VentureBeat

hehe, I read 44m and was like, WHAT?

Matt, thanks for the article. We are trying to give students a clear voice about things that impact their wallets and allow them to do something about it. Clearly, the bookstore monopoly has been roughing feathers forever – we hope that this “Cheggolution” will positively change things.

On the 31st, we'll be launching a cool money saving feature for college students – so please stay tuned.

Used textbook sites that "screw the bookstore" are one of the examples I wrote about in 8 stupid frat-boy business ideas.

How many times will this idea come up and die again?

(Other stupid frat-boy ideas: t-shirt sites, discount cards, yet another social network, anything where you plan to make money exclusively from ads...and there are a few more).

What's so special about this site ? How are they going to compete with amazon ? Funding to this and other web sites reminds that we may in the middle of bubble 2.0 era.

Ramit, Ved, good questions. I'm still wondering what the big deal is....

I think chegg sucks and the only thing they have is publicity

Not clear how it is better than Craigslist (free and philanthropic to a large extent). It does not look fancy but excellent in functionality.

Chegg has started partnership with book sellers to sell books (It is not a students' market place anymore). Students will be better off using their on campus news server or bulletin boards to buy and sell used books from each other. Course recommended text books generally differ from university to university.

One thing is certain. Venture capitalists don't fund unless they see huge potential profits which have to come from some place. Chegg used to restrict user registration to people with university/college email ids. Not any more.

@ Matt, Robert & Ved, I've tried to respond to your comments...

Overall - our core value is simple - students save $$$ and time whenever they transact on Chegg. Proven, tested & loved by students.

i) Why is Chegg better than Craigslist?
A) We do not compete with Craigslist or say we are better (we even use Craigslist for non-student stuff!). The correct word is that we are 'different' since our focus is much narrower. Here are two main reasons why Chegg is different:
1) Relevancy to the student lifestyle.
2) Hyper Local - on your campus and not the whole city.

ii) Is Chegg is open for all to do everything?
A) No. Non-students can only POST. They cannot BUY or proactively contact students or do what we will announce on 1/31. We got quite a few emails from people living close to campuses looking to sell used items for cheap to students. This is great service for students and we wanted to make that available. Again - a service for students.

iii) Is Chegg still a Marketplace?
A) I will contend that the 50,000 plus USED item postings in the last few months makes it a marketplace. A good marketplace has both Used and New items.

iv) Competing with Amazon.
A) On the contrary, we see ourselves becoming more a partner with them and others. We are looking to be a marketplace where others can come and know that their target user is in attendance. We put up a few titles to show everyone that cheaper books are possible PLUS show a working product, not to mention save students some money (we've had orders as high as $386 from a single student - which gave her a saving of $120 compared to other sites).

Two weeks ago USA Today wrote an article on how the students today are in higher in college debt than ever before. Saving money is on most students mind, and Chegg is trying to make it easier to do just that.

I liked Chegg in the beginning. Today it is not different from price scanning sites which put together text book suppliers and their asking prices. If Chegg sees itself becoming a partner with Amazon, it not going to be "different" any more.

Students are in debt today not because of essential expenses (tuition & books which in general are paid by parents) but non-essential expenses.I am not telling what is essential or non-essential expenses to students. If they are in debt they are to blame; not text book prices.

It does not make sense why saving on text books always gets priority. Is it because most hate studying or anything connected to it? They dont want to spend any thing connected to what they hate.

They never try to find ways to save on non-essential expenses (Designer Clothes, Cars, beer, i-pod, Music CDs etc.). They dont mind paying whatever Steve Jobs aks for his iPod. No problem paying whatever Budweiser aks for. No problem paying whatever sports tickets are priced. They never complain they are expensive or over priced.

Yet, they want to save whatever ($400 or so) they pay ever semester on a couple of text books. If they really want to save on book, they should use library course reserves (100% saving on books!) instead of complaining on higher book prices.

You guys should try www.collegemedium.com

It's a pretty cool site with some pretty unique features.

THESE PEOPLE HAVE CRAP CUSTOMER SERVICE
Chegg has terrible customer service -- this is my first and last time dealing with them. Their policy is for returns within 15 days, but their lack of customer service ensures you can't get the book back because it takes 10 days to arrive and 4 days to get email response from customer service.

While Chegg may seem awesome, they have horrible customer service, extremely ridiculous shipping times, and their books are in bad condition.

Good luck trying to get in touch with them by phone or email if you ever have any problems. And good luck in getting your books within 2 weeks of your order being placed.

Stay away from Chegg until they improve their customer service and shipping.

Chegg is a wonderful concept, but everyone is right. Chegg's CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS! I have been trying to get a hold of them for 3 WEEKS now. I am missing one book (out of the 10 that I ordered).

I have sent several e-mails and called them a million times. Every time I call, their answering machine says they are experiencing a high call volume and to call back later or send an e-mail. It then HANGS UP on me. So I call several different times in the day and it's the same story. I don't think there is anyone on the other end - EVER!

With regards to the e-mails that I have sent, it seems like they are idiots, they keep asking me for the same information. I am just going to do the following:
1. Post all over the web as much as I can to let people know my experience.
2. Request a credit for that specific book from my credit card.
3. Report them to the better business bureau.
4. I am going to un-recommend them to all my friends.

I am tired of being hung up on and not being called back or given a solution to my e-mails.

THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING!

Totally agree with Charalayne. Chegg's service sucks hardcore.

Let me say that again: CHEGG'S SERVICE SUCKS!
I order my book, wait the estimated delivery time, call them when it doesn't show up. I can't get through to anyone. Repeat three times over three separate days. I email about ten times. I file a ticket on their website.

Nothing for 2 weeks! My book is nowhere, my class has started and I'm falling behind because of CHEGG. I order the book off another internet site and cancel the Chegg bill on my card. About a week later, they finally respond: They never had the book and neither did any of their affiliates. Oops.

If you want to save money, rent from some other place. If you go with Chegg, you'll get screwed. I'm never shopping there again and I'm telling everyone I know that they SUCK!

I agree with everyone that Chegg.com is a disaster. They shipped out books to my brother and I. My brothers book came in the mail and they told me my book could not be shipped because there is no such address, Lets be serious....They just shipped a book to my brother at the same address! Then I called, the issued me a refund. The only thing is that they didn't issue me a refund. Called them 3 days in a row and could not contact them. I contacted the Better Business Bureau and finally the answered, it only took four weeks to get a refund and two weeks for them to ship a book that never reached my house. Their company is absolutely without a doubt HORRIBLE. Stay away.

I ordered a book from Chegg after three weeks NEVER GOT MY BOOK! I e-mail customer service 4 times and called atleast 10, CUSTOMER SERVICE NEVER RESPONDED!

Finally contacted Better Business Bureau, thats when they got around to refunded my order.

DONT ORDER FROM CHEGG!

It's also been three weeks since I ordered my book for biology and received nothing, nada, zippo. I opened a support ticket yesterday and they're supposed to respond within 48 hours. If I don't hear anything by Friday, I'm going to dispute the charge with my bank. Strangely enough, most of the texts on their site are now listed as "Due to high demand, this book is temporarily out of stock." Perhaps chegg got too big for their own good, took their cash and jumped ship? Stay far, far away from these folks!

That is why I created www.StudentBookTrades.com. An easy way to find college textbooks that other students have already completed courses for. Students are automatically matched with each other to trade textbooks for classes they have completed. Trade, Swap, sell, or buy college textbooks from other students. Search the book database, contact the student at your home campus, city, state, or nationwide about the book and save money.