Waterstones

bikebarbie

Hello,
I started my first year Uni this year and in September bought a couple of books which by showing my student ID card (not the NUS one) they gave me a 10% discount. Last week went to the same shop to buy another book and used some vouchers that I got for Xmas and this time I gave them my NUS card and they said that they don't do student discount!!
When I mentioned that I got discount on previous occasions they said that they do it only at the start of the accademic year and then when I said that it wasnt very good he replied a charming "is not my problem take it up with HO if you like!!"
I am so upset how can they not value the custome of a student and anyway where is it written that they only offer discounts in September? :mad:

Please advice!

matt4504

Waterstones only has student discount at the beginning of the academic year usually. Tis the same most years....

r.mac_2

hi there,

this happened to me the other day as well. The sales lady explained that due to the heavy discounts they give over many of their titles they only offer a discount to students at certain times of the year. This seems reasonable to me.

I find that i get better value of textbooks by looking for second hand ones online.

otherwise consider your vouchers as your discount!!!

techno_geek

If you have the NUS extra card then you can get 10% off all your purchases from amazon.co.uk - just follow the instructions on the NUS extra website.

I found that amazon was cheaper than waterstones when i bought my textbooks in september

bikebarbie

hello all and thanks for your replies.

I think that amongst all sorts of discounts (of which some are worthless) this would be the most useful and I am very disappointed that Waterstones does not value students enough not to offer us any discount throughout the year. Books, stationary, are the key here and even Staples refused a discount when I recently spent over £20 in stationary!!

If it wasnt for the vouchers I would have told them to keep their book and they have definitely lost my custom, thanks to your advice I will buy from Amazon from now on!

studentkathryn

There's so many online second-hand bookshops that although books are an obvious necessity to students, you can often save a fair amount of money on them. I used to work in a waterstones at a university and could never believe the amount of students that actually buy from them! Check out amazon and abebooks, they have good deals on a lot of text books. And use greenmetropolis.com for fiction in particular wherever possible.

competitionscafe

studentkathryn wrote:

And use greenmetropolis.com for fiction in particular wherever possible.

The Book People have some great deals on fiction and non-fiction too (no good for textbooks, but some good bargains on other stuff) [ http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk ]

Also, Waterstones are often a lot cheaper online than in store and you can get the books delivered to your nearest branch for free (same with WH Smiths).

Quidco cashback on both of the above too.

Also try bookbrain.co.uk to compare prices, but then go via Quidco links (to get the cashback) rather than the bookbrain ones (unless it's amazon [no Quidco cashback] in which case go via Water Aid charity site and up to 10% goes to charity at no extra cost to you: http://www.wateraid.org.uk/uk/donate/give_as_you_shop/default.asp

pavlovs_dog

this unfortunately is the policy in most bookstores. borders for example, only have student discount events 2-3 times a year, but if you sign up their email newsletter they send out regualr discount vouchers etc

Karnam

its worth getting next year's reading list. the most reliably consistent and largest discounts in real shops (borders, foyles, blackwells etc) happen around easter and at the end of academic year.

i always buy my books around that time to save money in long term, but always check online first

hamish_in_hull

I'm really lucky - the University of Hull has its own branch of Waterstones which offers student discount all year round... :T

YAZZA_3

hamish_in_hull wrote:

I'm really lucky - the University of Hull has its own branch of Waterstones which offers student discount all year round... :T

Do they? they didnt yesterday??