I ordered my book on February 25th from half.com. The money came out of my account (4.24 or something like that), I watched the page until my information changed. It said the book had shipped and that it would arrive between March 4 and March 16th since it was coming Media Mail USPS. Well, my quarter started on Monday and I still have no book. I went back to the site and clicked on the shipping details, hoping for at least a tracking number, but alas, the shipping information is unavailable.
I contacted the seller and went to see Half.com's policy for disputes. They want you to give a seller 48 hours to respond to your inquiry before you file a claim with Half.com. So, I contacted the seller Monday morning at 7:30 am. Cut to tonight, almost 8 pm, and I still haven't heard from the seller. I want back to Half.com and there is no link for filing a claim. It says in the paragraph that the link is on that page ... but it's not. I can't find it anywhere. The seller had really positive reviews, which is why I didn't hesitate to use them, but now I'm annoyed. Granted, 5 dollars isn't THAT much, but when you have practically nothing, it's enough to put some gas in the gas tank or feed your hungry stomach from Subway or the school cafe on the day's you're in class from quarter of 8 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon.
I think the biggest problem at this point though is I don't know who's at "fault". There's no shipping information on the website, so I don't even know if they ever actually shipped the book or what happened. However, I also know that Media Mail can have ENORMOUS problems and can lose things for months at a time. (I lost a whole lot of books of Ebay because of Media Mail a couple of years ago.) Luckily, there was another book for the same price from a different seller and I got a confirmation email from them saying they had shipped my book ... and you know, now that I'm thinking about it as I type this, I don't ever remember getting a confirmation email from the first seller that my book had A) been purchased and B) had been sent. :/
If I had a tracking number, I could at least TRY and contact the post office, but I don't have anything. Hopefully, this new book comes in it's proposed time. The seller said it usually takes about 4-6 days to get here, but that sometimes it can take up to 14 days. I really hope it doesn't take 14 days, cause the class will be half over at that point. I wish textbooks weren't so stinking expensive. :(