DMACC Ankeny Bookstore

"Rude unhelpful staff on the phone, Google says they're open until 6 PM. Get there at 430 and the guy is standing there. Talking and says they close at 4pm And my google is wrong. I thought that dmacc was supposed to be a college for people who are working and going to school at the same time, most people are not off by 4 PM to get their books. Why are they making it so difficult All I need is a code for a digital book."

"Went to return books and it took longer to walk to the building than I was actually in this store. Very wel put together and looks like a tjmaxx"

"I have never experienced such kind of customer service/ incompetence. Got notifications that my books or Atleast the most important ones were ready, got there and bunch of people running around like they had no idea what they were doing. Got to my turn and I received two packages, I expressed my wish to cancel an order even went as far as spelling out what I needed to be canceled, the young lady helping me didn’t even care to get the correct spelling or isbn or anything just said oh yeah that will be taken care of even when I asked if she didn’t need extra information. Got home after an hour and realized what I was told was ready was in fact not what I received, I got the book I asked to be canceled (which I was told was still in transit), and the second one (which apparently was still in transit) idk how it’s still in transit when it’s in my living room. After numerous calls and emails without any response, Week four later and still waiting for this one access code, only to be told order was canceled. Canceled without even a notification. I only got a response after filling out a survey. It’s freaking ridiculous, glad I don’t have to deal with this after this semester. Might I also add that the prices here are crazy I suggest you check Amazon or other places if you paying out of pocket without financial aid. If I could give -100 , I would in a heartbeat"

"Prices are higher than most competitors. Available inventory is low, and out of stock is common. The selection for school supplies is pretty nil, and the customer service can be frustrating at times. Don't go unless you absolutely must. You're not missing out."

"I'm lost as to why this place is rated so well. My only guess is the ratings are mostly coming from students and parents of students who are giddy to start school and are conflating their new college experience with this store since it resides on campus. First off, the prices are extravagant for what they offer, you can buy nearly everything cheaper off of Amazon or even other bookstores that are only a 5 minute drive away from campus. For example, an iPhone charging cable is priced at $25 in the bookstore, when nearly every other merchandiser (online or not) carries it for $16-18. When it IS necessary to go to the bookstore, since sometimes you don't have the time to go off campus or there's not good guidance on which textbook you need to purchase, there's almost always a long line as each student seems to have an issue that takes 10-30 minutes to resolve (Some might call this good customer service, but it's a horrible system to have non technology trained bookstore employees troubleshoot email and DMACC system issues instead of referring them to a ticket system or other department to resolve their online finaid issues so that they can make their purchases). Anecdotally, I'm currently in a class where the professor had the wrong textbook listed on DMACC's Web Info System which is linked with the DMACC Ankeny Bookstore. I used the ISBN listed on their merchant site to buy the textbook off of Amazon. Later on in the class once we realized everyone but one student had the wrong textbook for the class, our professor said he would contact the bookstore and get the right one from them. He said that even if we ordered the textbook from another supplier besides the on campus bookstore, we'd be eligible to go in and trade it for the correct one. Other students had also said they had gone into the bookstore and traded their old textbook for the new one. But when I went into the bookstore today I was told that they couldn't exchange it for the new textbook because they didn't have the new one in yet, despite another student in my class saying they had gone to the Ankeny bookstore yesterday and exchanged theirs already. I'm not sure if the store made a mistake yesterday with that student or were purposefully obfuscating the situation to my detriment. I understand that the bookstore isn't necessarily legally obligated to exchange my book as I didn't buy it from them directly, but my professor said that it could at least be exchanged for the correct one, and now I'm a college student on a tight budget who's out $60 because they had the wrong ISBN listed on THEIR merchant site for this class and refuse to make it right by at least letting me trade the wrong book I bought at their behest for the correct one I need for my class. In my view, they're morally obligated to help fix the problem they created, and they refuse to do it, hence my one star review. I won't be buying anything from the on campus bookstore again unless I absolutely have to. Read through these other reviews and if you look past the 5 star reviews of students who are happy to start college and parents who are happy to help start their kid's college journey, you'll see plenty of stories like mine where the bookstore messed up and refused to fix the problem they created for the student."