"Book says in stock, you pay, you get an email saying successful purchase and it will arrive in 4-6 business days. Then a month later still no book has arrived. You ask what is happening, answer given is "book got lost by the courier" and a refund is on the way and there is no more stock of this book. They never contact you to tell you there is a problem. You have to chase after them. After all of this I look at the website, says book is in stock! Avoid like the plague"
"Lost Pages & Forgotten Words, thru Abebooks.com
Lost Pages & Forgotten Words steals money from customers. They pull the bait and switch; show a good picture of the book cover, then ship a crap*y version of it - hiding behind the excuse “well I did post a low-resolution picture of the front bookcover, so you agreed to everything that was wrong with it.” Be careful with descriptions also, “a small crease” = “several torn pages”, “unmarked” = “black marks on covers and/or pages”, “clean” = “burn marks anywhere in the book”, and the seller, Hayse, is a heavy smoker, so your books will stink of cigarette smoke.
And abebooks.com will not do anything about it, so be very skeptical about purchasing anything through them, their feedback system isn't feedback at all, the stars only tell you how many completed transactions that store has had.
Not worth the hassle.
Lost Pages and Forgotten Words, lostpagesandforgottenwords1 on ebay, Abebooks.com"
"Their expedited shipping is not worth the price. I paid extra for shipping that was supposed to take "2-8 business days." The book arrived more than three weeks after I placed my order. No tracking number was provided, either. Customer service from both AbeBooks and the third party seller was non-existent, as neither replied to my queries about the status of my order before it arrived, or since."
"This company appears to have a number of shell book stores it used for its used books. its also hard to find a review site! they have no google page which truly says volumes as well! We ordered one book through Booked Again books which just links back to Abe. The book was ordered and needed asap. Three days later, I get an email that the seller of the book now wands an additional $20.00 on top of the expedited shipping i paid when i ordered it or they were canceling the order! This is for a poor condition $21.20 book to start with. My daughter needs the book, but i'll be ordering it from someone else for sure. More money is what i'll happily pay rather than be extorted after the fact. This is absolutely one of the worst things i have every seen someone do in business. "
"this website let sellers from India to sell fake books of which authenticity is unknown. Indian people copy of the original book in bad quality and sell them on abebooks. never ever buy from this website. "
"AbeBooks is completely excellent, if you buy straight-forward, used titles. Shipments came superfast to my rural mailbox. EXTENSIVE selction. Not even a whisper of complaint. Been on for three years...definitly highly, highly recommend. Research made convenient, entertainment...everything."
"After my experience with AbeBooks, I have closed my account with them. A book I have been searching for for a long time came up in my AbeBooks alerts for a very good price with a reasonable shipping rate (too good to be true!), so I ordered it right away. The seller had a 4 star rating, so I had no reason to worry. I received my order confirmation, which I assumed meant that I had purchased the book. Stupid me, because I hadn't read AbeBooks' terms thoroughly and I hadn't read reviews on the company. I started getting slightly worried when, after about two days, I hadn't received a shipment notice. Finally, I received a message from AbeBooks, but it was a request for more money. Instead of the US$10.95 shipping rate listed, the seller now wanted over US$40 for shipping! This is apparently because the book needed to be shipped as a parcel. I might have been ok with a slight shipping rate adjustment, but quadrupling the rate was not acceptable so I rejected the request right away. This time I didn't hear anything from AbeBooks for 4 days. While I was waiting, the same book coincidentally came up on an auction site as a BIN for a reasonable price, but I didn't purchase it because I didn't want to buy the same book twice. Again, foolish me. Finally, after 4 days, I received an automated message from AbeBooks saying my order had been cancelled because the seller hadn't processed it within the required time period of 96 hours. Of course, by this point the book on the auction site had sold.
I sent a message to customer service just to let them know that I was disappointed that AbeBooks allows such practices and that I had lost my confidence in purchasing through them. I received a response that basically said that sellers on AbeBooks are perfectly within their rights to request more money for shipping, taxes or tracking/signature confirmations after a purchase, and can cancel orders if they choose to. They told me that AbeBooks' system only allows sellers to set one shipping rate (for a book that is 1 kg or 2.2 lb), so sellers can request more money for larger books after the fact. I wrote back saying that I understand that this practice is theoretically allowed under AbeBooks' policies, but that it undermines the trust that customers have in AbeBooks and their sellers. I suggested that AbeBooks should really consider developing tiered/variable shipping for their sellers (which almost all e-commerce platforms on the planet come with). And in the meantime while they only have the capability to set one shipping rate, sellers should be encouraged to set a rate that is middle of the road - they make money on shipping sometimes and lose money on shipping at other times, and it all evens out. That certainly beats trying to quadruple a shipping rate after the fact, which is likely to make any customer miffed. It's not as though the book I tried to purchase was outrageously sized - it's an average non-fiction hardcover that's 10" x 12" and weighs under 2 kg. After I sent this message, I received a response from AbeBooks that was truly irritating: "I am afraid we do not ask this of sellers as we cannot expect them to price packages for all of their inventory for all weights to all countries in the world." I'm sorry, did I ask that sellers set individual shipping rates for every single combination of package of every weight to all countries in the world? No. I suggested that they develop tiered or variable shipping for their sellers - similar to the weight-based shipping rates that any modern e-commerce platform allows; or encourage sellers to set an average flat shipping rate that balances out how much they gain and lose on shipping. Quadrupling a shipping rate on a customer after they purchase a slightly oversized book just shouldn't happen. The only saving grace is that my credit card wasn't charged for this so-called order, and I don't have to pursue a refund.
In any case, I don't have time to waste searching AbeBooks or going through their match notifications if orders I place with them aren't guaranteed to actually be processed. I'll stick to searching for used books at local bookshops or on the usual auction sites (which I find unpleasant and normally stay away from, so that says a lot about my opinion of AbeBooks!). At least then I know that when I find a book and buy it, it will actually be coming home with me! My account with AbeBooks is now closed and I am done with them."
"AbeBooks sucks. I've purchased books from eBay, Amazon, B&N and other locations. When I'm unhappy with my purchase for any reason - I get satisfaction from them. AbeBooks? HAH! On numerous occasions - the books sent to me were the wrong books. Yes, this has happened several times... and it only happens on AbeBooks. I have to go to the trouble with initially paying for the postage and shipping the books back before I can even see a refund. That put me off when I had to ship to England. Once, I wasn't reimbursed for shipping at all. It happens far too often. Avoid AbeBooks. Use Amazon or eBay. They're much better than this site."
"Ordered two textbooks through them, one from The Book Cellar and one from Orphans Treasure Box. Each book arrived within one week or less. Both were the exact items I ordered, and the one from The Book Cellar was actually in better condition than their original listing. Both books were packaged extremely securely and arrived undamaged. I don't know why there are so many bad ratings for Abe, but my experience was first-class for an online transaction."
"I ordered a book on June 3rd, which they said would be 5-14 days. It is now July 3rd and it has not arrived. Tomorrow is a holiday, and the next day a Sunday, so if it ever arrives, which I seriously doubt at this point, it will have been over a month in coming. Their response-totally unsatisfactory. I teach and had wanted to use a story in it for a summer class-too late now. Never again! Caveat emptor! They are the worst. "
"Have waited 22 days for a book thats never arrived. When I chased it up, I was told it has been lost in transit!!! Shocking
They never even offered a replacement, I need this for university ASAP and have waited over 3 weeks to be told its not even going to get her. DO NOT USE "
"I've purchased many books through AbeBooks the last few years. I have had a couple bad experiences with sellers but overall its been a great experience. I typically look up the sellers webpage before I order to make sure they look legit and respectable. I've actually found a few bookstores I order from directly now due to finding them in AbeBooks.
I wish they had some way of vetting their sellers, this would be very helpful. Overall a good experience using AbeBooks."
"This is the WORST place to get books from! I paid extra to get my book here within ATLEAST 10 days. After 2 weeks, I received nothing. Contacted them, they said wait 2 more days... still nothing. Highly Disappointed! I will NEVER order from them again. "
"Paid $30 for a single book. Waited - no book. Contacted AbeBooks, they told me to contact the seller directly. Seller promised delivery. Waited - no book. Asked seller by email to provide tracking information. No reply. Complained to AbeBooks. They told me to claim a refund. But their system would not let let me. Asked what I should do. No reply for quite a while - turns out they were trying to contact the seller, unsuccessfully. AbeBooks then refunded me, with an apology and a generous discount on a subsequent purchase.
"
"I bought 5 books from abebooks. I received just 1. The money is from a public university and research project. I did complaints and asked about the books. Unfortunately it was not finished. (I am spending 3 months). Money back or send me the books. Valter vieira PhD"