How to Return Your Rental

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BooksRun Info & Tips
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College is expensive; it’s not news. That’s why many students choose to save money as much as possible and often rent textbooks instead of buying them. However, the rule of frugal renting is not to forget about the deadlines and return your textbooks to the bookstore in due time.

This article contains essential information about book rental terms—initial condition, purchase, shipping, and returns—and highlights the steps you need to take when the deadline to return your rentals approaches and you are unsure what to do. Here is all you need to know about the BooksRun rental return process.

What to Remember about Rentals

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Crucial Information about Book Rentals

Important Note: Full information about our book rental policy and rules can be found on our Terms and Conditions page. 

You Should Return the Rental in the Initial Condition

  • We provide book rentals in a range of conditions, from New to Used-Acceptable.
  • Among rental items, you may encounter various editions, such as international, teacher/instructor’s editions, etc.

Please return your rental items in their initial condition. Renting a book is not the same thing as purchasing it for good; therefore, you should not make highlights, write notes, fold pages, or do anything else that damages the book and deteriorates its state. All rented books are examined upon return. If you return items with water damage, detached binding, excessive writing or highlighting, and other signs of damage that resulted in significant condition change—in other words, if any problems occur during the inspection and the book is deemed to be unusable any longer, a purchase price will be charged.

Supplementary Materials

Our rental orders don’t include any supplementary materials.

Purchase and Payment

Your credit/debit card will be charged for the rental item and shipping charges when you rent an item from us. However, a rental item is BooksRun’s property unless the purchase price is charged. 

Please don’t cancel or exceed the purchasing limits of your credit or debit card until you return rented textbooks to us or until the non-return fees are paid. In case your credit or debit card is declined, we’ll have to send your account to a Third Party Collection Agency.

We do not refund any charges related to rental orders.

Shipping

We ship all rental orders for you for free if you choose standard shipping, or we can offer expedited shipping for $3.99. Please keep in mind that we are not responsible for any shipping-related loss or damage. If you received a damaged item, please report the issue within 7 days after the item’s delivery. If you don’t report damage, you’ll be solely responsible for any condition change incurred. Also, keep in mind that we do not provide replacements—either for rented or purchased items.

Rentals Have a Return Date

Most colleges and universities have their semesters begin and end relatively on the same dates; therefore, online bookstores and rental companies align their rentals with those dates. Most of them usually set return dates after the semester ends. With BooksRun, however, you can choose to rent your textbooks for 35, 60, 90 days, and for a longer period depending on the book and the season. You can also extend your rental for 15 days (multiple times).

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The rental period starts from the date of order placement. Nonetheless, regardless of the rental term, keep the return date in mind and write it down somewhere and put a reminder (on your phone, calendar, or planner).

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You Get Notifications about Your Rental

We help you remember about the rental by sending you notifications, texts, and emails. You can expect a whole bunch of emails from us: a confirmation email, an email about the rental shipment, a delivery email, a deadline reminder email (10 days prior to the deadline), a rental extension email, and a reminder of the rental deadline before purchase (10 days after the extension and 5 days before the deadline). With that much attention, you will definitely remember the due date.

How to Return Your Rented Books

  1. Go to the Return rental page and enter your Order number and email address used upon placing the order.
Important Note: You can find the Order number in the confirmation email you received upon placing your order. You can copy and paste the Order number in the form on the website like in the example below; alternatively, you can click the VIEW ORDER DETAILS button in your confirmation email and go directly to your rental order page. 
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  1. Now, you will be able to see the rental order. If you are a registered user and logged in before making an order, you will be able to find your rental order in your account. However, keep in mind that if you made an order first and registered later, your order won’t be displayed in your account.
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3. The next step is to click “Get free return label.” Once you do so, you’ll see the Rental Return information pop-up. The return label becomes available 25 days after order placement. 

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Important Note: You should use a prepaid return shipping label within 25 days you have clicked on the button “Get free return label.” If you do it in advance, the shipping label will become unavailable in 25 days, and you will have to cover the shipping yourself.

4. Next, click on the “Select items to return” button. You’ll see a pop-up with the rental items that you can currently return. Select the item(s) you want to return.

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5. Click “Get free return label.”

6. New labels will be generated for the books that you’ve selected, and the pop-up with the list of return labels will be opened with the newly generated label at the top. Your return label will have a QR code that you’ll have to present to a retail associate at your nearest post office to print a free shipping label. You can also print the shipping label yourself by clicking on the “Click here” link under the QR code.

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Important Note: If you want or had to send the order with a different shipping label, please, notify the Customer Support team of the tracking number. Please read more about QR code usage and how to ship books without shipping labels.

8. Click “Close,” and you’ll see the “Show my return labels” button next. 

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9. If you click on “Show my return labels,” you’ll be able to see the list of your active return labels. 

10. Once you’ve printed the label and packed the book, place the label on the box to ship the book back to us for free. 

Important Note #1: You should return all the books you’ve chosen in Step 4. Make sure you return your rentals with the label that was specifically generated for them.
Important Note #2: We strongly recommend sending back your rentals directly from the mail carrier’s facility. Please avoid using drop boxes unless there is no other option. You are supposed to ship your rental back by the deadline, while a drop box can cause unexpected delays, which can result in late fees.

Late Returns

You can see the deadline for your rental in your account. It will be displayed as “Return by MM/DD/YYYY” in red. You can extend your rental period for 15 days:

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Important Note: If you don’t return or simply ship the rental back in time, you’ll be automatically charged an extension fee. If the item is not returned until the second deadline (after the 15 days extension), the purchase price will be charged. In case the indebted amount cannot be charged from your account, your case and the account details will be sent to the collection agency.

Is the Return Shipping Free?

Yes, return shipping is free, and you can find a free return shipping label inside your rental order on the BooksRun website.

Can I Get a Refund?

We only refund you for the items you initially purchased; therefore, rentals are not refunded.

Can I Buy the Rented Textbooks?

If you don’t want to return the textbook you rented, you can indeed purchase it on your rental order page:

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The Bottom Line

BooksRun is always eager to help students with everything textbook-related, be it getting new books for the semester, selling your old books, or renting books at affordable prices. As you can see, returning rental books to BooksRun is easy. There are just a few steps, and they are so simple! All you have to do is remember the deadline. To return your rental, go to the Return rental page and follow the instructions given in this article!

Natalie Song