George Mason University Bookstore

I came to the bookstore today, way at the end of the semester because my language class is moving onto the next book. The first employee i encountered, was decent enough, tried explaining the policies and i was totally okay with all of this. To continue making the actual transaction she needed to check something with her manager that was right there, hearing our previous conversation. She asked if things needed to be prepaid at this time because they don’t cary textbooks for this semester anymore, fine. Then his reply is «*scoff* yes! it needs to be prepaid because i’m not getting stuck with a book i don’t need»… i barely let him finish, his attitude was atrocious right there in front of his customer. I politely excused myself and said i would do things online and thanked her for her time. I know that college students can be rough to deal with but we’re still people and we’re still paying customers one way or another. There should be absolutely no excuse for saying these things RIGHT IN FRONT of your customer! The added commentary was SO unnecessary! I know why he needed to have the prepaid, i would have probably gone through with the purchase if not for the attitude nevertheless i’ll be avoiding the bookstore from now on.

Everything is way overpriced. I can’t even imagine anyone buying things from here. Good thing there’s
and Amazon; that’s my to go for real savings.

This place has two levels. The top level has a small selection of books and an abundance of GMU gear. Downstairs is where all textbooks for purchase or rent is located. It is organized very well by alphabetical order and all online orders are picked up and paid for down there. There is almost every type of supplies you would need for any class but the prices will blow your mind. I needed a book and would normally buy from Amazon but changed my schedule today and luckily there was one book left of what I needed. The price for the new book was about the same in Amazon so it all worked out. The checkout lines are out if control but there are many of them and seemed to filter through fairly quick.

Books are overpriced, never buy them here. This place is pretty small and is more of a gmu cash cow than anything else. Cashiers range from cool to crazy.

Here’s an update:
I’m not as mad anymore. The situation worked out. I tracked down the cashier and she admitted it could very well be a mistake. OK, I can live with that. At least she was honest. So after that I got in contact with the bookstore manager and he agreed to check in my rental textbook. There was no reason to drive out to fairfax again. Way to go gmu bookstore, you’re not as bad as I thought you were. Still, your overpriced books is reason enough to get my books from online.

Besides being affiliated with Barnes and Nobles, which has competitive and affordable prices online. Do you know how they make so much money nowadays? By up charging and raising ridiculous prices on the books which cost 50 – 100 bucks less online!
Went here and bought a cooking book for recreational purposes, only for me to find out said book was 9.95 online as opposed to «29.95 special reduced price on sale!» I had the original receipt, and had tried returning it. The manager in question told me that it was already too late, and that I had been a hour LATE! I purchased the book at 12:41 PM, and 3 days later arrived at 1:41 PM. OH COME ON! Stop trying to suck out my blood and my wallet with your greediness…
Do you also know people who work there get zero to low discounts? You’re so cheap that you won’t even give the workers there a slight to affordable levels of discount on your overpriced and overcharged books?
Will never ever get my business, and I’LL HATE THIS BOOK STORE FOR EVER!

My daughter bought couple of books from there and when she got home we found the same books $ 200 cheaper on line! She could not find her original receipt from them but took the receipt we printed out from our credit card company’s web site.
They would not take the books back without original receipt, when I called the ask why our receipt (which clearly shows the transaction) was not good enough, they said they would need the original receipt which shows the transaction number. I told them that I would get that from my CC company, manager’s answer to that was it was up to the discretion of the store to accept returns without the original receipt and their store policy was no original receipt, no return.
Clearly their intentions are to charge outrageous prices and bank on the students not keeping their receipts.
My daughter is a senior in high school, she wanted to take some classes there to see if she likes George Mason but after seeing their bookstore’s customer service we decided that they are not getting our business.

Blah so annoying, it’s like every semester they come up with some new way to charge us more and more money. Seriously these people have are oblivious to the fact that they’re consumer market is composed of students on a budget! Like the books aren’t expensive enough, now they have to complicate their return policy; in order to return a textbook after the first week of classes you have to provide them with proof of a schedule change, meaning your no longer taking the course for which the books you are returning are for… Um why do they care??? What if I bought a book I need and then I find it cheaper elsewhere? Apparently with their new policy I’m stuck with the one I got from the bookstore unless I go through the hassle of dropping the class, showing them the proof, then re-​adding it. BS, it’s time consuming and unfair to students, this is the last semester I purchase anything from the gmu bookstore; oh and on top of that if you do drop your class and try to return whatever books you bought for it make sure it’s within the first 30 days of the semester otherwise you’re stuck. Boooo

Having been away from a true brick and mortar university environment for over a decade, I wasn’t sure what to expect with my trip to the bookstore in preparation for fall classes. Other than dealing with a rather overzealous bookstore attendant downstairs who attempted to chide me for entering a «restricted area» (Riiiiiiiight dude. You have no clue what the hell that means), I found it to be nearly the same — minus the advertisements for digital textbooks.
Costs were still astronomical — no way I could see paying $ 179 for a text book when I can get the same functionality out of a regular book at B&N. Thankfully, it was for the other section of the class I’m taking and not for my own. GMU swag is upstairs — I’m surprised this small store can manage the demand for nearly 25,000 students — but hey, I’m not retail manager so who knows how they take care of this.