Amazon’s draconian textbook rental policies may have just gone over the deep end and putting users who cross state lines in a pickle by re-billing them.
Just a few months after Google books came under some amount of flak over the deletion of certain user’s ebooks while border-crossing, Amazon has come in to step the ante in what, hopefully, is a business decision waiting to be reversed by the online retailer. The practice itself would allow Amazon to bill users crossing state lines for the entirety of the of the book(s) if they deem that you’ve crossed the border, all this to avoid having to pay the state’s sales tax. While it may seem dubious and perhaps a little crooked, this is nonetheless fairly common practice for US online retailers, though those dealing with customers in the magnitude of which Amazon does are of course, more apt to come under scrutiny and auditing.
Nonetheless, this bodes as bad news for those who take advantage of Amazon’s textbook rentals and may for sure leave many to seek alternative services in the near future, unless Amazon decides to change its policy, or perhaps supply a little more than vague modalities before outright charging customers for crossing the state border. Though some different conditions apply, and seemingly not all rented textbooks adhere to this draconian policy, the vague information put out by the retailer is nowhere near enough to help customers feel secure in spending their money on this service in the near future. You can check out more details about the policy itself in the source link at the end of the article.
In the meantime though, it may be better to hold off on any textbook rentals from Amazon and see if this whole thing will blow over, or if conditions are subject to change… Unless of course you don’t intend to leave the state.
Source: BoingBoing
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