AbeBooks Reviews

Name: AbeBooks
Rating: 2.16

2.2 Rating 140 Reviews

29 %

of reviewers recommend AbeBooks

Company Reviews

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Metrics

2.2

Based on 140 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Postal Service
Average Delivery Time	Over 7 Days
On-time Delivery	Greater than 26%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 55%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Email, Live Chat, Telephone
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult
Returns Process	Could Be Better

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AbeBooks 1 star review on 8th November 2024

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“I ordered a University textbook for my son (to be shipped form the UK to South Africa) , because I could not find it locally anywhere. Less than an hour after ordering though - on a SUNDAY - my son found a second hand version via a friend. I immediately tried to cancel my order, via 3 different channels (email, web form and , return function). On Monday mid morning I was finally responded to and told my order could not be cancelled as it had already been picked - not SENT mind you, just selected form a shelf. So I should wait for it to arrive and then I could send it back... again it was getting sent half way around the world to South Africa, that makes no sense. It was still right there!! Now over 2 months later it has not arrived, and their only comment is, 'oh well let us know if you want to order another one, it must be lost in the mail...'. No tracking number, no details, no interest, no nothing. Wow fabulous customer service all around. NOT. Thanks for literally nothing Abe books, except costing me money.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“Purchased a children's book for my grandaughters school library as a donation. The book arrived falling apart separated from the spine completely in several large clumps and shreds. The pages were falling out and it basically just completely fell a part in my hands as I tried to open it. I must say I was more than a little disappointed. But lesson learned. I will no longer be buying anything from AbeBooks!”

AbeBooks 1 star review on 12th April 2022

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Posted 2 years ago

“A company that doesn't value their customer at all!!! They only buy book from another bookstore and sell it again to customers. They are not direct book company so shipping will take FOREVER!!. DO NOT BUY FROM ABEBOOKS.COM specifically GF Books, Inc (Lakewood, NJ)”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Very bad service! I ordered 14 volumes of an architeture magazine, the seller send me 11 volumes of another magazine. I spend a lot of money to make a devolution when there was not my fault. I will never buy again from Abebooks. I'm big consumer of books but with Abebooks It was definitively the last time.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“Horrible platform. Most of their books sellers don't clean up their listings so after you spent hours looking for that one special book and you think you found it - guess what? you get an email a couple days later stating that the order has been cancelled because keeping track of their inventory is too hard :(”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Tell me why I ordered a book from this site to intentionally not buy from Amazon and it arrived in an Amazon package, fulfilled by Amazon. I paid $15 and change and the slip is for $9 and change. If I wanted to buy it from Amazon, I would have bought it directly for myself.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“I gave this business a 2/5 because I spent a total of around $1,000 for books for Christmas and most of the orders went without a hitch. I had a problem with 2 sellers who sent me used books instead of new books. The books that I ordered were pretty expensive for paperback books because of limited printing ($67.00 and $48.00) which I was willing to pay as a Christmas gift. The nightmare began when both sellers kept telling me that a new copy was coming into their warehouses (yes, they were two different sellers in two different states but their emails could have been interchanged.) I tried to work with them each for about a month. I finally gave them a date that I needed a trackable number by and, when I didn't get it, I applied for a return/refund. That's when the real nightmare began. I finally got return labels from both and returned the books, expecting to see my refund as soon as they were delivered. It really isn't acceptable that I was the only one with anything at risk. They now had my money and I had no book. Then, it turns out that one of the sellers put the wrong address on the return label. How is that even possible? This book was then returned to me. I opened a dispute with American Express. While they were in the process of investigating it, I received the returned book back. I researched the address and discovered that the seller had neglected to put an apartment number on it. For 2 weeks, I asked for a return label with the apartment number because I wanted my money and didn't want the book. On December 4 (the original order was placed October 17, 2021), I finally got my money back from that one ($67 + shipping). I also just received the corrected return label from the first seller this morning (December 6). The seller of the second book received his book back November 27. On Friday, December 3, I wrote to Abe Books customer support asking where my refund was. I received an email this morning (December 6) asking me for the tracking number so that they could verify that the book was returned. Are you kidding me? This information was all in the information that I had to fill out for the return/refund, They were too lazy or stupid to even look at the information they required from me. I have told them that they have until Wednesday, December 8, 2021 to credit my American Express account or I will be opening a dispute with AmEx. Quite simply, dealing with this company is not worth it. I thought since they were now owned by Amazon, the customer service would be comparable. IT IS NOT! Alibris is another good source for books and I have never had a problem with them. I am an avid reader and still like the feel of turning the pages, so a good bookseller is important to me. I will avoid Abe Books religiously, however, because the problems are simply not worth it.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“I waited for the book for more than two months, it still hasn't arrived and when I asked for a refound, they replied, that there is nothing they can do about it.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“Almost no customer service or screening of its sellers. Avoid at all costs. If, as I read, this website is based in Victoria, BC, it's a dark stain on one of North America's most beautiful cities. Competitors need to step up and put this disgrace out of business.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“best college bookk website I have EVER found. Cheap, Quality, Smart.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“I was given an invoice with the total price of the book I ordered. I was charged $7.65 more than price on the invoice.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“I ordered a book on August 4th 2020. They emailed me a day later to advise the book seller was asking for an additional postage charge, which I paid, which also rendered the postage more than the price of the book. They emailed me to advise it was dispatched on August 7th. It was was mid-pandemic and all my mail was arriving at least 1 to 3 months late, so I gave Abe a bit of breathing space. Also, I suffer from anxiety which also prevented me from wanting to cause a fuss. I email Abe late 2020. No response other than an auto reply. I email again Jan 2021, no response, and again Feb 2021, no response. I do a search on their site for a complaints email address and see that I should contact the seller direct. I do, and the seller says that they never asked for an extra postage charge, and never received one from Abe either. The said they'd follow it up. It has now been 326 Days since it was despatched. No book, no refund (yet they took an extra postage charge and no news. I have never, and will never order another thing from Abe. The book seller is Wildside Books, by the way.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“This was my first time shopping with Abebooks... AND I WILL NEVER SHOP WITH THEM AGAIN. I ordered a total of three books, all at the same time. One was a gift and it came when it said. The second said it was delivered--it was not. The post office lost it, said it had been delivered, and just today I got an email notifying a refund. The third one I saw no update for 14 days (the longest it said it would take). I sent a response asking if it had even been dropped off and I got no response other than, asking for information for who I was, what the book was, and where it was going. I responded again, and have not received any reply. I checked the USPS today, and surprisingly my package should be here by Thursday (from Maryland to Nevada, over the Memorial day weekend... wth). I am a grad student, I need books for my classes regularly. This has been such a disappointment. I will probably never shop from Abe's again. I will stick to Barnes & Noble and Thrift Books.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“AbeBooks is WORST online book seller ever :(( EASILY get a refund for your unsatisfactory order by filing a DISPUTE with your CREDIT CARD COMPANY! I got my FULL refund fast!! I got the wrong book delivered and got EXTREMELY POOR customer service after sending AbeBooks 5 emails. They never gave me a return authorization number to return the book. In frustration, I called and filed a dispute with my credit card company - they will intervene directly with AbeBooks and reverse the charge back to you!! Do it and get fair treatment.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Would not accept a return, when it stated that the seller agreed to 100% satisfaction. Did not list accurate copyright date. Ended up with a book of a later copyright at a high price.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“Ordered two books from Abe books on February 22, not realizing that they were bought out by Amazon. Both were shipped on the 23rd. One hasn’t made it to the post office yet, the other doesn’t have any tracking information but they estimate delivery around March 28. Never again.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“In my original email I was told I'd get a refund, but when I returned the books as "rejected, return to sender" exactly as instructed in an email they convieniently can't find the books and refuse to refund my money. Their customer service sucks and they are rude. I have the original email when I purchased the books stating I could get a refund. I have another email with the return instructions, but anyone else that I've corresponded with states no refund is available.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“This is the worst company I have ever ordered from and I now whish I had checked the reviews first. If you're smarter than me and read these, please please don't give them your business. They sent me something completely different than what I had ordered and since I sent it back to get my original item they stopped replying to me emails! So I paid for an item I will now never get. They literally stole from me! Run fast and run far!”

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Posted 3 years ago

“Very disappointed! Please be aware that this company is completely untrustworthy!! I bought one month ago a book (paid extra fee to get it in 1-2days) and still didn't receive my book or my money back. I was contacting the company, they didn't respond at all. I feel completely deceived and robbed. I tried different companies for second hand books purchase and any of them are much better than AbeBooks.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“Complete and utter clusterfuck from start to finish. Frist the the seller customer interaction is horrendous even after sending at least 5 message and 2 customer service complaints i heard nothing from the seller. The customer service sucks ass I ask for the tracking number and when I finally get that and see that the book is almost to my location the BUMBLING IDOITS at customer service process a refund/return that i neither asked for nor wanted and now what was going be a christmas present will not even get here and i have to rushed around like chicken with its head cut off to find something to give.”

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Posted 3 years ago

AbeBooks is rated 2.2 based on 140 reviews