Our school librarian is the one who manages, organizes, etc. the bookfair at our school. For years she used Scholastic but didn't like the "extra's" that they always sent/pushed instead of the books.
A couple of years ago she started using Bedford Falls Book Fairs and has since gone with them exclusively. The prices are comparable (in some cases almost better it seems), they have excellent customer service according to her (we just had to postpone or fair 2 weeks due to snow and they worked with us without hassle!) and they don't sell all of the "extra's" there are some but not an overwhelming amount like with scholastic.
I will admit that I am peeved at Scholastic right now. GENERALLY, I am ok with them, despite the commercialization of some of the fair (nickelodean, etc), but their customer service has screwed me over so many times....
Yesterday I used the button on the site to request some types of materials, and the consultant wrote me back WHINING that I used it. It is a REQUEST BUTTON! Hello! She is mad because I won't take the 45 minute-1 hour sales call that they try to ply you with every fair. It's always the same crap (sell sell sell) so I stopped taking the call. So when I used the request button, she said "it's no fair you complain if you can't take the call" UMMM helloooo I totally wasn't complaining. I was making use of the REQUEST BUTTON on their website!
Since I found her email to lack basic customer service, I got in touch with her supervisor.
Two years ago their customer service said I couldn't use fair credit to order the scholastic news subscriptions (which is the main reason we have the fair!). THat got cleared up when I contacted executives, etc.
THis year, we ordered the subscriptions and the order was "lost"!
I know some of this is different departments then Book Fairs, but I'm just getting annoyed with the company in general. I'd love if there was a local book fair company.
