Low-priced textbooks sold online may tempt any student on a tight budget, but sometimes bargains aren’t the best way to go.
Wade Pentz, a 21-year-old senior electrical engineering major, said he thought he was being a savvy shopper when he bought a textbook. “Fundamentals of Power Electronics” (Second Edition) was bought by Pentz for $80 through an Amazon third party seller Premiertexts, which is much lower than the retail price of $122.85. After receiving his purchase Pentz said he discovered his copy was counterfeit.
“When you get the counterfeit copies there is no copyright page, I tried to check and lo and behold [there wasn’t one],” Pentz said.
Even though it was cheaper, Pentz said he didn’t suspect foul play because of the company’s high user rating.
“There were a lot of reviews for [Premiertexts],” Pentz said. “This company had five stars or very close to five stars, but I’m sure most of the books people got were not counterfeit…I don’t even know if [Premiertexts] knows [that this book was counterfeit].”
Attempts to contact Premiertexts for comment were unsuccessful.
CU Professor Robert Erickson, who is the textbook author and requires it for his Introduction to Power Electronics class, said he started seeing the counterfeit copies at least five years ago.
“In the past, students in my class have shown up to class with books that they’ve bought from Amazon that are counterfeit,” Erickson said. “They generally say something like ‘Student Edition for sale in China’ or they don’t have the copyright page. I find out because the counterfeit books are generally copies of the first printing of the second edition of the book.”
Read the full story at the Colorado Independent.
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