 31st and I have not received a refund. I have disputed the charge with my credit card company, but I have been told that ecampus is non-responsive to their inquiries.

I’ve never had a company lie to me about issuing me a refund. Twice. Or issue me a fraudulent tracking number. (I know the difference b/w a lost package and them just making up a shipping number.) More people should know about ecampus so that they won’t also be scammed and ecampus will realize that they can no longer lie to customers without suffering consequences.

Emily’s story is remarkably similar to one from another college student and eCampus customer that we published four and a half years ago–practically forever in college student years. Except that student was selling her books to the company, not purchasing.

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