AbeBooks

I guess I'm one of the few 5 stars. I have ordered many books from AbeBooks, including a long lost out of print book that nobody else could help me with. I have never had a bad experience. I must always get the good vendors. I always look for the very good to excellent quality of book, when given the chance, and weigh it against the price, choosing the best price and shipping, and I have never once been disappointed. It's been a while since I ordered from them so for the first time ever, I checked out the reviews and was shocked to see so many unhappy customers. I had already completed a purchase of a book listed in good condition, and for another very hard to find book (found in England----Abe checks all over the world). After reading the reviews I tried to cancel my order the next day but was told by my credit card company I couldn't. I was really disgruntled but to my delight the first book came EXTREMELY well-packaged and in 1/2 the time stated. The second one came from over seas so it took longer, but was well-packaged. Neither had high shipping charges and both were in better condition than I expected. I will continue to order through AbeBooks and highly recommend them until I have a bad experience. I pay close attention to the satisfaction percentage rating for the individual vendors and shop accordingly, as I would expect others to do also.

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 ordered a book form Abe's listed as new condition. It arrived poorly packed from a place in Georgia called "Smell of Paper". The packing slip showed a total coast of 12.64. I paid ABE Books 23.63 including 6.99 shipping. Messages from Abe's said it was new/hardcover condition. The inside flap had a personal note to someone written in ink. It also showed signs of wear and a few spots on back cover. Definitely not new. I contacted ABE's about return and refund. They said to send pictures of the book. This was after another message saying they had forwarded my message to Ergoedebooks. Apparently Abe's advertises books in a certain condition, orders it from another seller, who then orders it from some one else. In my case I doubt the second and third purchase partners are not legitimate businesses. I now think Abe's is not either. I'm surprised they are still listed on Amazon I ddi not purchase my book through Amazon. The hassle of returning my purchase to Abe's is not worth the trouble. I will never buy anything from them again.

I wish I could give this company ZERO stars. I sent books to them, and after a few days, I realized that the FedEx man wasn't picking up the packages from the shipping center. I got nervous, and I was afraid my books would not arrive by the deadline, so I contacted them to ask them to please refuse the shipment if they didn't arrive in time, because I had sent quite a few books, and I couldn't afford to lose money on them. Because of this, they will no longer allow me to sell books to them. They closed my account and told me that if I tried to open another account, they would close it as well. I did NOTHING wrong whatsoever and this is how they treat me?

Don't BOTHER selling your textbooks back to this company! They will give you an online quote and once your book arrives, tell you that they cannot purchase the textbook due to 'too many filled in answers on a number of pages." This was complete and utter bull$#*! as the book I shipped was essentially brand new and I NEVER wrote in the book or circled answers or highlighted anything. This company is a complete SCAM! ZERO STARS IN MY BOOK!

I received a book that literally had pages 54-217 missing. Are you kidding me? You can't make this stuff up. I initiated a return and they wanted me to pay shipping and handling. NEVER AGAIN!

Purchased two textbooks on 8/27 from AbeBooks. Paid for expedited shipping to get books ASAP. One book shipped after a few days and I received a shipping confirmation and tracking info and it arrived in 4 business days.

The second book purchase was confirmed but they never sent a shipping confirmation. I contacted the seller and they indeed confirmed the book was shipped and that I should be getting the shipping email shortly. After two weeks I tried to call - tried a dozen times and it just goes to a Google number that says nobody is available. Now after about three weeks I just keep calling and emailing and they finally respond saying that it was lodt in transit and they can refund my money. Of course, they don; t care that I spent $1800 for the class and now will fail without a book. At this point, all resellers are either out of the book or they tell me it will be mid-October before it will be shipped. Yeah... that won't help. I al thoroughly convinced that they knew the book was sold out and just took my money hoping they may get another one in. How can you send the shipping confirmation and tracking on one and not the other. And... why did it take me constantly calling and emailing? If this was truly a mistake, I would have been ok with a call or email saying the book was out of stock so I could look elsewhere. Now it's too late for me to do anything...

AbeBooks is very hit or miss when it comes to buying books from their numerous books sellers. I have orderd two out of print books from them with no problems yet other people seem to bash this site a lot. Why? Because they don't do their research before purchasing a book. So here are things you need to look out for,

1. Look at the sellers reviews and ratings.

2. Do not buy from sellers that use stock images and have a very vague description of the book itself, these are nearly always scams. Buy from book sellers that use their own photos, if they don't see if they have a very descriptive review of the book itself.

3. If you have no choice but to buy from a seller on AbeBooks that uses a stock photo and has a very vague description, email them and ask about the condition and if a tracking number will be supplied. If the seller responds in a short time and provides you these answers then you should be safe to go ahead and purchase it. If they don't, avoid buying from them as most likely it is a scam.

What you have to know,
Don't be stupid, do your research!

Almost impossible to get the site to work on my phone, keeps trying to get me to download some blank "completion file" and then continues to not log me in

I waited for a tutorial book for four weeks, and I was shipped the wrong book that had NOTHING to do with the book I ordered. They accepted my return request, BUT they also required me to send the wrong book directly to the seller "as soon as possible". The return costs would have been three times the price I paid for the book and there would have been no guarantee that I had (a) received the book I ordered and (b) that I would have been compensated a Euro-cent.

From this on, I will NEVER buy anything from them. I will get a CORRECT book in a week from other sellers.

Total rip off stay away, fake site. They will steal your money like they did mine. Getting BBB and attorney general involved to try to get my money back. SHAM site

The company True World of Books that was selling the book via abebooks never sent me anything. They just took my money, and abebooks ignored all my emails. Total scam company.

Before we even ordered a book from "ABE" we wrote asking where our particular book would be shipped from and were told New York. The crappy book was mailed from a person in South Carolina in a plain manila envelope without dust jacket and when we complained and asked for a refund for this "100% guaranteed" purchase we were directed TO MAIL IT TO CANADA before any refund LESS POSTAGE. You can NOT speak to a person AT ABE - be warned - YOU WILL BE SCAMMED!

Buyer beware!This is a sham operation that drop ships books from random places and they know nothing about what they are selling you. I ordered an art book for $135.00 for my son that was described as "new", from Gold Books in Austin, TX. What I received was a dirty book In fair condition at best, with wrinkled pages, various colored majic marker marks on the sides of the pages and half-torn off price stickers from various previous sellers, one of which was less than 1/2 of what I paid. The book was shipped from a Habitat for Humanity resale store in South Carolina, where it was probably being sold for $5. When I tried to return the book for misrepresentation in their sales and selling me an old damaged book as a new book, they told me through email it would be a strike against them to return and offered another book or a discount. I fought with them for over 3 weeks to get the book returned and a refund, after they already had the returned book in their possession for over 2 weeks. I finally got an email that would get a return on the book after I told them I had reported them to the BBB, Texas attorney generals's office and had disputed with Mastercard. Live and learn