I ordered a book I needed for US History at SLCC online from this company. Not only was the quality of the website poor, but the lag while trying to read it was worse. I have topnotch internet and bandwidth. It is not a problem on my end. I tried to resolve my issues with coursesmart, including a refund - which was within the deadline timeframe-but I was just "passed" from one person to another. All stating I will need to escalate your "ticket". It was the worst customer service! I will may twice as much money, at the college, for my book before I buy anything from this company again. *******edit 9/24/2010 The customer service manager contacted me after seeing this post and asked me to reply back with an email address to allow the opportunity to view the "tickets'. I receieved a refund the very next morning. I did not get a reply back from this person, but atleast a manager was aknowledging that I was not happy and appeared to want to resolve it. Thank you. I am still not sure I would want to deal with this company again but validation can go a long way. read more

First experience and it was BAD. So I was looking for an eBook online and I ran into CourseSmart which seemed to be good at first, but quite the contrary. I was looking online for my business book to see if there were any editions of the book with supplemental materials or online exercises and I thought I found it, but it was not, which I later found out. It was the eBook with the "MyBizLab". After purchasing the book it turns out that I could not access the book because this type of eBook is only used for classes that do the classes online. This information was not listed whatsoever in their description of the product page, which I made very clear to them over the phone. The reason why I believed it cost a bit more than the regular edition was because it had supplemental materials. Well, the only way I could access the eBook was by having a course code, which an instructor teaching the class would be able to provide. My teacher isn't teaching the class online, so you can see how this is a problem for me. I requested a refund and told them the aforementioned, but they refused to give me a refund. What bothered me the most was that I was never able to input the code to gain access to the eBook in the first place. I do not have a reasonable explanation for why they would not issue me a refund. Total waste of money! Note: PLEASE READ The iOS and Android versions of the CourseSmart app are not very good. And I'm not just saying this because of my frustration. I tested the app before knowing I didn't have acces to the book. I had not even logged into my account and the app was all ready jittery and force closing. This app is not updated frequently and is a hassle to use offline from what other online reviews mentioned. Tip: Order all ebooks through the Amazon Kindle store. The delivery is instant to your iPad or other tablet and most, if not all ebooks have a full free tiral version of the book. It's a nice quality app, fluid, stable and the books are all accessible offline. Because its Amazon, they are always keeping the app up to date. If you want to avoid a pain in the arse, save money, and bad customer service go to Amazon. Even if it's a little more expensive, which is hardly ever the case, you'll be happy with your ebook purchase or rent. Trust me. read more

Customer service sucks. Website interface sucks. Reader program sucks. Printing option sucks. OH AND GUESS WHAT? YOUR BOOK EXPIRES! hooray! is there a way i can 0 star this? 1 star doesn't cut it. I can't even view my book offline because the site says that I've already checked it out on another browser, and that I need to check it back in on the same browser. I've checked on all my browser and cannot find the offline version anywhere. Tried troubleshooting 982349238493 times which resulted me in tears of frustration. Baffled, I contacted customer support. They emailed me back 2 weeks later saying my issue was resolved. It was never resolved. LOL Though the book is a LOT cheaper than a hard copy, don't even bother. The price will not worth the inconvenience. read more

HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE i ran into a situation where due to inclement weather my class final extended past the final date of my subscription. upon request for an extension for my text to last a little longer so i could print out the chapter i needed to re-review i was told i would need to repurchase the entire subscription again. no amount of concern or empathy, just more money now kinda attitude. ill never give them another penny. ill study via google before i give them a dime. read more

DO NOT BUY FROM COURSEMART! It sucks that a business supposedly in education would be purposely deceitful, but CourseSmart knowingly bamboozles any who make honest mistakes. And worse, the poor design of the website is likely designed to make people make mistakes. After accidentally purchasing the wrong edition of a book for school, I realized the mistake instantly and can't see any content from the book. I tried to change, but apparently simply viewing the access code automatically renders the book non-refundable. After finding that a technological workaround wouldn't work, I called customer service to try to exchange the book for the newer edition...and they were totally unhelpful. So now they've left me with an unreadable book, no help, and no next steps. Don't end up like me - AVOID AVOID AVOID COURSESMART!!! They'll do you dirty too if they can help it. You can find something better!! read more

Let me state upfront that this review is for my fiance's experience with a CourseSmart text. That said, generally only strongly liking or disliking things tend to drive me to Yelp and so... here I am. The first problem I have with CourseSmart is the price point. It's only $30 cheaper than a physical copy of the textbook. At first, the small savings seems nice enough, but you wind up paying much more in time and inconvenience for using the service. Second issue: the actual reading experience is awful. The pages load at a glacial pace, one... by... one. Browsing is impossible because scrolling forward or backward requires a new page to load and in the meantime, the previous page is erased. Because of how sensitive the scrolling feature is, you often inadvertently find yourself on a new page, thus triggering the horrible cycle of wait -- load page -- repeat. All that just to return to what you were reading a few moments ago. Finally, printing any portion of the text is a frustrating exercise of sisyphean proportions. You can only print ten pages at a time. And before you do, you have to download the set of pages before printing. And make sure to close the first print window that pops up -- because that only calls up the pages you PREVIOUSLY tried to print. Confused? Me too. God help you if you need to print a whole chapter for an open note exam, or simply get fed up with the web interface and want to read printed text. TL;DR - If you value your time, efficiency, or not adding stress to your studying, just buy the actual book or ebook instead of using this service. read more

Terrible. Bought a book before going abroad for the semester. Couldn't access it because I international. Contacted their customer service on the 8th day and they refused a refund because it was outside their 7 day return period. This company is horrible. These people are crooks read more

I agree! Do not use this product. The interface is slow, the usability is clunky, and the type is in low resolution. There were many tables, like the periodic table, I could not use because I could not read them. It was such a pain to have to log in all the time too. Turning back and forth from page to page was extremely slow and very frustrating! read more

I get these textbooks free through my graduate program. And I am so frustrated. It appears the problems I'm experiencing -- extreme lag time -- have been going on forever. I keep getting flash error messages which shut down the website. How can I learn if I'm struggling with the distractions of a crappy website? read more

CourseSmart is really a stupid way to go. Reading online was never more frustrating. The notes can't be read alongside the book. The highlights don't show up in the notes in order as they appear on the page. The bookmarks don't always work. The 24 hour chat is not available 24 hours. There is no way to change fonts on a laptop. The lack of ability to refund when you have only read one chapter is possibly criminal. What other store refuses a refund when you are totally unsatisfied with the product because it is inferior in every way to an actual book? I'm so angry at myself for purchasing it, thinking I was saving money. CourseSmart is dumb, dumb, dumb. read more

WARNING!!! Does NOT work on ipad! I ordered and paid for a book, that I have been unable to open or use it on my ipad, despite installing the CourseSmart app, multiple efforts, and a lot of wasted time. Have not been able to get a refund. Their e-mail addresses don't work or "customer service" gives a useless "ticket." Kindle/Amazon works just fine. read more

The company is terrible when it comes to customer service. If there is an issue with any software that you purchase from them, they will take their sweet time helping you with the issue, with no consideration to the student falling behind in their work due to the product course smart sold not functioning. The company course smart sold me the improper code for my college course, and over 5 weeks into the course they still have not rectified the situation. I do not recommend anyone using this company. read more

CourseSmart.... More like "CourseStupid". That's how i feel after purchasing three E-Textbooks for college (through Etextbooks.com/eCampus.com) for $158.00. One of the books wasnt even compatible with Coursesmart, I had to download Adobe Digital editions to open the file. I'm very upset. :( with the product.... I'm currently trying to get a refund from Etextbooks.com. I rarely complain about stuff but I seriously thought i was going to save myself time and money and it was the exact opposite...... If your enjoy a Pain in your butt then eCAMPUS.com & CourseSmart.com is the way to go.... read more

My school had the wrong book posted on their syllabus so I ended up purchasing the wrong book from CourseSmart. Thinking I could just exchange it for the correct book, I contacted them about this, only to be told that CourseSmart simply "connects" you as a buyer to the book provider and does not actually sell the book directly so they could not refund or exchange the book. This was not mentioned at any point during the buy process. I now have to buy another book from another company and spend twice as much money so that I am not behind in this class and I didn't even save any money in the first place. What a waste of time and money. I would NOT recommend this company to anyone. Buyer beware! read more

What is great about Coursesmart is that it can save a lot of money on your books. I decided to give Coursmart and I saved 50% on 1 book. However the user experience is terrible. The system is slow, lagging and non-responsive 40% time. My computer is fast but for some reason this website froze my computer several times. I had to log off and log back in again. Today I printed 38 pages (1 chapter) and it took me more than 25 mins because of the constant interruptions in the system. Once I printed out my chapter, thank goodness - a half another later, the system recorded it as I printed 125 times which is inflated and not true. The reading experience is just as bad. Honestly, I would not recommend it to any of my friends nor would I purchase again from them. The user experience is terrible and the printing control measures suck. Its more controlled rather than user-friendly. To read and print is a headache and this should not be. I print my chapters because it is easier to read (because that is how I function best). If coursesmart was in ANY WAY SMART, they would have considered the customer experience. Obviously they didn't. The only positive is their price but that is not enough to keep me. I had high hopes for Coursesmart in the beginning...now I am terribly disappointed. At the end of my rental period, I will stop using them and support another company that is less restrictive and more user-friendly. read more

Bought my first and last textbook on coursesmart this term. It was maybe 40% cheaper than a hard copy and I wanted a digital copy anyways so seemed like a good deal. Book was horrible quality. Super low resolution, incredibly buggy and slow navigation, watermarks pasted all over the damn thing to the point that it made a lot of things difficult or impossible to read. Really wish I could have gotten a refund and just bought the amazon kindle edition which I normally avoid cause they are also notorious for low quality or screwed up file type conversions. As it is I just got to suffer through to the end of this term. Also think its messed up that I paid full digital price for a book that I only get for 6 months before it expires. TL:DR- AVOID. Way better options out there. I cannot think of a single redeeming quality of the book I bought (rented) or the company itself. Edit: Want to point out that the slow access and crappy navigation was entirely their issue. My internet is over 100Mb down at home and maybe a bit faster at school. Even the offline access (which was a huge pain in itself) was slow as molasses. Edit2: The textbook I bought was a discrete math book and I'm now trying to do a homework assignment where the resolution is so crap that the small(ish) symbols and operations are completely unreadable. The best I can do is guess what the problem is trying to ask based on the context. Zooming in to the point where a number is about a centimeter tall on the screen helps a little but I feel like I shouldn't have to squint to read a book I paid over 100$ for. read more

Everything Aysha P said is 100% correct as per my experience. Price, quality, and printing. An extra note about the printing. I cannot imagine a company delivering such a poor end product. Not only is the printing EXTRAORDINARILY time consuming, but the pdf results are not searchable! The printed pdf pages are an image, not text, so if you hope to have a searchable pdf copy past the 180 day lease....forget about it. I will never purchase anything from this company again. I may go buy the $180 hard copy book and flush the $150 I spent on this garbage. If I could burn this ebook, I would. read more

I am experiencing much of the same frustrations already mentioned in other reviews. Horrible website interface, very cluttered, pages take a long time loading, and are very hard to navigate. The app is a bit better, but only marginally so and only works on limited devices. Reading offline only works on limited devices as well. Cannot read offline on my laptop. Just really frustrating. Lots of work to be done by this company to make their product user friendly. I have rented more than one book with them and am having the same issues with all of them. read more

CourseSmart actually helped me save money on my text books when financial aid was not cutting it. I also liked that I could bring it up on my i pad and my i phone, nothing like reading on the way to class! I would definitely use it again if I need to. read more

I would not recommend this service to anyone. Customer service sucks! They refuse to help saying that the problems are yours. Tried signing in to continue to read a book that I had downloaded to read online, but it wouldn't let me sign in. Was told to change my browser that I used previously, and told to change my password. Didn't change the browser, but changed the password without having success. The site scams you out of money. read more

If you are considering purchasing a CourseSmart product I recommend that you either learn from my mistake and DO NOT BUY ANY BOOKS from CourseSmart or check out the free trial before you decide to purchase. After I paid $104 for a microbiology textbook thinking it would be a convenient way to have all my heavy text books with me where ever I go, I found out that there are so many cons it was not worth all the trouble. I ended up feeling ripped off after my 180day online rental. PROS: -light weight; don't have to carry heavy text books -each chapter is organized by quick links on the side -easy to look up chapters, terms, and page numbers -allows you to copy, highlight, take notes, print, or share selected text (*with limitations) CONS: -too expensive; not worth it -after a short two week time frame from the purchase date you will no longer be able to return or sell this book back -it is NOT VERY USER FRIENDLY!!! -must log in multiple times because the program will sometimes log out without warning ***username and password cannot be saved in browser history -can highlight but hard to select the exact area that you need highlighted -can copy and paste but you must first select the area of text that you would like to copy, then press the copy button at the top of the screen, then a new window will pop up, then you must reselect and copy the text that is inside the new window *short-cut commands will not work (for example: pressing control+c on your pc or command+c on your mac will not copy the selected text) ***if the font was bold, italics, etc. in the text it will be changed to a default font in new window where it is no longer bold, italics, etc. ***if copying multiple paragraphs the paragraphs will no longer be neatly separated ***not allowed to copy or paste any images/pictures or tables from the text -only allowed to print 10pages at once -when taking notes your notes are only visible one note at a time after you have clicked the notes tab, and selected the note that you would like to view ***cannot view notes while simultaneously viewing the text -while reading only one page is visible view at a time -there is no option available to view two pages at once like in a printed text -if you need a text-to-speech application it WILL NOT work "The Apple OSX VoiceOver system can be used with CourseSmart to provide text-to-speech capabilities. Users with experience using VoiceOver on iOS devices can also use it on the iPad and iPhone. CourseSmart cannot support users in the use of the Apple products" ***quote taken from CourseSmart help page ...If the cons listed above are not issues for you then by all means enjoy your experience with CourseSmart. My expectations may have just been too high for an online text. Sincerely, AN UNSATISFIED STUDENT Overall Rating: Avoid It Recommended: No read more

I wish I could give CourseSmart 0 stars! The worst. I bought an e-book, only to find out that it is actually just a rental - what the heck! I would have just gone to the bookstore to buy the physical copy for $30 more if I knew that. Once I found out what the issue was, I immediately contacted CourseSmart. I am well within the 2-week return period, but they are saying I don't meet the requirements for a refund. I can't open the book unless on wifi, I can't read it on my Nook, and I can't download anything to print the chapters I want to. I feel so ripped off, and I can't say enough about how I wish I never got conned into renting this book! The worst. Good thing I can basically only read it on the library computers at school - so convenient. Very very disappointed in not only the lack of usability, but with the lack of customer service also. read more

I wish I would have read these reviews first. Coursesmart is one of the worst companys I have dealt with. Customer service is rude and they would rather lose business over 34$ instead of exchange a book that works online. I was the test dummy amongst my friends to try them out and got screwed over making the mistake of ordering the wrong book. I noticed it within 20 to 30 minutes of purchase when I couldnt even open the online book. Those greedy hounds refused to help and correct the situation.College students don't have money. My friends will not be using them and I have already posted on the school review board not to use them and I will be posting at other schools. I hope the 34$ is worth it! I advise everyone else to do the same. Word of mouth can make or break you! read more

If i could give this site 0 stars i would. I am extremely disappointed in this site. I Purchased a book on May 24th, I have the bank statement to prove it. I went to return this book on May 31st, 7 days after purchase, accordng to their refund policy is the correct amout of time. In their system it shows i purchased this book at 8:36 (they cannot tell me am or pm). On may 23 at 8:36 am i was in the car driving up to california, and at 8:36 pm i was asleep. I know for a fact i did not purchase this book on the 23rd. When i went to dispute this they told me i could not get a refund. I tried to tell them i did not purchase this on the 23rd and have proof of that but it did not matter. I asked if who i could speak to in mangement when i was told this would be sent to an account manager i was also told i should hear from someone within 24-48 hours. I went to ask if i did not hear from nyone who can i contact and i was discontimued from my chat! I sent a new chat to get an answer to my question and recieved the sme person. I am now waiting to hear back from management. If they help me with my issue i will re write my review but until then i willl contine to tell everyone of the awful service i recieved from this company. read more