Amazon Bans Taking Text Books Over State Lines

(Thomas Dishaw)  As the assault on freedom continues to plague this country retail giant Amazon has instituted a draconian textbook rental policy that will leave you shaking your head.

According to the fine print,  fittingly titled “Textbooks With Borders”, Amazon’s sister company Warehouse Deals, Inc will charge you full price if you dare to take the textbook you rented over state lines, and unknowing charge your credit card full retail price if they think you have violated their policy .

According to their Textbook Rental Terms and Conditions page “You may not move the textbook out of the state to which it was originally shipped. If you wish to move the textbook out of that state, you must first purchase the textbook.”  If Amazon does determine that a renter has moved his or her book to a different state “at any time during the rental period,” the company at its “sole discretion” can charge the consumer the buyout price of the textbook ,writes Inside Higher Ed

God forbid you’re a college student and decide to bring your school books home while visiting your parents for a weekend, who happen to live in another state.  Would Amazon actually have the audacity to charge you full price for that textbook if they found out you crossed state lines?   Do they have the technological infrastructure to enforce this policy? Probably not. But this day is quickly approaching as the big brother control grid is integrated into every aspect of our life.

 According to Inside Higher Ed:

Experts believe the policy is another reflection of the extreme lengths to which the company continues to go in order to avoid collecting state sales taxes. But could Amazon’s use restriction and other complicated rental conditions cause problems for students or lead potential textbook renters to take their business elsewhere?

It seems like a policy that would be nearly impossible to enforce. But Richard Hershman, vice president of government relations at the National Association of College Stores, points out that if a student has textbooks sent to her home state and ships them back from a different state where she attends college, Amazon could easily note the new shipping location.

And a penalty could be costly. For example, a student who rents a sixth edition chemistry textbook by John E. McMurry and Robert Fray and has it shipped to Pennsylvania will pay $54.58 before shipping and handling fees. That book has a buyout price of $150.49. If Amazon discovers that the student violated the rental terms and conditions by moving the book out of Pennsylvania, the student could be charged the $96 difference. (These numbers are as of August 15. Online textbook prices are constantly fluctuating, especially directly before the fall semester begins, noted Hershman.)

Unfortunately this article isn’t satire and represents the absolute absurdity we as consumers have grown  to accept. As society continues to progress into a sheepish herd it’s kind of hard to imagine what my fellow Americans won’t accept…….And that my friends is a very scary thought.

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