It doesn't hurt to complain

So I had to purchase The Elements of Graphic Design for publishing software. Instead of buying a brand new one from the bookstore I decided to search for a used one on Amazon. Low and behold, I found it. It was only $10.00 and according to the little blurb about it's physical condition, it was in "good" shape with only a few markings on some of the pages. I decided that that wasn't a big deal, so I made my purchase.

Ten days later my book arrived. I was excited at the time because my software class had already been going for a week and I was getting behind in the reading. As soon as I got in the door I opened the package. The cover looked better than "good." It was in perfect condition, not even bent corners from being in someone's backpack.

Then, I opened it up. It was horrible! Every, and I mean EVERY page was covered in highlighter, underlining, or my personal favorite, a combination of both. I looked over my order and made sure I had actually purchased the book I thought I had. According to the receipt it was indeed the one deemed in "good" condition with only a few markings.

I decided to just suck it up and not waste my time returning it. Honestly, I didn't have the luxury of even considering it because I had a lot of reading to do in it.

Then this past Tuesday I got an e-mail from Amazon asking me to rate the books I had ordered over the past month. I decided to be completely honest. I thought over exactly what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it (considering you're only allowed so many characters for reviews) and then I went to town. I politely warned any other prospective buyers of this bookseller (I won't use their name)to be weary of any ratings that say "good" and "a few markings" and to consider a different seller because they will be disappointed when their eyes are assaulted by blazing yellow and black squiggly lines. I wasn't rude. Just honest.

Five minutes after posting my review I received an e-mail from the bookseller. He thanked me for my "well written" and "linguistically pleasing review" and asked if I would consider removing my comments if I were to receive a full refund (shipping and handling included). He didn't want his family run business to lose their five star rating. I politely replied to him saying that I would gladly remove my comment as soon as I was refunded and I asked that he or whoever writes their little book quality descriptions to be more honest.

I received my refund almost instantly and I e-mailed him again saying that I appreciated his customer service skills and he responded by saying that I was a valued customer and that they would consider my requests.

The moral of this little story is that it doesn't hurt to complain. I was polite and never demanded anything. I just wanted them to know that I was not satisfied with my book. In this case I got a full refund out of it. I didn't ask for a full refund, I actually asked him to send me a copy that didn't have any marks in it, but in the end that is was I got. It's important to advertise truthfully and not to guarantee that a product will be in "good" condition when it's not even in fair condition.