website thubmnail of Secondsale
How would you rate Secondsale?
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New York
1 review
2 helpful votes
Follow c d.
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I have ordered many used books from this seller. During the past year or so. Their quality control is non existent and they seem to have a increased their market share of used books, so that they have a much larger inventory than their competitors, making it difficult to find used books advertised in VERY good condition anywhere else. As their stock has increased, their quality has become non existent. They will just send what ever they have regardless of the quality. Then, they make it a huge, time consuming hassle to get a return label. I have purchased books using their eBay promotion of buy 3 get one free. In every case there was something that had to be returned. They advertise 2 volume sets and only send one book. They advertise VERY GOOD condition and send you a book with writing and underlining on every page. It just is not worth the hassle of doing business with them anymore.

Date of experience: December 28, 2024
Maryland
1 review
2 helpful votes
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There was an error on my invoice.
I tried to get it corrected but they would not do anything about it.
I do not consider their customer service to be very good.

Date of experience: December 20, 2024
Minnesota
1 review
2 helpful votes
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I ordered a book that I needed for a research project. In my order confirmation email, I was informed the package would arrive by July 3 (which was important, since I leave for a trip on July 4). On July 3, I still hadn't received my package, so I went to my Second Sale account to track my order only to find it had been refunded, without any explanation or notice. They did refund the full cost (incl. Shipping and tax), but that is not enough to make up for the fact that I needed this book by a certain date and I was given no notice about this refund.

Date of experience: July 3, 2024
Texas
1 review
4 helpful votes
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I ordered a completely different book than the one they sent me. There was also an envelope inside that had been torn open and the offers were outside of it. I don't know what happened, but I've sent multiple emails over the past week, and have not gotten a single reply. Horrible customer service.

Date of experience: August 23, 2023
Utah
1 review
3 helpful votes
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Lousy customer service
October 16, 2023

Ordered 2 little books through them on eBay, they sent 1. After repeated inquiries I went through eBay and was informed a refund was posted on Sept 29,2003. It's now October 16 and even after repeated emails to them there has still been no response or refund posted. Don't buy from these people. EBay has closed my claim after refund was promised. I don't know where to go next... I'm old, I don't do technology... I can't figure out how to post the picture. Oh! I figured it out!
I ordered and paid for 2 mini books of A Christmas Carol, they sent one

Date of experience: October 16, 2023
Arizona
1 review
5 helpful votes
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Poor customer service
September 2, 2023

I ordered two books. I received confirmation of two being sent but only one book was in the package. I sent multiple emails over a 10 day period using their contact form and also from my personal email. I received no response. They do not have a phone number listed so you can't call. I tried messaging them through Facebook and it is disabled and instructs you to email them. I would not buy from them again.

Update: I finally received a response and they provided a refund for the missing book. If you have an issue with them keep trying and you might eventually get it resolved.

Date of experience: September 2, 2023
Massachusetts
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Awesome website
January 30, 2024

This is by far one of the best websites for second hand retail. I purchased a few books like 2 weeks ago and got here within a week. They have a variety of options and they are honest about the condition of the book. They don't only have amazing prices but they have even more amazing deals. Considering all of the second hand retail book stores in my local area got shut down, it's nice to know I can count on second sale to find good deals and good quality books!

Date of experience: January 28, 2024
Illinois
5 reviews
26 helpful votes
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This is what Secondsale called a book "in very good condition." It was literally falling apart, and stained with who knows what. They did not respond to multiple attempts to contact them over the course of a week, until I brought in Abe customer service to intervene.

Date of experience: November 5, 2023
Puerto Rico
2 reviews
2 helpful votes
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Dishonest company
October 14, 2023

This seller didn't deliver multiple items on two orders I made on their eBay site. No explanations, no apologies, no restitution of the items and only a PARTIAL refund. They don't answer messages and they have multiple complaints on their ebay page. Don't do business with them. Avoid at all cost.

Date of experience: October 14, 2023
Georgia
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Purchased a Book/DVD's set. Ad says both dvd's are included. DID NOT receive both dvd's. Contacted customer service, NO HELP. Here is his response "We know that this may not the be information you were hopeful for however used books are not guaranteed to have supplemental items when sold. Many thanks, Allen

Date of experience: October 2, 2023
Illinois
1 review
2 helpful votes
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When I ordered the book I didn't expect it to be in perfect condition but it arrived with writing in it, torn pages, and bent pages.

Secondsale books is misleading and deceiving customers by listing many of their used books in "good" or "Very good" conditions.

Do not order from them if you care about the condition of how you receive your item.

Date of experience: October 21, 2023
North Carolina
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Never Received My Package
September 5, 2023

Essentially the same situation as other reviews, only the package I ordered was never delivered at all and I received no response from SecondSale. The order was a mere $14, and they couldn't even manage to handle a small issue like that properly.

Date of experience: September 5, 2023
Maine
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Sent the wrong books
September 22, 2023

I was sent an order that contained none of my books. I emailed every day for 5 days and got no response. I will have to contact my credit card and have them get my money back for an order that was not sent.

Date of experience: September 22, 2023
Washington
1 review
1 helpful vote
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I have had a similar experience as described in the some of the prior reviews; I ordered a book for my son, paid via my Apple Pay account, then learned that the book could not be delivered b/c of lack of an apartment number, which may have been my error, so was sent back to Second Sale. I have tried numerous times to contact Second Sale via email and their telephone number on line *******877; I have left several messages with no response from the company. All my emails to the company are blocked with the message that they are suspected as spam, even those that are a reply to the order placement confirmation email. I do not know how or if I will get a refund for the cost of the book, minus shipping. I will NEVER order another item from this company, and WOULD CAUTION ALL POTENTIAL BUYERS TO STAY AWAY, in light of what seems to be a pattern of at best very poor customer service, and at work an active scam.

Date of experience: April 12, 2024
New York
1 review
1 helpful vote
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How would you feel if you wanted to change an order and could not find a screen to do so? How would you feel if you could not find the screen to cancel? How would you feel if you wrote to their support desk several times and not hear anything back? Zero feedback. How would you feel if you received an email to rate their service, clicked on the suggested link and got an error that the website was down but tired over several days with the same results? How would you feel if you again tired to write to them, this time to tell SecondSale that you could not rate them and got no feedback about your findings?

Save yourself total aggravation. Use SecondSale's competitor where you would get 100% reliability with similar prices and product quality, ThriftBookm.

Date of experience: September 20, 2023
New York
1 review
6 helpful votes
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They lie in the description then don't answer emails to confirm. Thought I was buying 2 sets of oracle decks which was supposed to include 88 cards altogether and guidebooks. Did I get that. Nope not at all instead I got 3 books all of which were not in the description. So mad they got to money. I will get a refund or else I'm going to just burn these useless books they sent to me. So angry right now was really looking forward to those cards just to be mislead and lied to! Do not buy from them. Hope they go out of business

Date of experience: June 8, 2023
Texas
1 review
1 helpful vote
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Good as long as they send books as advertised. I've bought about 25 books with no issue, THEN last order contained a yellowed, unreadable, pages missing book. I've emailed 3x, called Second Sale corporate, posted on social media and have gotten ZERO RESPONSE. Will not order again from a company that ignores their customers.

Date of experience: August 24, 2023
Massachusetts
1 review
1 helpful vote
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I did receive volume 1. (It had a fair bit of marking, but that did not bother me too much.) But it was clearly indicated as a two volume set. It is interesting to learn more about this "company" (?) or person. I don't understand why they won't respond at all to my repeated attempts to ask if they could send volume 2. I'd rather not go to the trouble of driving to a USPS store. I'm not even confident that even if I return volume 1 I would get my money back. It was hilarious trying to communicate with a robot. Why not a human being? It is such a simple question. Oh well, c'est la vie, I guess.

Date of experience: August 11, 2023
Florida
1 review
8 helpful votes
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Buyer Beware
February 1, 2023

I did not receive all of the items in the listing. Description on website and bill of sale state "Strawberry Shortcake Berry Yummy Cookbook With Pink Measuring Spoons." I purchased this one rather than a same condition book without spoons that was less expensive. I did not receive the spoons. I did contact the company and was told it was over the 30 day return policy. I didn't want to return it; I wanted the spoons as advertised. Additional response from Second Sale states "Listed books are not guaranteed to have supplemental items such as access codes, CDs, DVD etc…In order to guarantee that you get supplemental items, we suggest to buy the book, new." The book is out of print and I'm sure they know that. Customer service and truth in advertising - abysmal. Buyer beware!

Date of experience: February 1, 2023
Florida
1 review
4 helpful votes
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Ordered 3 books which gave me free shipping. Before they came, got several nice offers (e.g. 4th book free) via email, but when I asked how to add a 4th to my 3-book offer within 20 minutes of placing the order, no response.

So okay, no one's perfect. BUT when I got my order, 1 that I paid for was missing. No reason given, not out of stock according to their website, they finally responded via FB that it would be easier on their bookkeeping if I'd take the refund and reorder... but then, of course, I'd have to pay shipping FOR THEIR MISTAKE. After the FB back-and-forth they did issue a credit to my cc. (NOT when they only shipped 2 instead of 3, not in response to emails or filling out their contact form, only when I publically complained.) But I wanted the book! So I bought it from their competitor.

PS They delete negative comments from their FB page, just to show you how ethical and transparent they are. Nope, not ordering from them ever again.

Date of experience: April 20, 2023

Overview

Secondsale has a rating of 1.4 stars from 40 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with Secondsale most frequently mention and customer service. Secondsale ranks 100th among Textbooks sites.

service
22
value
22
shipping
21
returns
17
quality
20