RedShelf

I bought a book from here a few weeks ago for class. It worked fine for about a week and then completely blocked all my access to my book. I contacted support multiple times but they just kept changing the status to solved without actually helping me at all DO NOT BUY FROM HERE.

So I really like online books because I dont have to physically carry a hard copy and I can import or crop the pictures to put into documents. However, you spend nearly the same amount for the book on this site and they will not let you print more than 20% and acn only download once offline. I did the offline download however the file never made it to my coputer and now I cannot redownload. On top of that it doesnt download the full content. For the particular book I have I need to be able to reach the content online and off and be able to print. Waste of money. Buy on another platform or get the physical book.

As law student with a focus in environmental law, I buy all texts in e-version. This wasn't an issue last year when the software contracts were with VitalSource, but things have become nearly unmanageable since having to use RedShelf. The texts typically take over 15 minutes to load, and that's after having to force close and restart the app multiple times because it freezes &/or when it finally does load it doesn't import your highlights/notes so you have to keep refreshing app until it does. I have been in contact with technical support for over 5 months now, who have been extremely kind and communicative, but which has ultimately produced absolutely NO solutions to these issues.

Considering the $180+ price tags on these e-texts, it is absolutely absurd that they do not even work and that the company cannot provide any remedy or alternative option in the interim while attempting to resolve the tech glitches. Knowing that these texts are being sold for educational purposes, the company has an obligation to establish safeguards &/or remedies in these instances where their product is defective. The lack of such is a huge pitfall for me and will likely prevent me from working with them in the future.

I have trouble every single day when I try to move to the next page and e systems hags up. An example of how not to build an electronic reader platform

I love having access to online books. As a part-time student who works full-time, RedShelf makes studying easier and more convenient. Being able to use the books offline is also a great perk.

I only have one frustration that keeps popping up... being able to clear my offline sessions when a previous offline session has become disconnected. To be more specific, I will download an offline session to use. Before I can clear it, the bookmarked link stops talking to the offline cached version. However, the Redshelf website doesn't know I can no longer access the cached version, I am blocked from starting another offline session, and the "clear your offline session" link disappears. After the error appeared, I cleared the cache on every electronic device I own, and it still doesn't solve the problem.

Is it possible to make the "clear your offline session" link not disappear regardless of whether or not the website thinks I have an offline session cached to my computer? Or, as an alternative, could there be an option under "My account" to clear all secondary devices or sessions attached to the account? I'm thinking about how Amazon allows you to disconnect devices under their "Device Management" page.

Those suggestions would allow me as a user to solve a pretty easy problem without being tied to the help desk schedule. Thank you!

Picture this, broke college student, $100 book, buys it, THE BOOK NEVER OPENS UP. Only errors. Fails course. Really simple story.

I purchased a book and cannot access it. When I contacted customer service, no one responded. Do NOT purchase from this site.

Ok so I already wrote a review after I first rented a book from Redshelf, but now it was gotten even worse and I can no longer even read the book.

Originally my complaint was that I paid 60 dollars (also wish it would have been clear that it was US and not canadian dollars before I purchased) for a book that I am renting and the features it braggs about - ability to highlight, make notes etc. all did not work properly and caused me more headache than anything else.

So I emailed Redshelf, a really nice service rep gave me a million things to try, spent an hour trying them all and nothing changed and now the guy wont get back to me.

Its frustrating because the new problem is this - I was in the middle of reading a huge chapter, got a few pages in and now the pages wont turn. Checked my internet connection, restarted my computer, cleared the cache, i tried everything. So I restart my computer and open my Redshelf book again, the page looks different so im hopeful, but nope, still cant access anything after page 25 of the book, only now... get this - all of the $#*!ty, half working notes and highlighting that i was able to make is now gone! Hours of work, gone.

LITERALLY HATE REDSHELF, I CANNOT BELIEVE MY SCHOOL MADE US USE IT. I WILL BE TELLING MY PROFESSORS AND SCHOOL BOARD ABOUT REDSHELF AND HOW IT FU%KS OVER STUDENTS.

This is easily the WORST book reading platform that I have ever had the displeasure of using. It's unbelievably frustrating in every way possible. Pages take ages to load. The font on the pages is tiny, and when I try to zoom in, the screen freezes up and I have to back out of the app and come back in again. Sometimes, the page just won't come in to focus at all and I have to shut the entire system down to get it to load in properly. I have a new iPad with the latest iOS on it; I *should* be able to use my iPad as an e-reader and turn the screen to portrait mode to make it more like reading a book. Instead, I'm forced to keep it in landscape mode, only able to see less than half the page at a time, because portrait mode somehow cuts off the last word of most lines? What the hell is that about? It will randomly decide not to advance to the next page until I close the app and come back in. The table of contents will send me to the wrong page, if it will work at all. And, just to take my frustration level up another notch, it will auto log me out every 30 minutes or so, and I have to close everything and start all the way back over. It all sucks. I have used more profanity in the last 5 hours trying to get through the chapter on this textbook that I was required to buy online for a class than I have in the previous year! For anyone who is on the fence about purchasing a product from this company, let me help you out with a little advice: Don't! Pay more for a hard copy of you have to because you'll probably have to buy it later anyway... like me. PLUS: I just bought a NEW copy of the textbook for $47. My prof INSISTED the class purchase this unholy pile of s@#* for an online class for $60! I could have saved myself a ton of money, time, and frustration if I'd just purchased the physical book in the first place.

RedShelf is absolutely dog water. It is horrendous. I don't like it all. It makes you enable all cookies and tries to steal your private information.

You can access the books from anywhere and anytime. You can create your own study guide for your test preparation.

Excellent / Exceptional response in reply to my concerns via email.
Outstanding customer service.
Awesome job Vishaal!

This is what you cannot do in Redshelf. Please note - all of these things can be done in PDF.

Create flashcards: I need to be able to create flashcards to remember the information I read. Everyone does. Redshelf will create a flashcard but the flashcard window will not move out of the way. It opens over the actual text in the book that you need to see/select in order to add it to the flashcard. Since you can't move the window, you can't see the text to add it to the flashcard, so it's useless.

Since you cannot use the flashcards, you can try to copy the text. However, Redshelf says it copies it to the clipboard but when you open a Word document to paste it, it does not paste more than two or three words.

Since you can't create Flashcards and you can't copy/paste the important information you need to study later for a quiz, you have to print it. However, Redshelf only allows you to print 20% of the whole book and guess what? That doesn't work either. It does not print. In fact, Redshelf confirmed that the feature is "under construction."

So, how is one supposed to study for exams in the reading? (This is a graduate course so there is tons of reading.) Well, the only options are to literally have another computer open, and either type or manually transcribe by hand what you see in the book into a Word document or in a notepad That's it. I feel like I'm back in the 1980's taking manual notes in a college lecture. That's the only way I can prepare for an exam with this tool. I don't have time.

In regards to highlighting in Redshelf, if you highlight the wrong text and delete it, you can never highlight any part of it again. The mouse will "sit" on top of the text you want to highlight and do nothing.

Total crap.