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AbeBooks Reviews Summary
AbeBooks has a rating of 1.9 stars from 715 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with AbeBooks most frequently mention customer service, tracking number and credit card. AbeBooks ranks 40th among Used Books sites.
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I have ordered from Abe Books previously but I will not be ordering from them again.
For the past two semesters, my daughter ordered books from Abe Books that were water-damaged. This was clearly stated in the book seller's statement so we knew what we were getting.
After the semesters ended, we got a price from Abe Books for a buy back and shipped the books to them. When Abe Books received the books, however, they said the books were water-damaged and would not buy them back. BUT IT WAS OK FOR THEM TO SELL US THESE BOOKS IN THE FIRST PLACE, RIGHT?
When I complained Abe Books said it was their policy not to buy back water-damaged books. But why can they sell them in the first place? Anyway, when I asked to have the books sent back to me they stated that I had to pay return postage.
So now Abe Books has my water-damaged books which they will turn around and RE-SELL to another consumer. BUYER BEWARE!
I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH ABE BOOKS AGAIN!
I bought from the seller BookwormUSA. I was worried when the delivery estimate was 3 weeks away, then I saw all these bad reviews, but it actually arrived in 3 days! I was sent a text the day before with tracking information.
1. My latest experience with abebooks: I am reviewing it here because they don't let you. I can see why. The lighted magnifying glass was broken. They invited me to return it to the seller at my own expense which would have been half the cost again. When I asked if they would pay postage - they did not reply. Their customer service then sent a standard email to ask 'how my experience was'. When I told them, they said it was not for them to deal with.
2. My previous order they took. Then some time later, cancelled because they no longer had the book in stock. Lucky I wasn't waiting to hand in my essay before reading it. Abebooks - not professional. Will never trust to use again.
First, there's a lot of complaints about Abebooks not being the actual sellers. That's obvious because the seller and the city and state they're located in is plainly stated. Lots of websites do this, Ebay, Amazon and many more. Second, when people review Abebooks it would help to name the seller. As far as textbooks, if it's the beginning of a semester there's probably thousand of students looking for books and who knows how many are on the same page when they hit that buy button. Now for my review. I've put in several orders through Abebooks and I'm very satisfied. Books were as described and arrived within stated time. The companies I've ordered from were Better World Books, Green Earth Books, Hippo Books and Thrift Books.
11-19-14 I just wanted to add an update. I ordered 3 books from Blue Cloud Books through Abebooks on 11-14 and they came in on 11-17. Very fast but the package only had to go from Phoenix to Tucson. The email for order confirmation was sent from Thriftbooks.com so they must be affiliated with them.
4-9-17 With all the bad reviews I just wanted to say I still have not had any problems. I even ordered several books from Better World Books in Dufermline, United Kingdom and all was fine! PLEASE STATE THE NAME OF THE ACTUAL COMPANY YOU'RE BUYING BOOKS FROM!
4-27-17 I ordered a book from Better World Books/West (Las Vegas) through and they sent the wrong book. After contacting them they authorized abebooks for a refund and let me keep the book.
I should have read these reviews before ordering from them. The reviews are so skewed between negative and positive reviews it is easy for one to tell who is an actual customer and who works for Abes PR department trying to run damage control. I ordered a textbook which was described as used but almost new condition. The following day I received an email stating the book was an E-book - yet they were charging me $9.99 for shipping, $7.20 for commission and $4.95 for a process and handling fee in addition to the price of the book (e-book). Tried to contact customer service, impossible - yet they went ahead and processed my credit card. THIS ONLINE BOOK COMPANY SUCKS! BUYER BEWARE - DO NOT USE THEM!
Was excited that I could find an out of print book. Seller disclosed it as having traces of use. That was fine. Traces of use to me are, scuffing, dented corners, ruffled pages, maybe the spine is very flexible. This had a 2 inch tear on the back of the spine separating the binding from the book. No refund was offered. Not using this Scammer book store again. Most used book sellers will either refund or partially refund you. Would not trust any sellers within this website.
Took them two weeks to process my order and another three to receive the book. The prices are not worth it considering the absurd delivery times.
Looking for books in good condition and a lot cheaper than Amazon or a book store? This is your place, have been ordering from them off and on for years. No complaints, books always arrive in a timely manner, in condition stated and prices you can't beat.
My textbook was supposed to arrive a month ago. I stupidly didn't check the reviews for abebooks before- if i did i would have spend the two extra dollars (literally) and gotten my book from somewhere else instead.
I have emailed the seller, and have not received a response yet!
My teacher is penalizing me for every day I don't have my book by lowering my grade.
I hate Abebooks!
Ordered a book from them with an estimated delivery date of 2 weeks later. When the confirmation email arrived the delivery date had changed to a month after the estimated delivery date shown on the checkout page. Then to top to all off its over a week after the new estimated delivery date and the book never showed up. Have requested a refund but haven't heard back from the site.
They shipped the book within two days of the order and I received the book several days later. The book arrived in pristine condition.
I bought a textbook on here because it was significantly cheaper here than other sites. However, even though it was shipping from Ohio to Chicago, it took 3 weeks to arrive! This is unacceptable because most sites at least ship within 2-3 days. I was without a textbook for a few weeks and this site alone is making it hard to catch up. My experience isn't as bad as some others, thankfully, but I'll never use this site again.
DO NOT SELL BOOKS TO ABEBOOKS. Complete scam. I attempted to sell a book to their website. After sending, two weeks later I was informed that they could not buy my book due to "water damage" that was not on the book when I sent it. Typically I would think of this as not a huge ordeal, they would send me the book back and I would go about my life. Instead, abebooks states they cannot send the book back and keeps the book
I searched by ISBN number and found two books from one supplier. I ordered the books and immediately sent an email to the seller asking them to confirm the ISBN number of the books before they ship as this series has the same title but four volumes. I gave them the Vol. 3 ISBN and they emailed bak "YES". Guess what... I received two copies of Vol1. They want me to pay postage to send their mistake back before they refund my money! Really! I emailed them to confirm prior to post. RIP-OFF They can send you anything and you must pay to return.
I've only used this website a few times and did not encounter any problems. Got what I ordered and in a decent amount of time.
ABEBOOKS Has Been Much More Than Just "Alright".
I have ordered some 20 or 25 books or cassette programs over about 6 years.
Not only have I ALWAYS gotten the correct book or cassette program,
But it has Always been in the "good" condition that was posted.
(In the "preowned books", usually there's been only 1 or 2 lines of writing in the whole book. I always order "in GOOD" or "in very good" condition--not "fair".)
To this date, there has always been speed of arrival, as the prompts will tell you how soon to expect it. When I order 3 books at a time, obviously, they might arrive at different days, due to different vendors.
So, until I have any different outcomes, I feel this site has been a blessing. (And I am NOT affliated w/any ABEBOOKS personnel in any way.)
Addendum: 2015, I got a book incorrectly gauged as "Large Print", but (Abebooks and) the vendor wonderfully responded when I contacted them about the error.
CliffordII in Georgia, USA
I ordered a book (a new copy) on Dec. 7 and finally received it (a USED copy!) on Jan 23rd, after several emails and the run-around from their sorry version of customer service. HORRENDOUS customer service. If these guys worked for me, they wouldn't work for me.
Customer service is horrible... if you can get in touch. Sellers aren't held accountable. I ordered a book and paid extra for faster shipping. It never arrived and the refund took forever. I missed out on lots of class work because I was missing the book for 3 weeks. It was a horrible experience from start to finish. I would NOT recommend using abebooks.com!
I ordered a computer science textbook from the site that claimed to be in good condition. Not only was the book in poor condition, it was the "India Version" of the text that clearly said on the front cover that it was not to be sold outside of India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.
Now I'm stuck with an illegal, useless book.
The book I needed for my graduate class was so expensive everywhere I looked, but I found it on Abebooks.com for half the cost! And it was delivered prompt to my door, just as described. I plan to order from them again this semester!
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- Sitejabber’s sole mission is to increase online transparency for buyers and businesses
- Sitejabber has helped over 200M buyers make better purchasing decisions online
- Suspicious reviews are flagged by our algorithms, moderators, and community members