Anna M.

After my experience with AbeBooks, I have closed my account with them. A book I have been searching for for a long time came up in my AbeBooks alerts for a very good price with a reasonable shipping rate (too good to be true!), so I ordered it right away. The seller had a 4 star rating, so I had no reason to worry. I received my order confirmation, which I assumed meant that I had purchased the book. Stupid me, because I hadn't read AbeBooks' terms thoroughly and I hadn't read reviews on the company. I started getting slightly worried when, after about two days, I hadn't received a shipment notice. Finally, I received a message from AbeBooks, but it was a request for more money. Instead of the US$10.95 shipping rate listed, the seller now wanted over US$40 for shipping! This is apparently because the book needed to be shipped as a parcel. I might have been ok with a slight shipping rate adjustment, but quadrupling the rate was not acceptable so I rejected the request right away. This time I didn't hear anything from AbeBooks for 4 days. While I was waiting, the same book coincidentally came up on an auction site as a BIN for a reasonable price, but I didn't purchase it because I didn't want to buy the same book twice. Again, foolish me. Finally, after 4 days, I received an automated message from AbeBooks saying my order had been cancelled because the seller hadn't processed it within the required time period of 96 hours. Of course, by this point the book on the auction site had sold.

I sent a message to customer service just to let them know that I was disappointed that AbeBooks allows such practices and that I had lost my confidence in purchasing through them. I received a response that basically said that sellers on AbeBooks are perfectly within their rights to request more money for shipping, taxes or tracking/signature confirmations after a purchase, and can cancel orders if they choose to. They told me that AbeBooks' system only allows sellers to set one shipping rate (for a book that is 1 kg or 2.2 lb), so sellers can request more money for larger books after the fact. I wrote back saying that I understand that this practice is theoretically allowed under AbeBooks' policies, but that it undermines the trust that customers have in AbeBooks and their sellers. I suggested that AbeBooks should really consider developing tiered/variable shipping for their sellers (which almost all e-commerce platforms on the planet come with). And in the meantime while they only have the capability to set one shipping rate, sellers should be encouraged to set a rate that is middle of the road - they make money on shipping sometimes and lose money on shipping at other times, and it all evens out. That certainly beats trying to quadruple a shipping rate after the fact, which is likely to make any customer miffed. It's not as though the book I tried to purchase was outrageously sized - it's an average non-fiction hardcover that's 10" x 12" and weighs under 2 kg. After I sent this message, I received a response from AbeBooks that was truly irritating: "I am afraid we do not ask this of sellers as we cannot expect them to price packages for all of their inventory for all weights to all countries in the world." I'm sorry, did I ask that sellers set individual shipping rates for every single combination of package of every weight to all countries in the world? No. I suggested that they develop tiered or variable shipping for their sellers - similar to the weight-based shipping rates that any modern e-commerce platform allows; or encourage sellers to set an average flat shipping rate that balances out how much they gain and lose on shipping. Quadrupling a shipping rate on a customer after they purchase a slightly oversized book just shouldn't happen. The only saving grace is that my credit card wasn't charged for this so-called order, and I don't have to pursue a refund.

In any case, I don't have time to waste searching AbeBooks or going through their match notifications if orders I place with them aren't guaranteed to actually be processed. I'll stick to searching for used books at local bookshops or on the usual auction sites (which I find unpleasant and normally stay away from, so that says a lot about my opinion of AbeBooks!). At least then I know that when I find a book and buy it, it will actually be coming home with me! My account with AbeBooks is now closed and I am done with them.