Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 08:44:38 -0600
From: Carol R. Lockett (Univ. of TX-Austin) <clockett_at_uts.cc.utexas.edu>
Subject: Any info on half.com?
Greetings:
Has anyone ordered from half.com? Any experiences, good or bad?
One of our bibliographers found that a much-requested OP volume was
available through half.com. We cannot locate any other source for the item
at this time.
We do have a credit card which we use fairly often to purchase from online
vendors such as amazon.com or abebooks. The problem is that half.com has a
statement on their web page that says that, at least initially, we will
not know who the actual bookseller is. This has caused some concern with
library management that we might unknowingly find ourselves purchasing
from a vendor we shouldn't be dealing with. For example, we are
prohibited, as I think many other university libraries are, from
purchasing directly from one of our own employees. Also, there are fairly
strict guidelines on what types of vendors we may use with our credit card
(to give an obvious example: we could not use the card to buy refreshments
for a party). Our management feels that half.com is at best uncharted
territory that could cause problems in identifying charges when they
appear on the monthly credit card statement. At worst, we could end up
doing something in violation of university policy.
But, having an open mind, we wonder if perhaps we are being too cautious.
Has anyone out there faced these questions with half.com or any other
online vendor with a similar business style? I would appreciate hearing
from you since I'm sure this issue will come up again.
Sincerely,
Carol R. Lockett
Manager, Firm Orders
Acquisitions Dept.
General Libraries
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX USA
PH: 512-495-4144
FX: 512-495-4410
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Received on Thu Dec 06 2001 - 20:40:12 EST