Otay Books

I don’t know about everyone else’s experiences being so negative but my own experience was a positive experience. I had called ahead to Southwestern’s bookstore to ensure that it was in stock for me to go and pick up and they had confirmed that they were in stock and I left immediately after to get the book. When I got there they said they had been out of stock and already made a reorder for the book two days prior to me asking.
I came to this book store weary of the previous Unilocal reviews but they were very helpful to me. They also did not have the book I needed but did have the edition before it in stock and offered to have me rent out that edition while they special ordered my textbook in the right edition which would arrive just two days later. They were very helpful for my situation and stay true to their claims of their prices beating out Southwestern’s prices because if I had rented this book from Southwestern it would have costed $ 91 not including tax where as here it cost $ 57 including tax.
Definitely coming back here before I ever go to Southwestern’s bookstore.

Just got out of the bookstore right now… To all my Unilocalers — Go across the street to swc’s bookstore or to another store. You’ll only leave disappointed and wanting to smack the unibrow off of the rude owner’s face. Horrible customer service. Horibble place in General. The place smells like expired hummus and books with Drool all over them.

Definitely would go negative on the star rating if I could. This was my first semester with SWC and being a little on a budget i decided to come here and save some money on books as my instructors advised me I wouldn’t be needing the custom student bundles they sell at SWC for around $ 100 or so (depending on the subject). I got two USED books, one for $ 70 and another for $ 30, to come to find out I actually do need the bundle. I try and contact them to refund my money and return the books and even after explaining the miscommunication I had they FLAT OUT say NO. I was so disappointed that they would run a business with no moral standards. You’re supposed to be helping students by attracting them to getting better deals in order to allow your business to grow. Instead you guys are overpricing old and horribly maintained material, while continuing to scare customers away with your unfair customer service. I will never ever buy a book from them again, EVER.
I believe they shouldn’t even able to sell SWC books, that are specifically made to come with an ACCESS CODE. From reading reviews below, it’s sounds like fraud to me.
DO NOT COME HERE !

Don’t go here! Big Rip they gave me a buyback price of 45 $ for 4 really common books, went to the swc bookstore and they gave me 149 $. I would give them 0 stars if possible

To be honest their prices are not that much cheaper than the college bookstore. I will rather help the school out rather than this place where all sales are final. I bought the wrong book. I realized that like after 30 minutes and when back and they were rude about it.

They buy used textbooks.
Prices may not be as high as you can sell it yourself but you save the time from finding your own buyer on craigslist and posting each individual post to sell each book.

I really wish I could give this place a –10. This place does not care one bit for their customers. All they want is your $$$. The middle eastern people that work here are assholes and are so rude. I will never spend one more penny in this place. You are better off buying your books online or even spend a little more money for better service. Not to mention the bookstore is old as hell. Book buyback is ridiculous. DO NOT COME HERE!!! YOU WILL REGRET IT!!! OTAY BOOKS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS! !!

Nice owner and employee. Thought they were always grumpy but I was wrong.
It’s still too overpriced for me, but I sold my books for few bucks:) better than keeping em in my house

1 star is being NICE… I had signed up for classes and since the book store was out and i wanted to get ahead I stopped by this place… THANK GOD they didnt have it. anyway i bought if off of ebay… but later had to drop the class like a week later so i figure hey i spent $ 60 let me get half of my money back if not more. and these FOOKERS said they would give me $ 12 for the book… I was like your kidding right this book brand new is $ 80 and I see your selling the used version for $ 65 so how about $ 40. he was like no. sorry and i said fine. i will wait and sell it on Ebay… well end of the semester came around and i decide to stop by the schools book store and asked how much for buy back. and they told me $ 45. which i could live with … NEVER EVER WILL I GO in that store other than to STUMBLE on PURPOSE and knock over a few dozen books…

I wish I could give them minus 5 but there is no option other than one star which they don’t deserve it at all. If you are smart and mature enough DO NOT BUY YOUR TEXTBOOK FROM THIS SHADY STORE!!! I’ll tell you why:
1– Their books are old, dirty, and of bad condition.
2– Their books are very expensive and overpriced compared to online stores.
3– They are impolite, rude, unprofessional, disrespectful and so greedy.
4– They treat customers as if they are thieves and they think everybody is dishonest.
5– Once you enter the store, they stare at you and start to watch your steps.
6– Their Sales Are Final. It means you cannot return the books no matter what!
7– Sometimes they charge customers twice.
8– Poor and bad customer service.
9– And much more…

This bookstore is a ripoff! If you try to sell them back they will give you like 10 dollars for a book you would pay 7 times that! DO NOT BUY FROM THEM!

So… I needed a Macroeconomics book. Not one of the major ones that anybody actually uses, but one written by some dude up in North County. I looked for it online, but got laughed at — because basically no one uses his textbook.
I checked the SWC bookstore. They had no used ones, but they did have a brand new one for $ 179. Great googly moogly! $ 179 for a crappy book by a shmuck in San Marcos? WTF?
Given no choice, I decided to cruise over to Otay Books and run their gauntlet of lousy customer service and beady-​eyed people watching to see if you try to shove a textbook down the front of your trousers.
They had a little shelf of these textbeasts and all were labeled that they came complete with the online support you’d normally have to pay extra for. They wanted $ 140 and change… for a used copy.
Sweeeeet mercy. I thought about it and decided that I could afford those taters so long as I got the extra gravy. I went to the register and the cranky owner himself was there.
I asked him if it was complete. It was.
I asked him if the price included the online component. It did.
I asked him if I could get my money back if he was mistaken. OH HELL NO!
He (actually) shouted, «BOOKS ARE AS IS! YOU BUY IT, YOU KEEP IT!»
I told him that if I did buy it and it wasn’t complete, I would stop payment on my credit card because of fraud.
You should have heard him shouting then…
He grabbed the book out of my hand. «GET OUT OF MY STORE! GET OUT! I SELL YOU NOTHING! GET OUT!»
So I moseyed back to the SWC bookstore and found one single used copy of this hideous textbook for $ 120.
The point is: he knew he was lying about the online component, he attempts to bully customers into as-​is buying, and if you have the cojones to call him out on it, he screams and shouts and throws you out of the building.
Is he a thief? What do you think?

DON’T BUY FROM THESE THIEVES!
There books are only cheaper by a couple dollars and they make over 70% profits on the textbooks they sell. They could afford to sell them a little cheaper, but then again they are greedy tightwads. Also, I wouldn’t even recommend wasting your time selling your book back to these guys at semesters end. Every time I have asked for a quote to sell a book back whether it’s over the telephone or in person, I have been rudely insulted by a ridiculously absurd buyback price and then the owners will start to argue and even yell that they don’t need this book anymore or how it’s worthless now. I’m not going to bother to tell of how many bad stories I have experienced with these guys over the years at Southwestern but there are many. I would rather buy from the SWC bookstore to support the campus even if it is few dollars more.
THEY DON’T ACCEPT ANY RETURNS, so if you buy a book from them, once the transaction is complete you’re stuck with the book regardless if you haven’t left the store or not yet.

True, they do have most books cheaper just by a few bucks than Southwestern’s bookstore. However, this place does carry many of the older editions that many of the professors at the school don’t use and their shady. And, their policy sucks: ALL SALES FINAL!
What did it for me was that I had a 24-​month Math XL student access kit I was willing to sell and expecting a decent amount of money considering it sells for $ 75 on
, 85% of all math teacher are using this program and its basically a code your paying for, but the owner wanted to give me $ 5 dollars for it. Bahahaha! Yeah!, so I can come back in ten minutes and see it on the shelf for $ 60? No thanks!
I rather spend a few extra greens and support my schools bookstore.

People are rude in this place, they mad dog eye you, they might as well slap you when you enter their establishment. Employees don’t care about selling at all. I dot know how they even stay in business. Pass on this place.

This is my first time rating a business with 1 star and this place without a doubt deserves it. In fact this place isn’t worthy of ANY stars because this is the worst place a college student can buy their books. I cannot stress this enough DO NOT BUY YOUR TEXTBOOKS HERE!
Every college has the off campus «go to» bookstore that sells «cheaper» books which tickles the spirit and hearts of every penny pushing student. If the posted signs around campus weren’t enough to capture your attention, perhaps the unenthusiastic sign spinner at every intersection would do the trick or the extra 5% discount might do some justice.
When you walk into the store there’s someone standing at the entrance handing out a piece of crap coupon that doesn’t save you any money. It’s not like you need the paper to get the discount because they automatically do it at the register. So this paper is useless and ends up in the trash, hopefully. I’ve seen this stupid paper in the parking lot, around campus and even on the floor inside the store. That’s not very green friendly, it’s a waste of paper and it’s destroying the environment… Shame shame!
Also this extra 5% special is a trick! They’ll take the 5% off and then apply the tax, if you do the math there’s no savings.
For example:
Your total is $ 100
Apply 5% discount = $ 95
Apply 8.75 tax = $ 103.31
Another perspective
Your total is $ 100
Apply tax = $ 108.75
Apply 5% discount = $ 103.31
NO SAVINGS= FAIL!
You could WIN by purchasing your books online and staying far away from this sleazy business and their cheap advertisements. So do your homework and find out what books you’ll need for class and order them online. The books at Otay are overpriced, even the used books! I couldn’t believe I had to pay $ 55 for a used book that had highlights, scratches and bent corners. I kicked myself in the face later on when I found the book online for $ 20! Please do not support this bookstore and buy online. This place has SCAM written all over it!

I use to think this place was reliable until today… You’re better off just buying your books online from amazon or the actual college bookstore.
You would think the people that work here are honest, but not even close! I came in yesterday and bought a sociology book at $ 59.95 and another book for $ 12.95 which came to a total of $ 76. I used my credit card to make this purchase and signed the receipt which they attached to their little return slip. I noticed the guy stapled 2 receipts together along with the return slip. It wasn’t until today when I looked over my receipt and noticed that they charged me twice!!!
On the bottom receipt came my original receipt of $ 76. Then on top of that which was the receipt that I signed (wishing I caught this early on duh) showed a total charge of $ 127.50!!! How the hell did $ 76 come to $ 127??? This crazy man charged me twice!!! I knew he was up to something!!!
I called stating my issue so I had to drive all the way from El Cajon just to deal with these people again. Funny thing was, the guy who helped me again was the one who did the transaction and he tried to act like he didn’t do it!!! I checked his ass and told him I wanted the difference paid back immediately. He didn’t want to put it back on my credit card because they’re cheap like that so he gave me cash back instead and made me sign some bs then finally, he gave me my money back.
Then can you believe he told me that the reason why he charged me twice was because he WANTED MORE MONEY FOR THEIR BUSINESS!!! Oh hell no. I use to come here all the time for my books, but I always knew something was fishy about these people. Beware of those 2 persian looking guys!!! They are after your money!!! You would think that after all the years they have been open, they would use the money to fix up their store!!!
Their books aren’t the greatest either.