AbeBooksReviews 715

Deceptive sellers and non-existent support - that's what AbeBooks is all about.

It's hard to know if this is by design or if it's just amateur hour in Victoria, BC, CANADA. Either way, it's not good. There's no way of knowing who you're buying from, or where the books are shipping from. Judging by the reviews, it's obvious that seller and book information is often misrepresented, and AbeBooks does nothing about it.

Their claims that books ship directly from the listed bookseller are patently false. I ordered a "good condition, clean book with light amount of wear" from a seller in Lewiston, NY, which took 2 weeks to arrive. During that time, the seller's profile switched from Lewiston, NY to Richmond Hill, Ontario, then back to Lewiston, NY, in an obvious attempt to fool customers into thinking they're transacting within their own borders.

When the book finally arrived, from FRANCE, it was at least 50 years old, tattered, had writing and underlining all throughout, and was so mildewed that I had to pick it up with salad tongs. It had no ISBN as advertised, probably because it pre-dated that system, which made it impossible to verify it was the correct version.

Do yourself a favor: BUY FROM AMAZON, where you'll never be subjected to any of this.

I have been dealing with Abebooks for many years and am happy to say I have had no bad experiences. Although it seems there are more bad reviews than good ones I don't think this is a realistic indication of their business. Abebooks must sell thousands of books through hundreds (if not thousands) of sellers. Those with bad experiences are more likely to write a review than someone who is happy with their purchase. I would recommend that you don't be put off by bad reviews of this Company. Just a drop in the ocean in my opinion.

Basically ordered a book in "international" edition listed by edition number.
Received an "international" edition book NOT designated by edition number and rewritten and edited.
Abebooks and the agent or reseller made it incredibly difficult to return an incorrectly sent textbook back at my expense.
Instead of answering my questions, they routinely reply with selective statements ignoring my actual question.
I will never purchase from them again and will actively discourage every person I know not to either.

These people can't seem to list books under the correct ISBN. I ordered books which I thought had the correct ISBN, only to find out that it was completely different from what I had ordered. When I requested a refund/return, they tell me that it's my fault. To add to that, they cancel one of my textbook orders because someone else had already ordered it? Hello!? Why was it listed if it was already sold!?

In short: Look elsewhere for books. Abe Books is scum, parading around acting like they're reliable and trustworthy, when they can't make a user-friendly interface/DECENT CUSTOMER SUPPORT even if they tried.

This is a fantastic site to find any book you are looking for. I've found older books that are hard to find ANYWHERE! Some of the books i have found overseas in UK, or other countries. They have history, novels, textbooks, anything you can think of to read, which is really great for me because i am an avid reader. I would recommend this site to everyone who can't find a particular book they have been searching for. Their prices are very reasonable, and when I didn't receive a book on time, the book store selling the item always went out of their way to send a replacement. They handle the customers very well.

Bought a book on Abebooks from CIMELIO BOOKS Portugal. Condition of the book was described as "good" on Abebooks. After receiving the book it appeared that the condition was very poor. Dog ears on all the pages, every page heavily spotted with brown spots. Many pages written on. Spine very loose. This bookseller has been on Abebooks for over 10 years and has more than 23.000 (!) books for on sale at Abebooks. So this is a very, very experienced seller. Actual postage was Euro 1,45. Shipping charged: Euro 12,00. More than 10 times the actual postage. In total I paid 37 Euro ($40) for a worthless piece of junk. Then I tried to settle with Cimelio Books. I asked a partial refund because shipping back gives new troubles (seller claiming item not received back and additional postage costs for me). He offered me 7.50 euro back. No more. I agreed but he never paid the money back and ignored all my e-mails reminding him. There is no easy way to get the money (partially) back directly from Abebooks. Stay away from this particular seller. He is misleading honest buyers like you and me. And Abebooks protection for this kind of malpractice is a travesty.

I don't remember the last time I received such bad product and service from a company. I ordered to two posters that arrived bent. When I asked to have them exchanged it took forever to get the address to send them back to. I sent them back via a trackable method on February 4th, it's April 15th and it's still not resolved. They just keep asking me the same questions to give me the run around. I will never buy anything from this company again. I gave them a ranking of 1 star because there wasn't anything less to choose from.

I order two times from this website, the first one arrived 2 weeks late, the second one never arrived. The placed the second order on March 17 that was supposed to arrive on April 3, it did not, I contact them, then they told me the 9th, I did not, they keep changing the date. When I said I wanted my money back, they told me that I have to wait 8 days from April 10 (the last day they said the book was going to arrive to ask for a refund). So, they will keep changing the dates so you never get your money back. Think a lot before using this service, is cheap? Well, when you paid for something you need now and arrive (if it arrives) after you finish the class, do you think it was cheap?

Let me start by saying that my only experience buying from AbeBooks' site was great. I live in the US and purchased the Australian edition of The Book Thief from Manyhills Books. The price was decent, even after international shipping fees, and the book arrived over a month before the deadline, and it's in great shape. If I were allowed to rate the seller, I would give Manyhills Books 5 stars. However, AbeBooks itself gets two stars for the reason that you CAN'T rate the booksellers.

The rating system on this site is based solely on order fulfillment (how quickly it arrived, that sort of thing) and it's rated automatically. If you had any problems with the delivery or the product itself, you can't write a review to warn other customers. So while a seller may look reputable because of their 5 star rating, there's no way of knowing if they actually deserve that rating. Their books may arrive on time but come in unusable shape—or be a completely different item than what you ordered—and they'd still receive a 5 star rating from the system. The rating system is extremely deceptive, making ordering from this site very risky.

Despite my own great experience with purchasing from AbeBooks, I would not recommend using them. It's a gamble, as you could either have a great experience or a nightmarish experience, as you can tell from all the bad reviews. Unless you're willing to take the risk, avoid AbeBooks and try to find your books elsewhere.

Then after you pay they tell you it MIGHT get there in a month. Tried to cancel and they said it is too late. Part of me wants to fight them, and contest the charge with VISA, showing the evidence of how they bait and switch. Since the book as not as critical as normal for my work, I'll bite the bullet this time. BUT NEVER AGAIN. Adieu, or actually, au diable, to AssBooks, I mean AbeBooks.