I’ve blogged several times about being messed around by the BYU Bookstore here and here.
This time, however, they’ve really outdone themselves.

I went to the BYU Bookstore, and printed out my booklist.
I pick up the books and took them to checkout.
All proceeds as normal, except they overcharge me by $20 for my multi-variable calculus book.
I complain, and show them my printout. They ignore it, and say it must be wrong.
I go back to where I got the book, and get the official price, which also says $60 (instead of $80), but they again tell me that it must be a mistake, and that the real price is $80.
I’m very annoyed at this point.
They tell me if I want to complain I must go and talk to someone at the customer service counter.
They kept bouncing me around to different people (it was almost as bad as calling Sprint Tech Support!). Each person looked at me as though I was an idiot, and that the prices I had seen were ‘obviously’ wrong.

Finally they sent me to the person who was supposedly in charge – Tom something
He acted important, and told me that the price had changed.
I nicely told him that obviously it hadn’t!
Changing the price would entail actually CHANGING IT! Changing it on the web page, changing the price tag that was next to the books etc..
He basically told me to get lost, and that the only price that mattered was the price on the bookstore’s internal register. They’d just forgotten to change the price everywhere else.
Tom didn’t listen to a word I said. He just kept repeating “the price has changed”, so I soon just gave up.

His behaviour was rude, inappropriate, and condescending. He didn’t care. He just wanted me to go away.

Had this occurred at a any other shop, I imagine the conversation would have gone something like this:

Manager: I’m really sorry that we forgot to change the price. Thanks for letting us know that we made a mistake. Since you saw the cheaper price, we’ll honour it. We’ll now go and update all price everywhere.
Thanks!

But that would require decency.

Obviously I didn’t have a choice, as I needed the book, so I bought it.
Later I went to the BYU Bookstore website and found this.

They failed 4 of their “values”
Integrity
Exceeding Customer Expectations
Respect for all Individuals
Accountability

• Integrity and Accountability: To fullfil those, they should admit it was their mistake (Tom never admitted a mistake, nor did he apologise. He just kept repeating “the price has changed.”)
• They certainly didn’t exceed my expectations as a customer.
• And they certainly didn’t respect me.

buying my “Probability and Random Processes” book from the BYU bookstore
$148.80
buying the same book (new) from a reseller on Amazon
$66
Not buying from the bookstore -> Priceless.

I’m really fed up. Not only are they still playing their games, but they’ve messed me around yet again.

Before I get to how they messed me around again, I’ll explain their games.
Both of my parents work at BYU. The bookstore requires that they submit the book their class requires MONTHS before the semester starts, yet, they won’t tell the students what those books are until a few days before the semester starts.
why?
It’s obvious. If you knew what books you needed, you’d buy them online. The problem is, if you wait till the BYU bookstore publishes the list and buy online, you risk not having your books by the first day of class. (they know this, and people are forced to pay rip-off prices)
Ridiculous.
Anyway, back to the mess up (seriously, at least if they want to rip you off they could be efficient and professional)…

So, route Y finally posts the book list, and I print it out. It mentions 1 book for each of my classes. Good! I think.
Then, two days later, my friend (who’s in the same English class) tells me he’s annoyed that he had to buy two expensive books for English 316. I re-check the list, and yep, they’d magically changed the ‘official’ list, and added a second book. So I have to go to the bookstore again, now with freshmen crowds. PAIN!
Then, I go to my first day of class, and all is fine.
Then, today, I get an email that says the following

Due to some unfortunate problems with the textbooks orders for all sections of English 316 for the Fall semester if you have already purchased Technical Communications by John M. Lannon prior to receiving this email then you have the wrong book.

However, we have a solution for you.

If you have purchased a copy of this textbook that does not say “Custom Edition for Brigham Young University Edition” on the front, you need to return it to the BYU Bookstore immediately. They will provide you with a full refund

what?
It’s a little disappointing that they won’t apologise, but instead write, “you’ve bought the wrong book”
I didn’t buy the wrong book. I bought the book they TOLD ME TO.
This is ridiculous. I’m a senior, and am supposed to be organised. I’m not supposed to be like a little freshman who buys all the wrong stuff. I’m busy! I’m not just sitting around at home waiting for an excuse to queue up at the bookstore behind freshmen!

If you couldn’t tell, I’m ready to graduate!

My first speech to the faculty would start out in roughly the following way

“Each faculty member must have looked over, worked out and solved the answer to every question they assign. There is to be no guinea-pigging of students through new and potentially terrible ideas.”

Why do I think this is important enough to be my first item of business?
Could it be that almost every semester a teacher (or more) tries some new and untested way of teaching/grading etc.. that doesn’t quite work out as hoped?
I can’t count how many times I have (after complaining) received the response “You’re right, we won’t do that again next semester.” So basically what the teacher is saying it “Thanks for the input, next semester’s students will benefit from our screw-ups on you.”

On 7 September 1999 President Bateman said the following in a BYU devotional:

“It takes approximately three hours of study outside class for every hour in the classroom. If you take 15 hours of credit, you should allocate upward of 45 hours for study per week.”

So, to calculate how much studying I should do per class should be simple.
I’m taking a certain Engineering class that is only 3 credits, yet 2 weeks ago, instead of the expected 9 hours of study, it was close to 30. The assigned homework was only 7 questions, but some of the questions had parts a-k, totaling around 50 questions and more than 20 sheets of paper.
A few of my friends got sick from pulling all-nighters, others had to skip work, and I got a little behind in some of my other classes.
Upon mentioning this problem to the teacher, the response I received was “Oh, I didn’t realize each of those questions had 12 parts to them, sorry about that.”
It was a very casual response, not realizing how BIG of a deal that simple mistake was. And all because he couldn’t take 2 minutes to look at the problems he was assigning.

It’s fairly frequent that we get terrible assignments, and their response seems to always be “I’ll make sure I don’t assign that hwk problem next semester.” Well….. All I can say to that is – How does that help me? – It doesn’t. If a course has been offered each semester for the last several years, with the same edition of the book, how is it possible that these kinds of problems keep happening?

Based on previous posts, you should all know that my first act would be to fix the bookstore. Either make the prices of their books competitive, or at least post what books are required by what classes LONG before the semester starts.
They have complete control, and don’t post what books you need until 10 days before school starts, making it very difficult for students to then find an alternate (and cheaper) source.
Both of my Parents teach at BYU, and they claim that the bookstore requires they submit a list of required books for their course several months before the semester starts, so why isn’t this list made publicly available ?
Anyone who’s read the previous paragraph should know the answer to that.
I thought a capitalistic society was supposed to allow for competition. Only then does the best business make the most money. (Am I allowed to say that without being an Econ./PolySci major? – YES!)

So, I’m taking Physics 281.
Despite having a cheap $25 book (written by the professor) we have to buy a $35 iClicker.
Still, for a physics class, $60 seems reasonable, right ?
Starting tomorrow (2nd day of class) we’ll have daily quizzes during the first 5 mins of class.
Still doesn’t sound too unreasonable, right ?
I’m not finished.
If you forget the iClicker, or are late, you don’t get to take the quiz.
Still seems normal.
There’s just one problem.
The BYU Bookstore is sold out of iClickers.
Their ever so elegant solution ? Pay for it now, and they’ll get them in stock soon.
The result ? I get a 0 on every quiz until that happens.

There’s a very easy way for this problem not to happen.
Classes requiring an iClicker tell the bookstore how many students are registered in their classes. The bookstore then buys that many iClickers (either used, or from the factory)
Is that a difficult concept ?
Obviously I don’t know who’s to blame. Either the classes aren’t reporting the numbers correctly, or the bookstore is just incapable of adding* (or there’s a supply shortage, which I’ll get to in Q2).
It doesn’t really matter whose fault it is. Students are still screwed, and get the added unnecessary stress during the first week of school

Now, I’ve had a few comments from people claiming that someone not studying business couldn’t possibly judge a company’s business practices.
That kind of a statement is ridiculous.
It’s like saying that unless you’re a maths major, you can’t do addition*.

Despite being clear in my last post, many comments seemed as though they hadn’t even read my arguments (asking questions I’d already answered).
This time, I’ve decided to give a answers to the questions those people would use in an attempt to refute my arguments

Refute: It’s your fault. If you’d bought your iClicker earlier, you wouldn’t have run in to trouble.

Answer: True, but that’s a stupid question, and it doesn’t solve the very basic problem of the bookstore not ordering enough. Granted, if I’d bought earlier, I’d have mine, but the bookstore would have still run out, and instead of me being without one, it would have been someone else.

Refute 2: It’s a supply problem. We (the bookstore) wanted to order more, but they were out of stock.
Answer 2: Nope, it’s still the fault of someone at BYU. When you decided what overpriced quiz-taking gadget to use in your classes, that company’s ability to produce and supply enough for your needs should have been taken into account.

Refute 3: We ordered enough, but they still sold out!
Answer 3: Are you trying to tell me that people not needing them for class bought them ?
seriously……

Unfortunately this is one of those situations where those to blame, and those who suffer are completely different people. Shame. It’s hard to learn from your mistakes when you’re not affected by them…..

It’s that time of year again. BYU is starting again on the 4th of Sept.
Despite having lived in Provo for the entire summer, I didn’t get around to buying my books. With all the stupid freshman around, I don’t dare try to get them now, so I suppose I’ll just be looking over my shoulder in class
Don’t you just hate the first 2 weeks of fall semester. It’s worse than a summer full of EFY kids. Not only are they everywhere, but they block hallways, stairs and are just loud.

I’m taking:
ECEn 483: A robotics class
Physics 281: Solid State Physics
ECEn 320: Advanced Digital Logic Design

I’m also taking a religion class, and HEPE.

I’ve found that 3 tough classes is enough for me in any given semester (especially when working 20 hours a week). Even with that, I’ll be pretty much full between 9-5.

It annoys me how the BYU Bookstore is.
Instead of trying to get your business by actually being better than the competition (i.e. by being cheaper) they use the unfair advantage of being part of BYU, and don’t list what books your classes require until right before school starts.
This is intended to stop would-be buyers from purchasing their books online, and at half the price.
I know plenty of people who, by waiting for the list to come out, then spend the first 2 weeks of class waiting for their book to be shipped to them.
Disgraceful.
And no, I don’t need to be majoring in business to figure that one out.
I understand that some classes might be restructuring, or might be changing to a new book, but for the most part, BYU knows exactly what book you’ll be using, yet refuses to tell you until it’s too late to buy from the competition.

Still, there’s nothing I can do but whine, so I will…..

Another bit of good news, I found out I got a minor in CS (Computer Science)
The CS department decided to change (read: lower) the requirements, and only require 5 classes (3 of which are required for my major anyway – I took the other 2 as Technical Electives)

It just goes to show just how ridiculous the EE (Electrical Engineering) major is.
You have to take so much maths, physics and computer science, that without taking a single additional class, you can minor in all 3.
Isn’t that unbelievable ?

The EE Core classes put you short 2 classes for CS, 1 class for Maths, and 1 class for Physics and, since you have to take several electives from a list of approved ‘Technical Electives’ (almost any 300/400 level Maths/Physics/CS/EE) anyway, you could just pick those.

My Technical Electives so far are CS 236, CS 324, (thus getting me the CS minor), and both 320 and 483.
I’ve considered getting the maths minor, but I think I’d rather get hit by a bus.

I decided against taking classes….Although it would probably have been in my interest to get rid of a couple of hard ones, it sure feels good to be doing nothing (well…I am working 35 hours a week, so I’m not that lazy.
I figured since I’m not really doing that much, I should buy my Maths book, and give it a look over, since it’s been about 4 years since I’ve done calculus
It’s the 8th edition of “Elementary Differential Equations” (Maths 334) and cost $128
It’s daylight robbery; There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s either that, or not graduate. I love how there’s no competition. The teacher (or department) picks the book, and we are all stuck paying $128.