Amazon bans students from taking rented textbooks across state lines

[Newsjock]

Source: Inside Higher Ed

Students who rent textbooks through Amazon.com’s Warehouse Deals, Inc. may be unknowingly agreeing to an unusual condition: They are not permitted to cross state borders with their books.

According to the Textbook Rental Terms and Conditions page on Amazon.com, when renting through Warehouse Deals, which is an Amazon subsidiary, “You may not move the textbook out of the state to which it was originally shipped. If you wish to move the textbook out of that state, you must first purchase the textbook.”

If Amazon does determine that a renter has moved his or her book to a different state “at any time during the rental period,” the company at its “sole discretion” can charge the consumer the buyout price of the textbook.

Some experts believe the policy is another reflection of the extreme lengths to which the company continues to go in order to avoid collecting state sales taxes. But could Amazon’s use restriction and other complicated rental conditions cause problems for students or lead potential textbook renters to take their business elsewhere?

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/16/amazon-restricts-students-bringing-certain-textbook-rentals-across-state-lines

[msongs]

1. was this in the commercial the president made for amazon last week lol nt

[customerserviceguy]

2. Sounds like a cover-your-ass contract provision

If some state decides to ding Amazon for sales taxes on a book shipped across state lines, then they can always fall back on the provision that it was done against their will.

Besides, how the hell would this provision ever possibly be enforced by Amazon? Why would they ever spend a nickel trying to enforce it even if they could?

[Demo_Chris]

3. Exactly. nt

[Igel]

4. Have trouble with the sales-tax explanation.

At least as explained.

Warehouse deals only ships to 16 states at one rate and to the rest at another. Probably has to do with royalty agreements worked out by rental agencies. Rent at a low rate from Warehouse Deals and move into Apex Media's territory and that's bad. Some publisher loses out, Apex Deal has interference in the territory it has sole rights to. Had a roommate who sold photocopiers; through connections at church he sold one to a friend in another salesman's territory. All hell broke loose.

Consider Pearson's international edition. They're great. They're paperback, which is fine by me. Fewer color pictures. Eh. They may have "local" 3rd world scientists featured so that students see researchers that look like themselves. They're cheaper than buying the Amazon US, often by more than $100 per book. I've bought them from Thailand ($10 shipping) or from somebody who had them drop-shipped from some other country to the US. Campbell's Intro to Biology, Griffith's Intro to Electrodynamics, Winter's principles of igneous petrology and morphology. Great stuff.

Thing is, the sellers broke the law by selling them to me. They're not licensed for use in the US, where they're a lot more expensive. (It's sort of the same as with pharmaceuticals. We can pay more in the US, so we pay more; in 3rd world countries they can't afford as much, so they pay less. Tax the rich, share the wealth.)

But that's really a boring explanation, isn't it? Not nearly so outrageous as a large megacorporation we all hate trying to avoid paying income tax and its fair share.