We all know that the second expense that we encounter in our education, beyond registration fees, is our textbooks. Capella, and all the online schools, offer online bookstores (most through MBS Direct). As someone with four children and one income, I tend to like to look for the best deal. It is important to remeber that the schools have generally tried to create a deal with MBS (or their selected store) prior to you ordering.
In my attempts to find better deals I have ordered many books through Amazon,a nd in most cases come out ahead. This quarter is a different story. When looking at the required book for my current class I pulled the ISBN, Title, Author, and price, then started my searching. In pulling the information though, I missed a critical piece of information. This textbook from MBS direct was coming with a software package already included in the book order.
Unfortunately, I found my book with Amazon and ordered (for baout $50.00 less). I felt quite proud, until I opened the classroom and realized my critical error. Now three days late for starting class, because I had my class date confused with my husband's, I was short a critical course resource. I quickly used the instructors provided link and placed my order for the software and then was promptly irrate because the site was going to charge me $35 shipping and handling because I lived at an APO address. Mind you HI, Alaska, Guam, and Puerto Rico were included in this shipping cost hike. I needed the book and software though so I could participate in my course, so I had to eat the outrageous charge and order.
Now I have the software and extra book. I am finally caught up in class and have learned $35.00 lesson. I will most likely only order from MBS Direct for my course books in the future to prevent any more outragous shipping charges and to avoid missing course materials.