When will my Berkeley Review Book get here???

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MT2MD

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When will my berkeley review books get here? I mailed the check with the form last Monday and I have yet to received any confirmation email or shipping tracking number. I called them a few times and left them voicemail but they are not responding. Does anyone know when I will get them? I need to start studying now!!!!
 
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MT2MD said:
When will my berkeley review books get here? I mailed the check with the form last Monday and I have yet to received any confirmation email or shipping tracking number. I called them a few times and left them voicemail but they are not responding. Does anyone know when I will get them? I need to start studying now!!!!
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Berkeley has notoriously horrible customer service (in terms of being available / responding promptly).

They have made it clear their focus is on the MCAT and not on being an excellent business (profits).

Just like a musician who never makes it big because he forgets about politics and music industry, he just likes playing music.

BR just added credit cards... a month or so before 2010. I once bought a piano CD from a teenager living in his parents basement, even he figured out how to use Paypal to get payments over the internet.

They could be a great business, but they chose not to be.

With all that said, just wait and cross your fingers. Give up trying to contact them.
 
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So I sent out my money order early December and never received an email confirmation. I just called them and they told me they received my order and that my books will be shipped out tomorrow. It took probably about a month. I had called and emailed previously and they never answered or responded. I was lucky to get someone when I just called 10 minutes ago.
 
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Yes, I spoke to them too, but used the 510-843-8378 number instead of the 1-800 number, and had better luck with that number. They said they were on vacation for a few weeks due to Christmas and new year's so thats probably the reason of the delay. I wish they had a service where you could just fax them your form, it doesn't seem that complicated to me, and makes no sense as to why they can't even do that.

They really need to get with the 21st century.
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
Yes, I spoke to them too, but used the 510-843-8378 number instead of the 1-800 number, and had better luck with that number. They said they were on vacation for a few weeks due to Christmas and new year's so thats probably the reason of the delay. I wish they had a service where you could just fax them your form, it doesn't seem that complicated to me, and makes no sense as to why they can't even do that.

They really need to get with the 21st century.
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having been hearing the same thing for yrs....they are gradually getting better...at least there is a credit card option now and CBTs....
 
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J DUB said:
having been hearing the same thing for yrs....they are gradually getting better...at least there is a credit card option now and CBTs....
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Oh I didn't know that didn't have that before but regardless, if you use your credit card you have to pay a convenience fee, what the heck is that? I know the company gets charge a small fee to use a credit card, but companies always eat up that charge for the convenience of their customers, not pass it over to their customers...

But honestly, why can't I just fax the form, what's the idea of using snail mail? And they have a PO Box, so even for them, wouldn't it be easier for them to just get things faxed to them, and they process their orders. They aren't customer focused at all. Even people with little businesses at home take orders over the phone, take orders via fax or email, and have a much more efficient website. They also don't charge a convenience fee. I know they are surely losing a lot of customers due to their really crappy service. Oh, well, I suppose their materials are good, so just gotta deal with it!
 
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I called the 1800 number today, finally got thru!!! (I really think they were on vacation for the past 2 weeks 🙁 ) and they told me that the material will be shipped on or before Jan 9. They really do wait 10 business day before they ship the material if you send their a check. I would really use CC or a money order and you would probably save 2 weeks. I am going to have waited a month. Mailed my check and order Dec 20
 
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BennieBlanco said:
Berkeley has notoriously horrible customer service (in terms of being available / responding promptly).

They have made it clear their focus is on the MCAT and not on being an excellent business (profits).

Just like a musician who never makes it big because he forgets about politics and music industry, he just likes playing music.

BR just added credit cards... a month or so before 2010. I once bought a piano CD from a teenager living in his parents basement, even he figured out how to use Paypal to get payments over the internet.

They could be a great business, but they chose not to be.

With all that said, just wait and cross your fingers. Give up trying to contact them.
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That's a terrible analogy. They are far from a musician who just likes to teach MCAT classes.

You're deluding yourself if you think otherwise. They're all in it for the money.

The only reason why they are so slow is because their business model sucks . They may be good at teaching MCAT material, but they're not efficient at it.
 
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I sent my money order Tuesday January 5th from the east coast via normal mail. They received it Friday or Saturday (8th or 9th), they shipped it Monday January 11th via Fedex, and I should be receiving it on Friday, January 15th. Overall, thats pretty quick.
 
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Mister T said:
That's a terrible analogy. They are far from a musician who just likes to teach MCAT classes.

You're deluding yourself if you think otherwise. They're all in it for the money.
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I have to disagree. If they were honestly in it for the money, I truly believe that they would invest more into customer service and advertising. Also, if profit was their top concern, they would be charging more than $30 per book.
 
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yes2es said:
I have to disagree. If they were honestly in it for the money, I truly believe that they would invest more into customer service and advertising. Also, if profit was their top concern, they would be charging more than $30 per book.
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If they are not in it for profit, whats in it for them? I definitely know that they can make more profit then they are, but, why else would they do it then.
 
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SwedishMD2B said:
If they are not in it for profit, whats in it for them? I definitely know that they can make more profit then they are, but, why else would they do it then.
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They're pre-meds, don't burden them with basic finance and economics.
 
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Mister T said:
They're pre-meds, don't burden them with basic finance and economics.
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Look at you acting all high and mighty.

Its called margin of profit. They print and bind all of their own books. It costs them maybe $5 per book so they make a nice profit per book. I'm not saying that they don't want to make money from selling their books, I'm just saying that money is perhaps not their sole motivation for producing their product. Unlike some of these other companies that is.
 
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yes2es said:
Look at you acting all high and mighty.

Its called margin of profit. They print and bind all of their own books. It costs them maybe $5 per book so they make a nice profit per book. I'm not saying that they don't want to make money from selling their books, I'm just saying that money is perhaps not their sole motivation for producing their product. Unlike some of these other companies that is.
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I think every student sits there and tries to figure out what they make. I know I did it when I took the class and when I worked for them. I'm guessing they pay about $10 to $12 a book for printing and maybe $3 a book for editting. If they can sell them for $30 each, they net about $15 a book. After taxes and overhead, they might make $10 a book. If you sell 10,000 books per year (2000 customers at 5 books each), that's $100,000, which is pretty good if you ask me.

I always got the impression that they cared most about the course itself, because they put so much of their time into redoing the lectures and collecting feedback. It's to the point of being OCD. Everything besides lecture was secondary, including paperwork for employees (another story for another day--they sent me a paycheck twice one month, and when I called them to let them know, they sent a THIRD one.)

I think the reason their website sucks and their customer service is lacking, although friendly when you get through, is because it's all about being teachers first. Not a lucrative business model, but I have always gotten the feeling it's because the owners are ultra competitive and vicariously live through their student's MCAT scores. And they basically suck at business.
 
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BerkReviewTeach said:
I think every student sits there and tries to figure out what they make. I know I did it when I took the class and when I worked for them. I'm guessing they pay about $10 to $12 a book for printing and maybe $3 a book for editting. If they can sell them for $30 each, they net about $15 a book. After taxes and overhead, they might make $10 a book. If you sell 10,000 books per year (2000 customers at 5 books each), that's $100,000, which is pretty good if you ask me.

I always got the impression that they cared most about the course itself, because they put so much of their time into redoing the lectures and collecting feedback. It's to the point of being OCD. Everything besides lecture was secondary, including paperwork for employees (another story for another day--they sent me a paycheck twice one month, and when I called them to let them know, they sent a THIRD one.)

I think the reason their website sucks and their customer service is lacking, although friendly when you get through, is because it's all about being teachers first. Not a lucrative business model, but I have always gotten the feeling it's because the owners are ultra competitive and vicariously live through their student's MCAT scores. And they basically suck at business.
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Excellent post; point proven.
 
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yes2es said:
point proven.
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Point being that they're not doing it for money but for their students' success and that alone?

Wow, TBR must be the most altruistic company I've ever seen then huh, and they're not even non-profit! :laugh:

What their "niceness" shows is that their business model is to focus on word of mouth and customer relations and they probably bring in most of their revenue through their course.TBR still sounds pretty small in relation to TPR and Kaplan, and it has a niche market in California, so they're focusing mainly on that.

Didn't the TBR creators used to work for TPR anyways?

I'm just saying that money is perhaps not their sole motivation for producing their product.
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I mean at the end of the day, everyone cares about the bottom line, just like Apple focuses on customer service and excellent warranties and has developed a strong demand for overpriced PCs or Google wants to be the best search engine/email service/etc. there, they all still want to make a profit from the time they're putting into it.

It's absurd to think that the TBR folks' passion in life and desire is just to help rich kids (California kids I'm talkin' about you!) become doctors.

Sure they like to help people, that's what they're getting paid to do/business model is, so the two are intrinsically tied together (hint: establishing a strong reputation = good business strategy).

Maybe when their firm/business expands they'll be able to renovate their website/improve it once the marginal costs start exceeding marginal revenue with their current plant size.

But to assume that they're just doing a public service to help gunners get into med school is just naive. Money makes the world go round and round.

It's also called profit margin, margin of profit just sounds awkward.
 
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You really are quite critical of other peoples' posts when there is absolutely no need to be. Please point out to me anywhere in this series of posts that I said that BR doesn't want a profit and they do everything out of the goodness of their hearts just to benefit MCAT students in CA. All I'm trying to say is that from my experiences BR seems to be concerned with producing a good product and I feel that BerkReviewTeach confirmed this. If you have different experiences, then please, by all means elaborate. If not, there is no point in creating an argument over nothing.
 
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yes2es said:
You really are quite critical of other peoples' posts when there is absolutely no need to be.
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I'm just pointing out faulty reasoning, no need to be personally offended.

Please point out to me anywhere in this series of posts that I said that BR doesn't want a profit and they do everything out of the goodness of their hearts just to benefit MCAT students in CA.
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Uh well you said the following,

ot saying that they don't want to make money from selling their books, I'm just saying that money is perhaps not their sole motivation for producing their product. Unlike some of these other companies that is.
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Money is the sole motivation for their product. They wouldn't be doing it in their free time for the hell of it. I believe that they quit teaching as instructors for TPR because they thought they could do a better job delivering a product to the market. Other companies (like Kaplan and Princeton) may seem more money-greedy, because they can choose to, simply because they're the dominant competitors in the MCAT prep market. They don't need to appeal to picky people like you or me because they have a name. Besides, they're really not that bad, they have very reasonable refund policies and give you multiple opportunities to do well if you take full use of their materials.

and here:

Also, if profit was their top concern, they would be charging more than $30 per book.[/B][/B]
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I suspect the apparent aloofness might be part of their bussiness model if they are smart.

There are so many really prominent test prep companies that if you just try to act like a "normal bussiness" like everyone else then nobody is going to care about you. But if you act like the mom and pop coffee shop you have a shot at getting trendy.

Although I might be giving them too much credit
 
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surftheiop said:
I suspect the apparent aloofness might be part of their bussiness model if they are smart.

There are so many really prominent test prep companies that if you just try to act like a "normal bussiness" like everyone else then nobody is going to care about you. But if you act like the mom and pop coffee shop you have a shot at getting trendy.

Although I might be giving them too much credit
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No, you have a point. There was something odd about them just ignoring you all of them that had a weird kind of appeal to you. It was as if they were better than you and don't need you lol.

But yeah, going for the whole "mom and pop coffee shop" thing is a great way to attract business. Gotta protect and support 'em against those big chain stores rarrrrr
 
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Mister T said:
Didn't the TBR creators used to work for TPR anyways?
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I think it's the other way around. The founders of BR started Hyperlearning, which PR bought.

Mister T said:
I mean at the end of the day, everyone cares about the bottom line, just like Apple focuses on customer service and excellent warranties and has developed a strong demand for overpriced PCs or Google wants to be the best search engine/email service/etc. there, they all still want to make a profit from the time they're putting into it.

It's absurd to think that the TBR folks' passion in life and desire is just to help rich kids (California kids I'm talkin' about you!) become doctors.

Sure they like to help people, that's what they're getting paid to do/business model is, so the two are intrinsically tied together (hint: establishing a strong reputation = good business strategy).

Maybe when their firm/business expands they'll be able to renovate their website/improve it once the marginal costs start exceeding marginal revenue with their current plant size.

But to assume that they're just doing a public service to help gunners get into med school is just naive. Money makes the world go round and round.

It's also called profit margin, margin of profit just sounds awkward.
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I think you have excellent points, but are overthinking their actions. They are no doubt in the business to make money, and thinking anything else is foolish. But unlike Kaplan, PR, and EK, I think there is also a pride of being the best that drives them. There is more than one motive to the way they do things. I suspect being a mom-n-pop where the owners know the customers personally leads to a dynamic where they feel connected to the scores and student's success and failure. Granted, I'm coming from a different perspective as a former student and a longtime employee who loved working for them.

When I worked for them, they were always generous about rounding up our hours on our paycheck. As a student, they were always willing to add extra sessions if we needed it. For instance, as an undergraduate I took the crappy chemistry sequence at UCLA, which short changed me some MCAT topics. They would hold extra classes for people in my shoes. They didn't have to do it and would have made the same amount of money without doing it, but I think they really wanted us to like them. While one can look at that as a business motive to create happy customers and word of mouth popularity, I got the feeling they did it because they felt like they had to it to make us more competitive on the MCAT.

I'm guessing the reality of their business motivations lies somewhere between what you have written and what yes2es has stated.
 
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surftheiop said:
There are so many really prominent test prep companies that if you just try to act like a "normal bussiness" like everyone else then nobody is going to care about you. But if you act like the mom and pop coffee shop you have a shot at getting trendy.
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If their plan was to act like a mom and pop shop in order to make a name and then explode at some point, then I hands down give them all of the credit in the world because that is absolutely brilliant. It most certainly is a way to make a name for yourself and stand out in a crowd.
 
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No BR books yet, its been a month. Called and e-mailed. The check was cashed too, a while ago (at least 2 weeks ago). They haven't e-mailed me or contacted me at all. Wtffffffffffff
 
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Sjs1234 said:
No BR books yet, its been a month. Called and e-mailed. The check was cashed too, a while ago (at least 2 weeks ago). They haven't e-mailed me or contacted me at all. Wtffffffffffff
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I just sent in my information to order the books yesterday. I hope I have a better experience. I'll keep you updated on how my progress goes.

I am getting them with a CC.
 
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