Chegg Review

If there is one good thing that separates Chegg.com from any other online textbook rental service, it is the fact that the company plants one tree for every book you rent. That is a lot of help, especially since college textbooks take up much of the paper produced from cutting down trees and processing their barks.

Chegg.com has been around since 2003, but it only started renting books to students in 2007, when founders Osman Rashid and Ayush Phumbhra realized the need for better access to books. And so, since many people have their own college textbooks intact but gathering dust in their shelves, Chegg decided to buy these unused textbooks and rent them out. Do not get me wrong, though. The site also rents out brand new books and even sells them according to the suggested retail price followed by publishers.

You can rent the book for an entire semester, a quarter, or even 60 days, but Chegg gives a 15-day allowance if you need to extend your use of the book—for a minimal fee, of course. Many of the books also come with supplemental materials, such as CDs, workbooks, and online access codes, but these do not come with all the books, just many of them. If you choose to buy the book instead, for sure, you will receive the supplemental materials.

What I like best about Chegg, though, is the fact that all its books are covered with a money-back guarantee. For example, if you suddenly realize that you do not need the book after all or if you find any reason at all to want to return the book, then you can do so. Just make sure that you return the book within 30 days from your order date. If you choose to go for standard shipping, which takes 7 to 9 business days for the book to arrive at your door, then you have about 21 to 23 days to decide whether you want to return the book. They also guarantee that your book will arrive on time because if it does not, then you get the book shipped for free. And one more thing, if the book arrives in poor condition—too many highlights, a broken spine, or torn pages, for instance, you can also ask for a replacement, but you have to return the first book via a prepaid UPS return envelope.

So, if you feel like you will not be using your college textbooks after this semester anyway, I suggest you rent them from Chegg instead. It will help you save up on hundreds of dollars and help the environment at the same time.