Name: Blackwell Books
Address: Blackwell Mail Order 50 Broad Street, Oxford
Rating: 1.69

“Blackwell’s provides the worst online ordering service and customer service I have ever encountered. I ordered a $150 book in April. It was despatched May 1. It was shipped without tracking, which I found unusual, particularly given a product of this cost. I understood that the pandemic would likely delay shipment but as of the end of July (4 months!), the book has still not arrived. Along the way, I have contacted Blackwell’s on several occasions - at times with no response and at others with politely dismissive responses requesting that I wait longer (those times when I did receive a response, the response would come about 2 weeks after I had made contact) . My last request was for a refund, which was ignored. I subsequently had to dispute the charge. I would highly recommend against online ordering from Blackwell’s. They clearly do not care about their customers nor about operating in an ethical and professional manner.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Their estimated delivery dates and dispatch times are fundamentally dishonest. My item was not dispatched until 10 days after it was purchased and has still yet to arrive. They are demonstrably unfit to compete against online competitors and should be avoided by customers looking for timely and transparent service.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“ordered a book has been 2 weeks since dispatch and no sign of it so far. Emailed customer service about this and have received nothing but an automated response saying my email is being processed. Don't buy here wish I looked at these reviews before I placed my order. That's £14 down the drain.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Website clunky and seemed to not process my order. It appears that you can only order if you are already subscribed but surely that can't be the case. After navigating my way around and completing all the order details it wasn't clear whether or not my order went through. Tried to contact them (you can't phone) and received an auto reply saying that it takes up to 10 days for a response. Now I need to get in touch with my credit card company to check if I've been charged. Certainly an experience I do not care to repeat so first and last time I to try to order from Blackwells.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Preordered a book in February 3rd order supposed closed on may 28th .still no shipping email and no response to my email up to today 30th of june.Stay away absolutely lousy customer service.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“The book I ordered took ages to arrive, but when it did, was not the one shown on the website. I wanted the book with its particular cover design for a birthday present. I followed the Returns instructions and attached two photos ..one was a screenshot of my chosen book, another with my invoice and the book received. I have heard nothing whatsoever from them, not even an acknowledgement, in 11 days.Terrible service, and now I find that their website is down for " maintenance". Do not use this company.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Avoid this company. I ordered a book on 10th June, it was £13. The money was taken from my bank account as soon as I placed the order. Exactly a week later on the 17th I received an email saying they could not despatch my order because of "payment failure" even though I had already paid and the money had left my bank account on the 10th. The fact I even had to wait a whole week just for that email is a joke. The same day they then tried to take another £13 from my account, so basically tried to rob me of £26. Then they refunded me the £13 the following day with no explanation. My first and last attempt to place an order with this joke of a company. Will be avoiding them in the future and will make sure to tell my family and friends to do the same. Huge waste of my time.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Avoid this company. I ordered a book on 10th June, it was £13. The money was taken from my bank account as soon as I placed the order. Exactly a week later on the 17th I received an email saying they could not despatch my order because of "payment failure" even though I had already paid and the money had left my bank account on the 10th. The fact I even had to wait a whole week just for that email is a joke. The same day they then tried to take another £13 from my account, so basically tried to rob me of £26. Then they refunded me the £13 the following day with no explanation. My first and last attempt to place an order with this joke of a company. Will be avoiding them in the future and will make sure to tell my family and friends to do the same. Huge waste of my time.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I placed an order on 30th May. It is now the 16th June - no dispatch email, no book, and not a single reply to any of my emails. It frustrates me that there are some good businesses who will go under due to Coronavirus, but there are parasitic companies like Blackwell’s that will no doubt pull through. Absolutely disgusting, non-existent ‘customer service’. Avoid at all costs.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Ordered a book before release date. Still waiting a month later. It was a birthday present. No use now! No response to emails. Took money straight away though. DO NOT USE”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“To iterate the same as others. Very slow delivery and no response from customer service when I inquired about the delay. Not good enough for me to use again”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I ordered a book from Blackwell's -first time- on April 16th. It's now May 20th and still No book. I contacted their "customer service" about it. Got a form letter response 10 days later telling me how hard they work. Poorest , most incompetent service Ever !”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Avoid at all costs.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“My nine year old son ordered the new Anthony Horowitz book via Blackwells online on 8th April. He paid using his own Go Henry card which is a prepaid debit card for kids. He was told delivery would be 2-4 working days but we accept it will be longer in the current circumstances. However, we were not informed until 20th April that the payment had not been successful, meaning they had kept my sons card details for 12 days before processing them. Since the 20th we have sent several emails without a reply and Blackwells are not currently taking phone calls. I appreciate that the current circumstances are making processes etc slower but this is completely unacceptable”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“My nine year old son ordered the new Anthony Horowitz book via Blackwells online on 8th April. He paid using his own Go Henry card which is a prepaid debit card for kids. He was told delivery would be 2-4 working days but we accept it will be longer in the current circumstances. However, we were not informed until 20th April that the payment had not been successful, meaning they had kept my sons card details for 12 days before processing them. Since the 20th we have sent several emails without a reply and Blackwells are not currently taking phone calls. I appreciate that the current circumstances are making processes etc slower but this is completely unacceptable”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Trash service they sent me book damaged 2 times and all they said was return for a refund took over 1 week and wasted my time stay away.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Worst customer service ever !! I ordered a book about a month ago and still haven’t received it, and no one will tell me where it is. Telling me to wait a few more days for the book and then randomly closing my ticket ? I needed that book for school. This company wasted my time, money and energy. Hire a better customer service representative. Never supporting them again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

“Terrible Customer Service. In the habit of blaming the customer.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

“Book hasn't arrived despite ordering 10 days ago and receiving a dispatch email the next day. Accordng to their webiste, delivery should then have been 24-48 hours after that. But it's now Christmas Eve and no book has been delivered. I emailed Blackwells to try to chase up the order and was simply told "I can confirm your order was dispatched by standard mail to the delivery address on your order" which is not at all helpful. I won't make the mistake of shopping at Blackwells again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

“I tried ordering a New York Times Best seller, typed the name into the bar and ordered my book. What arrived was a badly put together "summarized" version of the book. I tried buying off this site to support an actual bookstore only to receive a fake version of my book. I've tried emailing customer service for return instruction from the US and still haven't gotten an answer. If your thinking of buying from here just go to Amazon instead. The first image attached is what was sent from Blackwell and the second is the actual book.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Courier, Postal Service
Average Delivery Time	Over 7 Days
On-time Delivery	Greater than 23%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 79%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Email, Telephone, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Customer Service	1.4 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult

Blackwell Books Reviews