Beware of obscure returns policy and loopholes around Unisa prescribed titles

(See edit below)

Although Sherwood Books advertise themselves widely as 'official Unisa booksellers', they do not hesitate to contradict themselves when it comes down to the wire.

Due to a change in circumstances, I needed to cancel my order, but I was told that I would not receive a refund. Their reason for this was that the books I ordered (which were standard prescribed books of the Unisa BMus programme) seemingly had to be special ordered from overseas publishers and that they could not resell them to other students - I reiterate - they could not resell Unisa prescribed books to other students. This is just ridiculous.

To top this, their service was absolutely appalling. First, it was the omission of the delivery fee on the initial quotation (resulting in an additional payment due), followed by a complete lack of communication, and finally, their failure to mention their ludicrous returns policy leaving me in the lurch.

I would not recommend them.

(Edit)

After this initial review was posted, I was contacted by the owner who was seemingly very apologetic and explained to me that (for reasons which should not be the onus of the customer) they do not have all of the standard Unisa prescribed titles on record...

He also agreed that their returns policy is way too obscure, and that a link to this policy will be included in future email correspondence in an attempt to correct this.

He (telephonically) confirmed that their refunds policy is not to take any returns if the books are not defective in some way, but that they do sometimes make exceptions under special circumstances, and that he will most likely be able to accommodate my request for a refund.

He then changed the direction of the conversation, emploring me to remove my review (which I did). He even phoned me back five minutes after our initial conversation to make sure that I have deleted the review and asked if I can comment somewhere (I'm not sure where since I had already deleted the review) that I had a complaint but that it had been resolved. This was when I first started feeling that the objective of this phone call was was not to resolve my issue, but rather to protect the reputation of the business.

Two days later, and I had not heard from Sherwood Books again.

I then sent an email asking for them to confirm the status of my request for a refund and I asked to be responded to via email since I was unable to take phone calls.

Five minutes later, my phone rings... I then sent another email asking to be responded to via email (for at this point I thought getting something in writing is probably best). After this, I received no response.

At this point, I would rather share my experience than fight for a refund. Hopefully, Unisa students reading this will be able to avoid this kind of experience and expensive mistake.