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

“Would give 0 stars. Twice Abebooks has returned my books to seller with the excuse of “incomplete address” every single time I checked tracking and viewed my confirmation in my address on their documents were complete. It’s a total rip off. I will never buy from Abe books again!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“I ordered a book over a month ago and never received it and have not received a response from Abebooks about the book or a refund. I am totally discussed by this company and will NEVER order there again”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“Garbage company. 3 days after I placed my order they canceled one of the books as "no longer available" from the seller. They shouldn't allow sellers who can't keep track of their inventory to regularly cancel. I emailed to inquire and received no response from abebooks. I'll stick with better world and thriftbooks!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“The book supplied was not as described, and had a few pages missing. Four pages were copies. The pages were clearly scanned with words curling around the edge. AbeBooks UK reached out to the seller, who did not respond, AbeBooks said they could do no more especially as I paid with Pay Pal. The seller didn't reply to Pay Pal either. This is sales by deception with no recourse. Even though AbeBooks is just a platform for sellers, as first point of contact, they should back up the buyer in these situations and get rid of the shonky sellers. Here's the funny bit, AbeBooks gave me a coupon to use, which I thought was good, but the coupon can't be used unless you use your own money and then get a refund. WTF!!!!!!!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“I ordered a hardback copy of a book that I saw on the website of Abebooks, it stated the book was in good condition and the publisher was Penguin. What I recieved was the same title however it was a paperback with no similarity of the image that was on the website and published by a different publishing house. The condition of the text is the worse I have ever seen it was so bad that on some pages the text could not be read. I raised this as a complaint on the Abebooks forum on the website. I was given clear instructions to return the text to the original seller and a guarantee that the cost of the postage would be returned (£17). This all happened at the start of January 2025. Abebooks are now not responding to my emails and neither is the seller. So I now have no book and have paid for postage. Do not buy from this site.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“Never received my book. Never received a follow-up email. Website is ridiculous to just get to customer support. Stay away!”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 months ago

“Have bought successfully from these people in the past. Placed an order in October (approximately $75). Projected delivery date was December 12. When I still did not have the items on December 28, I emailed them. Never received the courtesy of a reply. No customer service telephone number, only a maze of a website to try to navigate. After four email and still no reply, I got my credit card company to reverse the charges. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THAT YOU ATTEMPT TO DO BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE. NEVER AGAIN FOR ME!”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 months ago

“I tried to purchase a book from Abebooks. I paid in 12/7/24 and it is now 1/13/25 - still no book, still not at the USPS. They sell third party books, so I found out AFTER I paid my book was supposedly coming from India. I've left countless email messsges to both AbeBooks and the seller, True World of Books. AbeBooks only bounces you to the seller. AbeBooks does not have live chst, virtual assistant or a working CS phone number. No CS whatsoever. Ttue World has been giving me the runaround for 5 weeks. I asked for a refund 2X and was ignored. AbeBooks claims their sellers have 2 days to respond but they don't and obviously nothing is done about it. I'm going to get a refund through PayPal and will NEVER BUY FROM THEM AGAIN and I would suggest everyone else do the same. Horrible, unprofessional, crooked vendors.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 months ago

“I purchased a copy of a book through AbeBooks from Toscana Books in Austin TX for $58. The book was listed several days later on AbeBooks by the same seller for $400. I was intentionally shipped a bogus book and told by the actual book seller that they would investigate and ship the book I purchased. When I contacted AbeBooks they responded by issuing a refund. Avoid this seller and avoid AbeBooks.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 months ago

“I bought a book from one of AbeBooks' sellers and then a companion book from another of their sellers, paying double the market price of the book by the time shipping was included. I got a message the next day that the out of print book wasn't actually available. AbeBooks customer service has been atrocious with them making no substantive effort to fix their problem. The last round of emails from their CSRs are openly taunting. Now I don't have the book I wanted, paid double the market rate for a companion book and have wasted a week of my life trying to get this company to meet their obligation. Awful, just awful.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 months ago

“Book didn’t ship, despite repeated promises from SN Books who are somehow affiliated with AbeBooks who claims affiliation with Amazon. Amazon rep believes this is a scam and is entering a fraud ticket today. I did get a refund from my bank card, but was really hoping to get the book (“Thrift with a Needle” from 1954). Source is India which is likely the root problem.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 months ago

“Tried to cancel a sale even before it had shipped and they wouldn’t allow it. Why bother with such bad service with better companies out there for better prices.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 months ago

“Several attempts were made to access my credit card account since I ordered a book from Dieb Antiquariat Wolfgang Rüger. This is a thief, he has stolen money from my credit card and of course I did not receive my order.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 months ago

“They are horrible. I bought a book through them through Amazon in November on 2023. They took my money right away and almost a year later still do not have my book. I have emailed several times and no one responds. An absolutely horrible experience. Do not do business with them ever!”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 months ago

“I ordered a new book from Abe Books. I was sent a used book. The cover was worn and creased and a couple of pages were scribbled in red ink. I contacted customer service and they said they would send a replacement new book. The replacement book also is used with a worn cover. I let customer service know and they said I could send back the first book and get a partial refund. Now after I sent the first book back they are saying that I can’t get a refund and I can send the replacement book back. Not a great experience and they went back on their word. I will not purchase from them again. I tried to upload pictures but this review won’t let me.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 months ago

“They scammed me, they are all scammers, all sellers on Abebooks are scammers and the administration of Abebooks are the leaders of this gang of filthy scammers. I ordered an expensive antiquarian book and they sent me a cheap copy that was reprinted on demand from a scanned E-book in a PDF file that they download for free from the Webarchive. I call upon all arsonists to burn down their warehouses full of books and I appeal to all site hackers of the world to take their sites Abebooks.com and Abebooks.co.uk off the web by means of repeated Brute Force DOS attacks worldwide. They refuse to issue a full refund immediately unless I send them their worthless reprinted book back. All sellers on Abebooks are scammers and the administration of Abebooks are the leaders of this gang of filthy scammers.”

Helpful Report

Posted 6 months ago

“PLEASE DO NOT USE ABEBOOKS: Our family is begging you - please learn from our horrible experience with AbeBooks. As we took a financial loss, hopefully sharing this note will help other families avoid a similar experience. The book was never delivered! The customer service does not monitor the designated "contact us" email box, no responses, no follow-up, nothing. We hope this helps. God Bless.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 months ago

“I ordered a $200 art book and it never arrived. After contacting the seller many times they ignored my emails and abebooks did absolutely nothing to help. DO NOT USE THEM. THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY AND DO NOT SEND YOUR ORDER.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 months ago

“Sent my book to the wrong address. I don’t think it was actually ever sent at all. Then they claimed that they sent me the wrong tracking number but for 2 weeks I asked for the correct one and it was never sent. They said they would send a new book so I asked for a photo of the shipping label with tracking number and the address listed in my confirmation email. It wasn’t until I asked for a photo that they finally agreed to refund me but even getting them to say they would start that took forever. I still have not receive the refund.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 months ago

“Abebooks has been my WORST book-buying excperience ever. I had ordered several books from various 5-star sellers, I did not receive any books. Once you place an order it is IMPOSSIBLE to obtain a partial refund. Even if you receive a damaged book or no book at all, it is impossible to obtain a replacement from the Customer Support department, which does not seem to exist anymore. It is ABSOLUTELY USELESS trying to contact Customer Support, they simply ignore complaints from buyers, their sellers are always right. AbeBooks won't refund orders even when you provide scam evidence.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 months ago

AbeBooks is rated 2.1 based on 153 reviews