When you’re looking to purchase your books this upcoming semester, you’re going to find that there are a lot of stores that you can choose from.  As part of our textbook review series, I wanted to review a few of my favorite textbook sites.

What we’re going to look at is what other people think of BookByte, what kind of selection they have, as well as how their prices match up to other competitors.

What do other people think about this merchant?

Upon looking online, it seems as if it’s a mixed bag.  While the majority of the college students online tend to like them, I have found that there are a few complaints that you may want to take note of.

For starters, it seems as if a lot of people complain of the customer service that they provide.  They tend to state that not only are they unprofessional, they take forever to answer back with emails.  While customer service is one of the most important assets of a company, this tends to be one of the only thing people worry about.

On the other hand, students absolutely love the buy back program.  If you’re going to sell your books, you’re going to want to consider a place such as BookByte as they are going to give you the most back for your book most of the time.  By doing a search, I had found that they usually blew away the competition by almost 15% on average.

How is the selection of books?

I did a search on 10 ISBN’s and had found that they had all of them.  I don’t think you’re going to have a problem when it comes down to the selection of the books.  From newer versions to outdated versions, you should be able to find what you’re looking for.

How do the prices compare?

BookByte tends to be on the higher end of the totem pole when it comes to pricing.  Sadly, out of 10 books that I compared, they were usually at the higher end.  Now, that doesn’t mean that your book isn’t going to be cheap.  You can purchase both used, as well as new.

How is the navigation of the site?

While the site is a little outdated, it really isn’t that hard to navigate the site.  They have a simple left handed sidebar where you pick and choose what you want.  If you wish, you can also search your books at the top as well.

Overall, BookByte has a few bad marks but they are trustworthy and have a nice selection of books.  Highly consider this site if you want to have them buy back your books, as this is one of their high points.

I’m going to give this site a solid B, solely based on the bad marks in regards to customer service.  While I”m a high advocate of service, if you fail to treat your customers right, this can definitely tick a few people off.