"So I bought a book at abebooks.com . I knew the book I wanted and I typed in the ISBN number online in Google. This brought me to Amazon, and tons of other places however; abebooks.com was the cheapest so I decided to go with them of course.
I get a completely different book which I paid extra money to have shipped the fastest route. NO APOLOGY FROM these people at all. Just send us back the book we don't have the one you want??? So, now I'm supposed to invest more money to ship back the book to them. I will be bashing them all over the internet and I hope this was worth it for them to get such negative reviews. These guys suck!!! Customer Service is the worst I've seen
Thanks for nothing."

"
You know the saying, buyer beware. I wish I had read these reviews before purchasing any books.
I ordered 6 books.
First one took longer to ship than was expected, no problem there.
Second and third books never arrived, never heard a word back from the sellers after writing them.
Figuring it was a fluke, I ordered two replacement books from two separate sellers and I am still waiting for them to ship. Again, no response from the sellers.
The sixthed book was supposed to be signed by 4 of the authors and intact with tight pages. Instead, today in the mail I received a book that is falling apart with no signature from anyone on it.
I'd say now I am pretty much finished with ordering anymore books from Abebooks.com.
Although the prices at Abebooks are the among the lowest on the planet, I rate them just 1 star because the four books that did not yet arrive, have offset any savings for years to come.
"

"I recently purchased two books from this vendor through Amazon.com and they not only over rated the condition of the books I got but charged three times as much as they were worth. Buyer beware with these guys. "

"We found a book listed on Abe that we had wanted for 25+ years.
We are a small private library and money is tight, so we thought hard and long before we placed the order. The shipping cost was doubled the shipping cost listed.
We relunctantly paid the additional cost but it felt like extorsion and we will never again use ABEBOOKS"

"Second time ordering from ABebooks, Got my order on time and with good condition!!
"

"Great company to order text books from. Very low prices and easy to order. I use them all the time."

"DO NOT use these people. My book never arrived and they have no way of tracking the order once they ship it (if they ever did. They simply said they'd refund it if it was returned. IT was ane xpensive book and I paid for expedited postage. A month later and no book, no money and no interest from them.
"

"I had some concerns when I read some of the negative reviews but these guys are awesome! The book was delivered for a great price, in excellent condition and within their stated delivery estimate."

"I have always believed that no one can beat Amazon.com. I cannot believe there is actually another company out there that provides such outstanding customer service. My experience with AbeBooks has been an all-around pleasant experience, to say the least. AbeBooks gives you personalized service and treats you like you are a valued customer. They are very quick to respond to your questions/concerns. All the books I have purchased from AbeBooks are in better condition than described. I cannot say enough good things about this company. They have demonstrated that they truly care about their customers. You just cannot get better quality or better service any where else. And, the prices of the books are so low it almost makes me feel "guilty"! AbeBooks is THE bookstore for me. So happy I know of its existence! Thank you so much for the excellent caring service and the high quality books. You are so very highly recommended. (The only bookseller for my family, friends, and me.)"

"I was a bit weary about ordering off Abebooks after reading the reviews. My alternatives were to pay full price for the book $100 more or order off Fishpond which had even worse reviews. I decided to take the risk knowing full well I may never get my book. I placed the order on Friday and received the book on Monday (despite having to travel from the US to Australia!).

Packaging was almost over the top with bubble wrap but I didn't pay for it. Book arrived in perfect condition.

I couldn't have had a better experience with Abebooks. The seller was textbooksxpress."

"My experience with AbeBooks has been appalling. The book did not come by the date promised, and when I brought this to their attention, they told me to wait another day. I waited another day, brought it to their attention, and they asked me to wait 5 more "business" days. I suppose it is silly of me to expect to receive a book when I order it. Or perhaps it is silly of me to expect a refund if the item I ordered never comes. I have been treated horribly, and so far, AbeBooks has not agreed to give me a refund -- for the book I paid for and never received. I will NEVER recommend AbeBooks to any of my family or friends. Perhaps to enemies."

"I ordered my books 6 days ago, and they still have not even shipped them. They beat Amazon by about 5 dollars including shipping. Had I known that they 5-30 days that they quote was in reality closer to the 30 day mark, I would never have ordered from them. Amazon quotes a similar 7-14 day shipping range, and yet I almost always receive them before the 7 day mark. I will never buy my books from this bookseller again. I sent them an email to inquire, and I received an auto-reply email about higher volume during the beginning of the semester. Seems to me like they should hire some temporary help to pack boxes for them for a week or two. "

"It was first time I ordered a book from Abe_Books. I read the reviews and wasn't sure if I wanted to try this website. But they had a book I needed. I am very happy with the result. I called the seller directly (it was Chiefly Books) and confirmed they actually had a book I needed. I also explained I needed it really fast. The man promised to mail it the same day had I placed an order. That was on Thursday, Dec. 22. I ordered the book immediately. I received it 2 days later on Sat. Dec. 24. Excellent service!"

"Ordered 9 books from two booksellers through Abebooks.com. First order was packaged so poorly that the books arrived bent and damaged. Not sure what good it does for them to describe the condition of their books if they are going to send them that way! Second order, only one of the three books I received was what was ordered. Won't order through Abebooks.com again."

"I've bought SO many books from AbeBooks over the years and I've only had a problem with 2 of the sellers on there. One never arrived (I was refunded) and one didn't match the item description (I was not refunded and was told too bad), however, I do understand that these books are dirt cheap and will not be given the top choice service as a new book from Amazon would. I've saved probably more than $250 just because I buy used from AbeBooks. I am including college textbook prices. They will take forever to get to you, returns aren't worth it, and the books will not be in the best of conditions. Plus you don't know what the previous owners were like in terms of cleanliness. I make sure to disinfect all covers before reading. But the prices are why I go there. The sellers are generally polite and attentive to customer needs. As far as reselling textbooks goes, you should always do that yourself. I mean why not, if they can make a buck off of your own items, you can too.

I think in terms of buying used expendable books on an online community, AbeBooks is the place to go. Amazon used represents most of the sellers from AbeBooks anyway, except AbeBooks has a far greater selection of the same carried stock to choose from and at a lower price. Huzzah AbeBooks!

EDIT: I would like to say that you shouldn't count on your books getting here in the time that you'd like for them to. They are shipped via Media Mail and that can take between 3 days to a month. I've moved on from AbeBooks to local used book stores and Amazon. I still buy my textbooks from AbeBooks, but it's far better to be able to see the actual condition a book is in and what edition it is than to take a gamble and hope for the best, which is what happens with this website."