RedShelf Reviews

RedShelf has been the worst. It started with the price, I was surprised the cost was in US dollars, I only learned when I looked at my bank statement. OK whatever, my bad.

I rent a book for $60, get it for 180 days. I had to get it through my school, but I will be letting my prof know how horrible the site is.

I was pumped at first because RedShelf claimed I could highlight, take notes, and make flashcards, which I thought was exciting. Except none of those features worked properly for me. I was able to select some text, and make notes, but it was sloppy and ultimately I could not use the highlighting feature just because of how spotty it was working.

But then it got worse.

I went to start reading my 50-page chapter today, got about 4 pages in when it stopped working. The pages wouldn't turn. I've been trying to figure it out for an hour now, emailing RedShelf support with no help in sight. Like I just want to do this awful reading - can I just do that?

Somehow it got worse.

So I restart my computer, clear the history and cache, do all the little tricks they tell you online, nothing works. But I do notice now that the book itself looks a bit different - maybe it's fixed! No, it just looks different, oh wait, something is different, all of the notes I was able to take (however crappy it may have looked) are all gone. Hours of reading and note-taking lost. I honestly don't even want to use RedShelf for this, I'm not even sure I can, but I can't afford the text. This has been awful, I hope my teacher will help me figure something out.

Horrible. The highlighting will "over highlight" and highlight sections that you didn't want. When you search the book for a phrase or seeking other information, the results show "unknown chapter" and do not even supply a page number. There are also no active links in the book that will take you to Westlaw so that you can review the case. No quizzes or other ways to test yourself. This needs to be rectified by the company ASAP if they want to continue to sell ebooks. Next time, I may just go old school and order the hard copy.

Absolutely the most tedious and worthless eBook I have ever used. You have to wait for your browser to make an internet connection to load the next page. It's absolutely infuriating and a complete waste of time. Going to my bookstore to buy a hardcopy. Do not give your money to this company.

The user interface of this e-book is absolutely terrible. I cannot wrap my head around how difficult these guys make it to interact with this book.

For starters:

1. I am sick and tired of having to wait for the next page to load and not being able to use my keyboard to at least click through. The solution to this would be to allow continuous scrolling and just have, at least...at a minimum, each chapter loaded at a time with continuous scrolling.

2. Number one reminds me of something...oh yeah, there are no chapters that we can select on! I have to find the broad section and then click through each individual page until I find the chapter that I desire.

3. It would be very great if those boxes were not hovering over my reading material. They are in the way and are a complete inconvenience.

If I would have known about this prior to ordering the e-book from RedShelf, I would have not done so. I have had this book for one day now and cannot believe this is what I have to deal with. I will be looking for a return if possible because this is not worth it. I will be looking elsewhere.

This is my review that I sent to the company. Book reading: Human Anatomy Labratory.

I always purchase ebooks for my schooling. It makes things very easy and I am able to open my laptop anywhere and begin reading. RedShelf advertises this, which is technically true. However, you have to choose which portion of the book you want to have access to offline. So if I decide to do an assignment that may have me jumping from chapter to chapter and am offline, then I simply can't. I was not aware of this prior to purchasing all my textbooks and would have simply gone with another, possibly slightly more expensive, provider.

RedShelf has great prices, a large selection and superb customer service and technical support. Thank you Redshelf.com for making my student life and personal life better with your books!