AbeBooks

At present, abebooks is having difficulty policing its sellers. A central problem is that the abebooks.com website has no provision for feedback from buyers. Because unhappy buyers are silenced, prospective buyers can not tell good sellers from the unscrupulous. Based on the complaints here, as well as my own experience, sellers know that can provide less than satisfactory service, with no expectation of being policed by the abebooks people. It is somewhat shocking that abebooks states they are an amazon.com subsidiary, as Amazon tries much harder,

So, rhetorically, why not one star? The reason is that the abebooks phone service did initiate a refund promptly in my case.

My case: Placed an order, paying for expedited shipping. Seller waited ten days to ship, then purchased the cheapest shipping service available (media mail), not priority service, as promised. Book is not scheduled to arrive by promised date. Seller sent obviously false claims in email.

Overall, I'd say that abebooks is a service I would use, but not if I needed the book promptly. If I had, say, six or eight weeks before I needed the book, I'd try abebooks, then cancel the transaction if the associated seller failed to deliver, using another supplier.

Ordered a book, only option for delivery was nearly a month away. Even so, those morons couldn't seem to deliver it by the deadline. It has now been another month since the deadline for delivery passed and I haven't recieved my order. I have emailed them about it, they said they are "veeeewy sowwy but thewes noffing we can do: 3". It's embarrassing to society how terrible of a company they are.

I purchased a book and the seller said he didn't have it and cancelled the sale. 6 emails to get a refund, then they refunded for the book NOT the shipping. 6 more emails to get the shipping refunded. THEY CANCELLED I DIDN`T! Then I get my Visa bill and I have been charged for currency conversion. WTF? It's costing me money because YOU cancelled the transaction! Contacted Rosalyn M. - AbeBooks Customer Support and was told it wasn't their problem. So ended up paying money for a book I would never receive because the awful seller was too lazy to take it off his listings. Take my advice and buy on ebay, amazon, chapters alibris or bookfinder4u! No issues with them!

BUYER BEWARE IRISH BOOKSELLERS via ABEBOOKS!

AbeBooks does not protect buyers from the fraudulent activities of this disreputable seller. Read the previous reviews. I am not alone in my experience.

Irish Booksellers via AbeBooks sent me a $15 paperback (via amazon.com!) instead of the $45 audio cd version. (Note: I did originally confirm it was the audio cd version w Seller.) I immediately returned the incorrect item and advised the seller & AbeBooks. But the Seller refused to issue a refund and AbeBooks refused to honour my repeated requests for a refund.

This is disgraceful customer service. Irish Booksellers + AbeBooks = Fraudulent

I have used this site now 3 times thinking maybe it was just a flook the 1 an2 times that they dont ship book after paying for faster shipping and not responding and then wrong book again after waiting extra 2 weeks for the book on the third time how could they possibly mess up again. But they did. Book stated estimated delivery Sept 7th paid extra shippping for fast shipping well book never came. Contacted the seller numerous times, contacted ABE BOOKS and then no response but the order says shipped now. So ask for tracking since I paid for it and never any response from either. After numerous emails and no response I recieved an email mind you after it says its shipped saying I would be getting a refund? So obviously it was really never shipped. And this order was placed on Aug 29th and fast shipping a rival by Sept7. So if you are buying for college classes. Stay clear of this site and beware. You will have to contact several times for each nook you order. And may never get it.

If you get the book you ordered and it comes on time, then good for you; you are truly lucky! However, in the event you have ANY sort of problem with your order then good luck getting anything handled or fixed at all. I have been in the process of trying to return a book for a month and a half now, and it wasn't that I ordered the wrong book, what I received was not at all as described on the website. The individual seller that I have been trying to work with (Bookish) has absolutely WORTHLESS customer service, and AbeBooks has been no help in the issue either. Do yourself a favor and order your books from another website, the few dollars you may save by going through AbeBooks is not at all worth the stress and frustration of trying to deal with returns and customer service of this company.

Terrible service. Ordered 8 books and only received 1 book correctly. Other books were thrown in at random with a $1 tag still on them. Seeking refund, closing account, and moving on. Books I didn't order smelled like cigarettes or smoke. Oh, yeah, I didn't even get all 8, the box only had 6 books. Too much incompetence, no customer service, and waste of my time and money. I can do better than this! Stay clear from ABE BOOKS and BETTER WORLD BOOKS! No sales receipt or anything. Just the box full of crappy books I didn't order and CANNOT USE or DON"T WANT because I DIDNT ORDER THEM!

No customer service whatsoever from abebooks - no support for customers. IRISH BOOKSELLERS rip off. I specifically emailed confirming a book order to which they replied yes- only then to send out the complete wrong book that was worth nothing next to what I actually purchased. They stopped returning my emails and then ABEBOOKS WOULD NOT SETTLE THE DISPUTE even after I spent more money to return the incorrect book. Booksellers lied about receiving the return and abebooks refused to refund my money. LIARS AND THIEVES.

Abe books ordered a book that I did not want because I had to put my info in to see the tax costs and such. Anyway, they wouldn't let me cancel it once it was sent (which was when the email arrived that I ordered it) so I was left with a textbook I own (and bought for $50 of the cost listed) and a $127 charge on my credit card and another $30 (of Customs and Delivery?). They ship through DHL (the WORST shipping company ever; but that's a whole different review) and they still have not delivered my package a month after it was supposed to arrive and they continue to tell me it will be delivered "tomorrow." Please NEVER ship from Abe or DHL...

Ordered a book from GreatBookPrices on Dec. 7 and the co. Hasn't yet shipped it. Tried contacting Abebooks but the co. Doesn't accept emails. AVOID DOING BUSINESS WITH THEM.

Utter Failures. I ordered a vintage, two book Junior Instructor set in November, 2019. They were described as Like New. I received only one of the books, and it was in Poor condition. It was unbelievable, but I tried again. I selected the highest priced set of those same books, which were also described as Like New. That time, I didn't get the books, at all. They sent me a cheap, paper Math workbook. When I brought it to the seller's attention, I was told that I must return it prior to receiving a refund. They were holding $65 of my money, while I had at most about $10 worth of goods. I had to provide shipping materials and then spend over an hour of my time to return the item they'd sent me, which I had not ordered and did not want. The error was unbelievable, and 100% the seller's fault. I had promised to return the book in my email, and expected that the seller would extend me a bit of trust and courtesy, since they had caused me such inconvenience, and there was very little of their money at risk. But, they chose to be petty and adversarial, and add insult to injury. AbeBooks carelessly exposes buyers to inept sellers who provide terrible customer service. I will never deal with AbeBooks again. It was nothing but a waste of my time and money, and I didn't even get the books I ordered. They still advertise that they're available, but I was finally told that they do not have them. It's false advertising. This is the most ineptly run company I've encountered in many years -- maybe ever.

Seller marked the order as shipped. If I had not contacted the seller for tracking, I never would have gotten a refund. Abebooks customer service was worthless.

I ordered two Books one arrived no problem
The other shipped by Hemingways was not even the book it was a box of tarot cards?
There's is now way to reverse anything with these guys I got this note from Hemingways
When I filled in the web site enquiry
Hi,
I can confirm that we would not have shipped you a box of tarot cards as we
Don't sell them, can I ask if the packaging is ours? And if its looks as
Though it has been opened at all?
Kindest Regards,
Vicky

I sent them a photo of the product and the invoice but received a huge list of useless emails that got further away from the point that was they shipped the wrong product
I could have my money back (maybe) if I shipped the item back at my expense
Don't use them pay a few more $'s

Avoid this site like the plague! I ordered a text book, that in the description said it was a bundle with textbook and online access code. I am usually a fairly savvy online shopper. I read everything I could see on the page, and nowhere did it say text book only. Only after the order processed, did I see a description from saying "textbook only". After the order processed, I couldn't cancel, so the same day it arrived, I returned the book, using "item not as described" for the reason. I now have an email saying it chose the wrong reason to return. Are you kidding me? Even if a separate description was hidden further down the page, the item was NOT sent as was listed in the description at the top of the page. They gave no specific instructions on changing my reason, even through I stand by my initial reason. STAY AWAY FROM ABEBOOKS AND CAMPUS BOOKSTORE!

How terrible. I waited over 1 month for the book and they just printed the label never sent the item. I'm waiting to see if I'm getting my money back!