Textbook rental company debuts on campus

Beginning this semester, the University Shop has joined forces with one of the most popular and respected textbook rental websites, Chegg.com.

Although many students have rented textbooks from Chegg and other online rental sites in the past, they can now rent textbooks from the University Shop, through the on-campus rental program, Powered by Chegg.

"We have been interested in creating a textbook rental program for a long time," said Frank Henninger, director of the University Shop. "Previously, we saw rental sites, like Chegg, as competition; however, after attending a college bookstore conference in April, I became familiar with the Powered by Chegg program and how it could potentially help our students."

In the University Shop, students can search for their books at three kiosks via course number or title using the iPads provided by Powered by Chegg. Once students select their books, they can create a Chegg account and pay by credit or debit. Currently, the Wildcard cannot be used to pay for textbook rentals from Chegg.

Through Powered by Chegg, textbooks can be rented for a month or a semester and are due back to Chegg during the week of final exams. At the University Shop, students can scan the barcodes of their textbooks into the Chegg system, which alerts Chegg that a book is officially returned. 

Books can then be mailed to Chegg with a printed shipping label. 

If a student drops a class or no longer needs a textbook, it can be returned to Chegg within 30 days, and he or she will receive a full refund minus the cost of shipping.

In order to assure that orders are received, processed and delivered in a timely manner, Chegg sends its customers a series of at least four e-mails. 

This extensive process aims to eliminate any confusion that may occur during ordering, as well as provide the customer with a positive experience. 

Chegg estimates that books will arrive in approximately five days after they are ordered. 

To compensate for the increased volume of incoming packages in the mail room, the University and Chegg have accepted new employees to manage the timely delivery and return of textbooks during the first and final weeks of the semester. 

"We chose to work with Chegg because they are the market leader in textbook rentals and have an excellent customer service reputation," Henninger said. "Chegg rents 623 of our titles, which is 25 percent of our stock. This reduces our inventory commitments, as Chegg is the third party mediator."

Chegg initiated its pilot program, Powered by Chegg, in California and has since grown to include eight universities, with Villanova being the only eastern institution, as well as the only private one. 

The University's involvement with Chegg provides students with three potential prices for textbooks: new, used and rented, as orange stickers on the price labels indicate if a book is available for rent through Chegg.

Renting textbooks from Powered by Chegg provides students with a number of advantages, as opposed to buying used or new textbooks. If a book is bought at a rental price, students know exactly how much the book will cost them. 

However, when selling back a used or new textbook, the buyback price is not guaranteed, as numerous factors, including the edition of the book, determine the ultimate buyback price. 

In this case, students are unaware of the net price they will pay for a textbook.

"By partnering with Chegg, we wanted to provide our students with as many options as possible to obtain textbooks," Rick Sieber, associate vice president of Auxiliary Services, said. "In the future, we may even create our own website in which students could comparison shop from several sites that sell textbooks, like amazon.com and half.com."