Chegg.com Consumer Reviews

On 5/3/2014 I sold a book to Chegg. I was promised an amount and maybe 2 weeks later I saw my Chegg account change. It stated they had sent out a check from Wells Fargo and that I would receive it in 10 business days. After the 10 business days passed I called because I hadn't received the payment. They then told me to give it 5 more days because it actually takes up to 15 business days. I waited. A few days after the 15 days I called back and was told they didn't know why I hadn't received it. They then told me they were going to send out another check.

Here it is August the 7th, five checks later and I still have yet to receive the payment (order **). I have called repeatedly, chatted repeatedly. They just keep giving me the runaround. They are very unhelpful. They say the same thing every time I call, "Give it a few more days..." Now what I don't understand is I've always used the same address for all purchases. Now when it's their turn to pay me there's something wrong with the address.

I asked "What do I do when I don't receive the 5th check." I was told that I would then have to wait another 15 days. I want to know what should I do because I'm more than sure they've sold or sent out my book to someone else. And to be honest I don't want it back. I want my money but they are giving me the runaround. I never knew it would take 4 months (maybe more now) to get one payment. I usually use eBay and now I wish I stuck with them because that was a very expensive book.

I recently started back to school and with a family of 4, the outrageous prices for textbooks at the school bookstore were just beyond my means. So, looking for alternatives, a friend recommended chegg.com. I checked it out and it seemed to be reputable and the price I would pay for the use of my books was less than half of what I would pay at the school bookstore. You know the saying, "If it's too good to be true, then it probably is?" Well, let me tell you that in this case, it WAS too good to be true. I paid for expedited shipping and did receive my books quickly, but I had 2 MAJOR issues.

One of the books I ordered was for an online class and came with an access code to access the assignments online. Problem: the code is only allowed to be used once. Bigger Problem: Chegg "rents" out USED books. They should have never sold me this book. Therefore, this book was USELESS.

I used my credit card to purchase online because I can log on to my cc company and get a "secure" number for use online. Problem: I went to use my card 2 days after my purchase and my card was DECLINED. Reason: Chegg had sent through MULTIPLE (anywhere from 8-16) "authorizations" on my card so it was holding my available credit. Even though they were "pending" and had not actually been authorized purchases, I could not use my card.

I called the company and my credit card several times (meaning over 5 times each) and finally came to what I thought was a resolution. I had to have my credit card company three way the "manager" at Chegg and tell her how to take care of the problem. They needed to call Merchant Services and let them know that only one of the charges was actually authorized. Problem is that the "manager" at Chegg pretty much had no clue what that meant or how to get their merchant number for this particular credit card company. She told me she would take care of it and call me back.

She called me back the next day, but unfortunately, I missed the call and she left a VM for me to call her. I did so and big surprise, she was "not in" the office. I left yet another message giving my cell phone number thinking she would be able to reach me easier... big surprise, I got a phone call at home the NEXT day and of course, I missed that call as well (after I had told them to call my cell phone). She did leave a message this time, stating she had spoken with my credit card company and there were no more authorizations pending on my account.

WRONG. I called Discover and they said they did not think she had called and that ALL the pending auth's were still on my account. Thankfully after a week of going back and forth with both Chegg and my credit card company, my cc company removed the auth's for me.

I did print the labels and shipped the books back the day after I received them since they were of NO USE to me, and am currently waiting to see if I have any trouble getting my refund, which should be no problem according to all the info on their website and on the hold message when you call them since I returned within 30 days of purchase. We'll see. My advice... buy at your school bookstore. It's worth the extra money to get the correct books and know that you are dealing with an actual reputable company.

LANSDALE -- I (along with a lot more people), have received false accusations saying that our Chegg study subscription has been shared with other students. In my case, I have not shared my account with anyone. As a result, our account got banned for 48 hrs. No refunds, and the 48hr ban count towards your 30 days of usage.

ON THE WEB AND SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA -- College textbooks are expensive to buy. Rental made sense. Chegg will debit your account immediately when you place your order for books THEY CLAIM TO HAVE IN STOCK. Then the bad news- you can't get reliable info from them about where your books are (when they have not arrived), but you can get a run around. You can pay for "priority shipping" as we did- supposed to be 4-6 days. They claim that means 10-14 days. But they don't have the book at all in the first place so you are waiting for nothing.

Then to add insult to injury, when you do get a "genius" customer service person on the phone (which is a great achievement), they may offer you a refund for your rental after they mislead you, deceived you with phony updates, and never had the book in the first place... all the time you are borrowing other people's books, using books at the library (if you're lucky) and all around abused by Chegg. Since not receiving my paid order as promised, re-promised and all around lied to about, I priced the same books with Amazon. Voila! For about the same price as Chegg rental, you can own the book and have it in two days with free shipping in most cases.

And, Amazon has a REAL place of business, not some suite # with no books to ship. I would spend my money and TIME with a reputable company before using some "mystical web base only". NO service, NO truth(s), NO textbook(s), and as of yet, NO money back. There is NO saving in time or money using Chegg and I would strongly recommend to anyone that they use their college bookstore (even though expensive) or Amazon, or even eBay- as they are all accountable.

Misrepresentation is the norm and customer service at Chegg is an oxymoron. It's actually better to call or write AOL in India than to try to get any real answer you can rely on from Chegg- but then again it's only your future at stake and they will have had your money by then when you finally, maybe, get someone on the phone. If you feel you've been cheated, lied to, been ripped off, or just abused and wasted time and money with Chegg you are welcome to write and I will supply you with the information to go after them because it is NOT available from their "people" used loosely here, or on their "site". BEWARE.

SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA -- Their website is incapable of safely storing payment information. Their error has cost me $29 overdraft, $145.88 being tied up for 3-5 business days, I am unable to put gas in my car or groceries in my fridge. After asking them to remove my payment information from their system, they said it was not possible. I had to physically go to my bank and fill out an electronic dispute form, I spend approximately 45 minutes at my bank, I spent approximately 40 minutes on the phone with Chegg, and I spent 20 minutes on the phone with PayPal. This company is negligent and incompetent.

Do not sell your textbooks back to Chegg. I found out the hard way. I looked into 4 websites that buy back your college textbooks. Chegg.com gave me the most for my two books. I sent the books by UPS to Chegg. I find out today that they will only pay for ONE book. Apparent the other softcover book had a one-inch corner crease on the front cover and the back cover. NOTHING ELSE is wrong with the book, no loose pages, no writing, no smudges, nothing missing...great shape.

I cannot believe that they will not pay for this book, but they also will not send it back. I will tell you that I am sure they will resell the book or still rent it out. I have used Cash4Books before and had great service. This was my second time selling textbooks, thought it would be nice to get a little more money... When they say it is too good to be true, it is. Do not use Chegg!!!

I am very impressed with Chegg's service. This company does online text book rentals. My daughter started college in the fall ('09) and got the textbooks from Amazon.com. It took a long time to get the books and one of the books never arrived at all. We knew we had to find another way so we tried Chegg.com for this semester. Chegg rents out gently used books. We ordered five textbooks that would have cost us about $500 plus to purchase, but we got them from Chegg for about $200. They came within the week of ordering them, so I'm all ready impressed since Amazon uses media mail and they took ages to come.

Next, one of the books we received from Chegg we had to send back due to a change of classes. They pay the return shipping. You just print the label from their website, easy as pie. I sent the book back, and within three days they sent an email saying they received the book and they would refund my card the amount of the book. Great service, very prompt delivery of the books and their return and refund was very prompt and courteous. Two thumbs up for Chegg. This was truly hassle free and my daughter was happy to start her classes with the books in hand this time.