AbeBooks Reviews

Name: AbeBooks
Rating: 2.11

2.1 Rating 153 Reviews

27 %

of reviewers recommend AbeBooks

Company Reviews

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Metrics

2.1

Based on 153 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Postal Service
Average Delivery Time	Over 7 Days
On-time Delivery	Greater than 31%
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 5th March 2025

Anonymous

AbeBooks 1 star review on 8th November 2024

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 1 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“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 3 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 3 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.”

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Posted 3 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 3 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.”

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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

“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.”

Helpful Report

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.”

Helpful Report

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 4 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 4 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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 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 4 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 4 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 4 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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I ordered a copy of a book on the website but when it arrived it turned out to be a German translation! The fact that it was a German edition was NOT REVEALED ON THE WEBSITE listing for the book. I returned the book after being assured in writing that the return postage would be refunded. They asked for, and I sent, documentation on the return postage cost twice but the company still refuses to pay as promised. IF POSSIBLE I WOULD GIVE ABE BOOKS A RATING OF ZERO STARS. The company is dishonest and incompetent. AVOID ABE BOOKS AT ALL COSTS!”

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Posted 4 years ago

“KEEP AWAY, sent wrong book, was sent back (at my expense) still no refund or reply email/response. Seems like a great scam!”

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Posted 4 years ago

“Abebooks does not have a friendly refund policy. They are saying that: "All return and refund requests, including reports of items that didn't arrive, must be received by AbeBooks within 30 days of the order's maximum estimated delivery date". The worse is they never remind you the deadline. If you forget the deadline, then you should forget your refund!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

AbeBooks is rated 2.1 based on 153 reviews