George Mason University Official Bookstore

I'm a grad student and preordered my books from the bookstore because they were much more expensive elsewhere. I prepaid almost 50$ and never heard back from them. When I went back 2 weeks later to check on my order, I was sent away and told sometimes they can take 3 weeks. Still haven't heard back a month later. When I went in today they told me my order wouldn't be coming, so I asked for a refund. The staff was really rude, and the person managing not only rushed customers along but was rude to his cashiers as well. I'm really mad because at the very least I should've got some kind of notification or an automatic refund when they learned my textbooks weren't coming! Now I'm a bit through the semester without one that will be 80$ on Amazon. At least I got the refund. Never using the school bookstore again.

This is quite possibly, and I am by no means stressing, some of the worst service I had when making a purchase. At the beginning of the year, I ordered all my school supplies on the official website, and it took a total of ten days for all my supplies to be sent in delivery. The staff are very unresponsive to my concerns, and only a handful of them were able to get me in the right direction. One member even told me that I had to go onto Yuzu to access the online versions of my school copies (which was most of them), which nobody even told me about or said why I couldn't see most of my supplies. I was happy at first when I was able to access all my supplies until I realized that one of my textbooks wasn't on there. Going back to the same bookstore, I found out that the store didn't accept the payment unless information for a credit card (not gift cards) was put in, which for some reason didn't apply for my other textbooks. After waiting for two days (they're not open on Sunday), I got the copy, but I needed an access code. I was already losing my patience at this point, especially considering that I again didn't need an access code for my other supplies. They said to go to IT, which I went to, and they said they couldn't help me with my problem even though I was told they'd help. I was lucky enough to find a student who could find a free online copy for me to download as a PDF, meaning I didn't have to go to the trouble of buying all those supplies in the first place. I'd rather keep my faulty $36 online textbook than go to the agony of waiting for a refund. It'd be easier finding all my books online. Would not recommend.

The staff at the GMU bookstore were very friendly. The young lady who went out of her way to assist us in our search for our son's books was more informative than the young man at the registrars office earlier that day. She even helped our son's roommate as soon as she was done helping our son. Very dedicated to serving the students. The two cashiers worked diligently to keep the line moving on move-in day. I felt bad for them. Sadly, it didn't seem as though managent planned very well for staffing and quite a few books were out of stock 2 days before the fall semester was scheduled to start. The staff were definitely the highlight of our visit and made our experience every bit of the 4 stars.

Since I visited during a non-peak hour, my experience might be a bit different. But, what I encountered was a friendly staff that was ready to help. I was promptly and politely directed to where I needed to go and then helped to the best of the staff member's ability. When it came down to my final purchase, I didnt have a line of people, and so it was quick and easy, with the exception that I'm still getting used to being able to Samsung Pay at the register now.