Welcome SUNY Oswego Parents! We understand that sending off your child to college is an emotional experience, especially when facing many unknowns. This page is meant to provide you answers, from textbooks to laptops to dorm linens. 

The main topics that we will highlight are:

• Textbooks
• Laptop Purchase Program
• Flex Plan
• Residence Hall Linens 
• The College Book Store Return Policy
• Frequently Asked Questions

Textbooks

The estimated textbook expense for incoming students per semester is $322. To help offset these costs, The College Book Store has the largest selection of used textbooks and all of our textbooks are discounted. New textbooks are always discounted 10%! Throughout the media, a popular topic surrounding college bookstores is why are textbook prices so high? Textbooks are a valuable resource for students as they supplement and enhance classroom instruction, provide a common intellectual platform, and offer additional references and perspectives, and are excellent review tools. Textbook prices reflect real costs and a reasonable return on investment for authors, publishers, distributors, and college stores.

Because college stores interact with students and parents face-to-face, nobody is more aware of students' and parents' concerns about the cost of textbooks than The College Book Store. Making used textbooks available is the single most significant way college stores can reduce students' textbook costs. The College Book Store makes every attempt to have the largest selection of used textbooks available for students. There are circumstances where no used textbooks can be made available for courses when the professor has elected to use a textbook that is brand new or a new edition.

Other ways we try to reduce your textbook costs besides having the largest selection of used textbooks are:

Prepack-The College Book Store Prepack program continues to strive towards providing the best customer service, convenience, and adding benefits for our Prepack customers. By signing up for Prepack, the College Book Store staff will pack your upcoming semester's textbooks. Prepack is FREE with no hidden costs! By prepacking your textbooks, you will also have first access to used textbooks before we open our book aisles to non-Prepack customers (saving you money!). We also offer on-campus/off-campus delivery, shipping charges do apply. You may add the cost of your textbooks to your tuition bill through The College Book Store Flex Plan (more on that later!)

Buyback-Although your student may sell their textbooks back to The College Book Store at any time during the semester, the best time to get the most value for textbooks is at our end of the semester buyback. This occurs on the Thursday of the final week of classes and continues until the last day of finals. There are a number of factors that determine how much the student receives back for their textbooks. The College Book Store strives to pay 50% of what you paid for the textbook in the beginning of the semester depending on the condition of the book. Thus, if you paid $70 for a textbook, you could receive up to $35 at the end of the semester. For more information on our Buyback program and the factors that determine how much you may receive, please visit our Textbook Buyback page.

Buyback Bucks-At the end of the semester textbook buyback, our Prepack customers earn Buyback Bucks. Simply sell back your textbooks and you will receive a store coupon for 10% of the cash you receive for your textbooks. Thus, if your student sells back $100 in textbooks then they will receive a $10 store coupon in addition to the $100 cash! In the Fall 2007 semester, The College Book Store gave away $5,812.48 in Buyback Bucks. Buyback Bucks do not expire for the semester you prepacked your textbooks, they extend into the first month of the following semester. Thus, you can apply your Buyback Bucks towards your next semester's textbooks!

In conclusion, if you take the cost of the textbook in the beginning of the semester and apply the services and resources that The College Book Store strive to provide (used textbooks, prepack, buyback, and buyback bucks), you will find that The College Book Store provides the lowest net cost of your textbooks.

Through the Laptop Purchase Program, choose either an Apple MacBook or Dell Latitude. Each laptop comes with a 3-year warranty, Microsoft Office, and notebook cable and lock for added security.

Peace of Mind
Through our excellent technical support, The College Book Store will diagnose and solve any issues that arise with your laptop. Most of our repairs are successfully completed within 24 hours. No matter how simple or complicated the problem, The College Book Store is there to fix any issue. There is no need to contact the Dell or Apple tech support hotline and be transferred from one tech support representative to another for hours and hours. Simply stop by The College Book Store and drop off your laptop, it's that easy! Our technical support service includes only computers purchased through our Laptop Purchase Program.

Affordable Mobile Computing
After your intial payment, the remaining three payments are added right to your tuiton bill. No matter if you choose an Apple or Dell, each comes with built-in wireless capabilities that let you do everything you need to do, anywhere you need to do it!

Laptops are required for students in the School of Business, and recommended for students in the School of Education.

For more information and the latest specifications, please visit our Laptop Purchase Program page.

Flex Plan-The One Card That Can Do It All!

With one swipe of your student ID card, the Flex Plan may be used to purchase anything from textbooks, art, computer, and school supplies to health and beauty products in The College Book Store’s Hewitt Union location. At the Campus Center, use your Flex Plan to pickup a sweatshirt for gameday or a Hallmark greeting card for your family or friends. For those students with excess financial aid, simply log-on to MyOswego and shift your excess financial aid into you Flex Plan. No cash out of your pocket!

Convenience: No checkbook to balance, no cash to loose, no extra cards to carry!
No Hassle: To enroll in the Flex Plan and have your deposit automatically added to your semester's tuition bill or transfer excess financial aid, please log into myOswego.
Refundability: All money that is deposited into the Flex Plan will have it’s Fall semester balance rollover to the Spring semester. Remaining funds may be refunded upon request.

To Shift Financial Aid/Excess Funding into Your Flex Plan Account:

1. Go to myoswego.oswego.edu
2. Click on Student Accounts link
3. Click on Account Summary and select term
4. Click link at bottom to create a College Store Flex Plan
5. Enter amount and click "Add to Student Account"

Note: If your refund check has already been cut (see Account Summary), you will not be able to send additional money to The College Book Store.

  Residence Hall Linens

Do Not Get "Short-Sheeted"! Attention Incoming Freshmen and Parents: In previous years, some students showed up with sheets that did not fit the uniquely shaped beds on campus. To solve this problem, we have made special arrangements with Residence Hall Linens! They are the only school endorsed extra-long bed linens guaranteed until graduation! For more information and how to place order, please visit our linens webpage.

College Book Store Return Policies

Occassionally, your student will need to return a textbook or other merchandise. The receipt must accompany all returns, absolutely no returns or exchanges without a receipt. Members of the College Book Store staff are the final decision makers in all returns.

Refunds will be made in full using the following parameters:

• Books sold as new books are to be returned in the same condition. This includes no marking of any kind in the book, no stains, no binding or cover damage and intact, sealed shrink-wrap.
• Book returns may only be made through the date printed on the bottom of your receipt or posted around the book aisles. The general return time is the first 10 days after the first day of class, but this is subject to change each semester. For summer courses, the return time for textbooks is the first week of the class for that specific session.
• Clothing should have all tags attached to the garment for return, and should not be worn or washed
• CDs are only returnable in the event there is a defect and may only be exchanged title for title and within 72 hours of purchase OR if it is an unopened cd.
• Computers, computer supplies, MP3 players, software, mat board, art paper, and special orders are not refundable.
• Delivery fees are not refundable

Refunds are made corresponding to the way in which the original purchase was paid:

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: My son/daughter does not have their own credit card. Can I just give them my credit card information on a piece of paper or call The College Book Store with my credit card information to pay for my son/daughter's textbooks?

A: To help protect and safeguard from identity theft, The College Book Store does not take credit card information over the phone nor may a student attempt to make a purchase with a credit card number on a piece of paper. If you want your student to have a credit card, please have it in their name. The easiest way to avoid this hassle is to simply add the cost of the textbooks to your tuition bill. Sign up for the Flex Plan and all your student needs is their student id! No credit cards, no cash, no hassle!

Q: My student just received their course schedule for the upcoming semester. Can I call The College Book Store to get textbook information?

A: The College Book Store does not give out textbook information over the phone. The reasons for this include:

• To do so would be so time consuming we would need to hire an extra staff member. This added expense to the business is not good for the consumer.
• We have staff members who are paid to gather textbook information from professors. The expense of this is recouped in textbook sales. Decreased sales=increased chances that that our expenses are not convered. Students may, of course, contact their individual faculty members for the information just like we do.
• The information changes and we do not want the responsiblity of that. It's like the bearer of bad news! There have been incidents where professors come into The College Book Store to change their textbook order only days before the first day of class!
• You may call on July 18 for your textbook information for Professor Smith's class. We may not have the order and we do not want to tell you there is no textbook for the class and then have Professor Smith call us the next day with their textbook order. We do not want to misinform and mislead our customers.

Q: My son/daughter received a "wholesale" price at the end of the semester textbook buyback yet when he returned the following semester he found the same book on The College Book Store shelf. Why did they not receive half price?

A: The College Book Store stops paying half price after we purchase the needed number of copies of a title, so it is possible for a student to see used copies for sale of a title they sold back at the "wholesale" price. In addition, many instructors wait to evaluate their students' success with a book until after exams and the store's buyback is already over. Other times The College Book Store may receive an instructor's request after buyback. While students who sold the books did not get the best price, at least students taking the class the next term will have more used textbooks available. The College Book Store makes every effort to receive an instructor's textbook order for the following semester prior to the end of the semester buyback.

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