Cash4Books: Not Such a Great Deal

I recently discovered cash4books.net after reading a magazine article in Woman's Day, I believe. The premise of the website is basically what the url says -- they pay you cash for your books. You can enter ISBN numbers on their website, and they tell you how much, if anything, they'll pay for what you've got. Then you print out a shipping label, send the books away, and when they're processed, you get a PayPal payment. Sounds great, right? Wrong.

I recently sold a few of Guy's old textbooks to the website. My first frustration came after I got a purchase order from Half.com for one of the textbooks that I had listed but given up on. Someone was buying it for $15, and I only got 4.40 from Cash4Books. Granted, that's my fault, not theirs.

However, I got an e-mail today telling me that I had received my payment of...2.40 from Cash4Books. $2.40? That didn't seem right. I logged in to my account and saw that they deducted 100% of what they said they were going to pay me for one of the books because its accompanying CD was opened. Apparently it was a one-time use CD, and Guy had opened it but never used it. I was upset, so I called their toll-free number to complain. When I talked to the woman, she said that it's in their terms and conditions that one-time use CDs cannot be opened. I looked at their terms and conditions, and all that's there is something that says they do not purchase any materials with one-time use accompaniments. So, I asked, "Why did they offer me money for it if it says they don't purchase them at all?" Her response was, "Well, it says that, but sometimes we purchase them. We just prefer not to." Okay, fine, but still, nowhere did it tell me that the CD was not allowed to be opened. They will only ship it back to me at my own expense, too. It got to the point with the phone girl that she told me she'd have her supervisor call me when she got out of a "meeting." Needless to say, I'm still waiting for that phone call, but I will never use Cash4Books again. I know it's only 4.40, but it's really the principle of the matter that bothers me. How do I know they're not going to sell the book anyway, even though they didn't pay me for it? Frustrating! Annoying! Nuisance!

Moral: Do not use cash4books.net...ever!