Better World BooksReviews 2,090

Prior to this problem, I was mostly pleased with Better World Books. But after my recent experience I will avoid ordering from them. They sent a book which did not match their listing or the product details. It was not by the author shown, and other details. I informed them of the discrepancy in detail and asked for a refund and a return shipping label. They asked me to find and tell them the ISBN number in the book. I checked the number on the ISBN site, and the description there was what they had shown in their listing. So in fact the ISBN description was wrong! I informed BWB of this and they told me they go by the ISBN number, I would need to pay return shipping if I wanted a refund. That would have cost me most of the price of the book, and have no book. And the book I received was actually an old school text, worthless to me or to about anyone. I explained all this to them and told them they would see the truth of what I told them when they received the book. They repeated their refusal and reason. Over several weeks we exchanged numerous messages, in which the then told me it was a case of my changing my mind, so they couldn't pay shipping. All their messages were full of "sorrys". It began to appear to me that it was not humans but a machine reading and answering me. I said so, but the responses didn't change. I warned them that I would need to complain and could never trust them again if they wouldn't do the right thing. Same responses. I finally reported it to the Better Business Bureau. They quickly informed BWB, and only then did they refund my money. They said keep the book. I can understand that, because they wouldn't want to pay for the return of an unsellable book!

I bought several books by the same author from BW books. I got part of my order but its been a month now and even though I have a tracking #, once it "leaves" BW books they do not help at all to find your order. The site they direct you to in order to "get help" sends you in circles.
They did not hesitate to help themselves to payment for the books, however. Beware.
I will never order books from this company again.

AFTER I RECEIVE MY LAST ORDER I AM CLOSING MY ACCOUNT TRYING FOR25 HOURS TO RESET MY PASSWORD TO NO AVAIL! THE IDIOTS ARE SENDING ME LINKS LINKS LINKS ALL NOT WORKING! KEEPS SAYING MY EMAIL ADDRESS IS I INVALID! ARE THEY CRAZY! I ORDERED BOOKS FROM THE SAME EMAIL! FOOLS.IDIOTS!

I have ordered from Better World Books many times. They frequently sell used library books. I DESPISE the stickers and stamps all over the books and intentionally order ones NOT marked as previous library books for this reason. In spite of this, I routinely still get them. It's so frustrating that they either don't mark all library books as such or they just don't pay attention when fulfilling orders. For my last order they had several copies of the same book, one marked as previous library and the other simply as "used". I chose the "used" version, and got a book covered in library stickers and tape and stamps on the page ends. And it was sent in this sticky wrapping plastic envelope that made a mess of the dust jacket. I'm done ordering from here.

I purchased a book from Better World Books through Amazon and it was in better than described condition. It looked as if no one had ever read it even though it was a Library book. The shipping was fast and packaged well. I will definitely purchase another book from them the next time I need a book.

Purchased a book as a gift for my husband. Chose BWB because they indicated that I would receive my order earlier than the other online bookstores (and a few days before Christmas) and advertised the book as in "new" condition. Five days AFTER Christmas the book finally arrives and although it is new, it's a very poorly reproduced "copy". The photos are nothing recognizable because of the poor duplicating process and the Table of Contents is missing a page or two. Shocked that such a poor quality reproduction would be sold by a reputable company. Won't be ordering from BWB again.

I purchased 3 books from them via eBay. It was the Bill Hodges Trilogy by Stephen King, in hardcover. The 3 books arrived and all 3 were in large print format. I message the seller to return them. They did accept a return but I had to pay shipping, even after I sent them a screenshot of their listing, which did not indicate these were large print editions. Their broken record reply was "according to the ISBN number, we sent the right items."
They do take a while to respond. If you don't care about the book you're buying, well, I'd still suggest shopping elsewhere; preferably through a service that cares about their customers.

I have been a customer of Better World Books for quite some time. They always had good deals, and were pretty accurate when describing book condition. However, there are a couple of negatives:

1. My recent order with them was disappointing. For one, a book rated as "Good" condition should have been rated "Acceptable" as it has highlighting and writing throughout. Certainly not what I'd call "good" condition.

2. They need to stop being so cheap with shipping materials! They squeeze too may books in one envelope when they really should have either used another one or just used a box. One of the books I received WAS in very good condition, but is now bent.

3. Their Rewards program is iffy. The codes either expire too soon, or even when they are supposed to be good for use within one year, every time I've tried to use one, it always says expired! And customer service was NO help at all.

So yeah, I hate to say it, but I'm either going to have to look elsewhere or try shopping locally more often.

UPDATE: I contacted customer service and they refunded me the amount for the books, so all good - increasing my rating to 5 stars.

My book arrived in a timely manner and was in even better shape than described. Extremely pleased with their service.

Super untrustworthy seller. I purchased a book and after I paid I got an email from them saying their supplier couldn't provide it. It was buying it new so I'm not quite sure why it could not be supplied! I bought it elsewhere. The kicker is almost 2 months later they sent an email wanting a positive review asking about my order! It's like the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing. They may have slightly lower prices but you don't know if you're going to get your book, and they had no problem charging me right away. So I think maybe they are some kind of a third party seller and they advertise a certain price and if it can't be met, they just make up something like their supplier can't provide it. Why sell new books with a supplier that can't provide it? Selling a book that is new implies that you are able to fulfill the order. Shady!

From any online book seller though I'd be happy to see comparisons. I read a lot. I've stymied local librarians who could not determine why I couldn't check out books and discovered that the library only allows 50 books at a time to be checked out. I was excited when Amazon released the Kindle app and tablets but subsequently disappointed to see that there was little value unless they were offering something on sale. Most of the used book stores I've tried to use on the internet have multiple sellers and charge shipping individually, some allow one delivery charge if you purchase multiple books from one seller but that takes research.
Each BWB seems to have the best inventory, best prices, and with a very reasonable amount of purchase, free shipping. I rarely write reviews and very rarely write good reviews but I think BWB deserves it.

I've bought 7 books from Better World Books and was surprised that all of them were in perfect condition! They are all library books and I was afraid that they might be damaged or dirty (as other people mentioned here), but they are just perfect.
The only thing is that I couldn't use a promo code on the website, but still the price was good.

Very bad experience. Book never arrived, no refund, no goodwill gesture. I won't buy anything from them again.

Although the book came in fine, both of the included CDs were broken and the book had a TRACKER in it (which is weird)! As soon as I opened the package, the CD's came out in shards! This is the first time ANY book service we've used has failed in shipping us quality books. This is so disappointing! Plus: this book is for a college class and if the Proffessor hadn't also sent mp3 versions of the CD I would be out of luck. I would be rating it zero stars if that was an option.

I ordered a math book for my 6th grade grandchild, who struggles with math. After several weeks I received the wrong book. I immediately sent an email detailing what I received as opposed to what I ordered. Better World Books did respond and I Followed their instructions but the restrictions on getting what I ordered and returning what I received is ridiculously complicated. The concept of Better Works Books is great but not sure if I would order from them again. I just want what I paid for.

I have bought a number of books from Better World and I can honestly say I have never been disappointed. I know one person complained that the book arrived damaged due to shipping but I haven't found that to be the case. They are the first folks I look to in order to buy books. Used is the way to go.

I ordered a book in Very Good condition and received an Ex-Library book with stickers on the spine and stamps inside. The binding was loose, the book heavily used and the condition could be listed as Fair, if it hadn't been Ex Library. Better World Books clearly misrepresented the condition of this book. I have sold used books and know how the condition code works, you can pick ONE from: New, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Ex-Library. It's like your age. You only get to choose one. You can't be 40 and 16. The whole industry agrees on this. My receipt even says Condition: Very Good. Their customer service sent me a canned response of "We work with many libraries who send their overstocked books or old editions for us to sell. The libraries then select a local charity or one of our literacy partners to receive a portion of the proceeds, in addition to earning funds for their own programs." So they justify misrepresenting book condition by using words like "charity" and "literacy partners". They were not apologetic at all, just send it back if you don't like it. You know they are just going to list it again as Very Good and fool the next customer. It sounds like all their books are Ex Library. Just avoid these guys. They are hustlers.