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Dublin: 8 °C Tuesday 18 June, 2013

FG Deputy calls on school books website to “get its act together”

Mary Mitchell O’Connor said some parents have been waiting several weeks for their orders and have paid a substantial amount of money for the books.

Image: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

FINE GAEL DEPUTY, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, today called on schoolbooks.ie, the online company that supplies school books, to “get its act together” and to communicate with parents about why their orders have not been filled, despite the money having already been paid.

Mitchell O’Connor said it was brought to her attention that many parents who placed orders with the website and paid “substantial sums of money” for their children’s schoolbooks have been left waiting for several weeks without their orders being filled.

“Any attempts to contact the company have been in vain and there has been no communication on behalf of the company with the parents to explain why their orders have not been filled,” she said.

“Many of these parents are extremely anxious, not only about getting their children’s school books organised as the beginning of the school year draws near, but also about what exactly is going on with the company and whether or not their hard earned cash has been lost.”

Mitchell O’Connor said the site appears to have a good reputation among parents who have used the service in the past, with many citing the speed and ease of delivery as a reason to use it again. However, this year the deputy said the company’s approach seems to be very different.

“I attempted to contact the company myself today and to add insult to injury, their phoneline is ringing out and there is no answering message to indicate what is going on,” she said.

“Simply ignoring parents, forcing them to travel out to the business premises and collect their purchases from an online provider is completely unacceptable and absolutely farcical.”

Mitchell O’Connor called on the site to communicate with parents to give them an indication of when they can expect their orders and allay concerns among customers that the company may have gone bust.

The school books website could not be reached for comment.

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Comments (43 Comments)

  • It would help if parents didn’t have to fork out money every other year for the scam of “revised editions” where the only revision is putting a couple of exam papers in the back!

    Also, I reccommend people go to their local bookstores. There’s a lot of excellent small booksellers who’d be just as good.

    Reply
  • She has a point. In class it gets frustrating when a child has no books for a few weeks because there are none in stock. And if homework is set from the books they can’t complete it.

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  • Ordered from them a few weeks ago. Received the full order within a few days. Thought the service was impressive and good value to be honest. Hopefully this turns out to be a temporary glitch and gets sorted soon for all concerned.

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  • Ah shit I ordered from them on Wednesday !!

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  • I ordered books at end of June and received them at beginning of August & only after several weeks of phone calls and repeated emails. They took money in june when i placed order. They really need to get their act together. I wouldn’t use this company again.

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  • I ordered off them and after four days I emailed to cancel order, still no response from them. I sent numerous mails and rang. No response. Luckily they haven’t taken the money from laser account. I wouldnt go near this crowd again. They don’t deserve to be in business. Went to my local bookshop who had all the books and that’s what I will be doing in future. Supporting local jobs, not some faceless fat cat who hasn’t the balls to answer a phone or respond to an email. Screw you!!

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  • This could be solved by equiping schools with ipads and downloading the books directly…charge a nomnal rental fee for the use of the machines and software. No waiting…no heavy school books…no massive fees for books every year.

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    • Nix 17/08/12 #

      How do you fund it? Huge start up costs and an even greater need for tech support.

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    • You could fund it by scrapping those bloody awful interactive whiteboards.

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    • Nix 18/08/12 #

      Don’t see how that would generate money. It would COST money to take them down.

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    • Sorry – yes of course it would….. I just meant they are an expensive piece of kit too and IMO pretty crap.

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    • @Tony, that’s a fair old generalisation you’re making there. There are about 50 different types of interactive whiteboards available and then you also have numerous different software suites available to use on them also. Far from crap in my opinion and (in the right hands) they have massive educational potential in schools.

      I’d wager the teacher and not the technology was the problem which led to you forming your opinion. An interactive whiteboard (any model) is only as good as the teacher using it. The same goes for a textbook …. or a class full of iPads.

      Parachuting iPads into schools without training teachers how to use them in an educational context would be a big mistake in my opinion. Using them socially and using them to lead learning are two totally different things.

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    • Indeed – and I agree. IMO there is value in the educational experience rather than the tool used. An interactive whiteboard is just a tool with which to employ methods.

      Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really a fan of iPads either. My experience of kids having laptops in schools is pretty much of them constantly trying to get away with stuff. That’s with the books available on them too.

      Personally I think bookmakers, whether they are ebooks or physical books are simply taking the pi€€… oh, I mean pi$$……

      I know this is a little off topic but I’m becoming more and more of the view that by setting assessments (and their marking schemes) to learn something valuable about what the pupil has learned, you set the syllabus – and teachers should be well able to adapt to these changes driven by assessment. If this means changes in content which requires CPD then fair enough but if it’s a change in content that just requires information then there is no excuse in this day and age for not being able to learn something. The amount of information available to us these days is insane.

      With that in mind, I don’t think there is much need for books, or at least books could be bought in a more modular way. (chapter by chapter or something)

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  • There is a often a lack of accountably in this country, how is it that a company takes payment of what 150+ euros from a lot of people and then suddenly mums the word, and not a single explanation. Are they still taking orders while they carry on playing terrible PR?

    Oh look its friday Im not going to get worked up over it. Have a good weekend :)

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  • Is that the one who drove her car her car down the steps outside the Dail!!

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  • I ordered my kids book at the end of June, no delivery by the end of July, like others I had tried to contact the company. Eventually I got through to customer service and found my order was delayed because they were waiting on 2 small copies. I won’t be using this company again. I also ordered some books from Easons and found this company excellent to deal with.

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  • Why not hire a few good teachers to write some texts and make them available to all to print free as pdf’s or get them printed locally at minimum cost.

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    • I know 2 teachers who have written books (well, most of them are written by teachers anyway) and they both claimed that there is little money in it for them.

      If that’s the case, then the DES could actually agree on a text to be available long term and just pay a small group of teachers directly who could collaborate on where the individual subjects should truly be headed. Over the space of time, keeping the syllabus fresh could be achieved by selling individual chapters.

      Of course the SEC wouldn’t be happy with that, they might actually have to take a serious look at examinations.

      Personally I think textbooks are too much of a crutch for both teachers and pupils and would love to see them gone. It would save money for families who are already struggling and prevent kids carrying those bloody mound of books home and back every day.

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  • Ive used that site before and found the delays very frustrating. For that reason I now go to O’Mahonys bookshop online based down in Limerick. Ordered 300 euros worth of books on a Monday and had them all by Wednesday. It’s a great service and would recommend it to anyone.Have used them for the past 3years, great customer service also. Being a working mom, I don’t have time to make many trips to shops searching out the 3rd edition of this and that, online is the way to go! Better still, why isn’t there a scheme to purchase IPads ? We pay 100 odd euros a year, after 3-4 years we own them and new books are downloaded yearly. Think of all the bad backs we would save in years to come?? I don’t know how my 12 yr old is going to carry it all!

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  • I know where this company operates from, I ordered from them before and they sent me a wrong book, on the delivery docket of the correct book was their address! I’ll be calling in Monday morning! it’s in Santry. I don’t give my money away to anyone!

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  • How many more sleeps before the kids are back to skool?

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  • I order from a different company http://www.schoolbooksireland.ie every year for the last 3 and I have to say they are really good never a delay and they wrap your books foc. Not like the local store which charge a euro a book!! I hope with the similar web addresses the bad publicity doesn’t effect their business!

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  • FG telling someone to get their act together?!! Hahaha, christ almighty, where do I even start?!

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  • Good old private sector efficiency.

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  • Just looked up schoolbooks.ie at the Companies Office. This is not a limited company. It’s a business name operated by an individual who lives in Dalkey.

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  • I have ordered from this company every year for the past 4 years! Hassle free… I ordered my books, 2 weeks ago and have not received! I have tried calling and emailing, both with no joy! It took coming on here and reading the company is having “issues” I am more then displeased! Even an email, to say expect delays would have been satisfactory. they are still advertising on the radio and still taking orders online! Even a post on their website to “expect delays” or amy sort of info! But i couldn’t even get through to the phone numbers listed. I won’t be using this company again…

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  • Think I’ll home school my lad less hassle.

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  • Is it not the government and Fine gael who are supposed to be In charge of running the educational system om the country, bloody hypocrites!

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  • I spoke to MD of schoolbooks.ie yesterday. He assured me everything will be sorted next week. irishtimes.com/newspaper/irel?Conor Pope on twitter

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