"At one point the site used to be really good - great/friendly customer service, excellent quality items & reasonable prices.
What came next within the last year or so at least (should i speculate whether this has been a blatant attempt to maintain maximum profits during 'covid'?), standards COMPLETELY dropped.
Items in such poor condition they would not even make a charity store being sent (severely water damaged books at times, books looking like a dog has eaten them, books with loose pages/binding, books with significant creasing, etc)!
To make matters worse, these books have usually been listed in their 'standard' condition (which appears to be akin to 'good or very good') while they SHOULD'VE been correctly listed as 'less than standard' (a condition the site claims to have).
Refunds have been reluctantly/grudgingly given in cases like this - seemingly with no genuine understanding of the inconvenience of then needing to source these same books elsewhere - which can be made infinitely harder if a 'rare' book!
In fact, customer service staff (usually higher staff members such as 'ashley' their 'customer care MANAGER'), attempt to remain tactful, while coldly 'polite' - without actual empathy/understanding/humanity - only profit motive.
Wouldn't it be thought that a GENUINE, HONEST & ETHICAL business of ANY kind not only 'own up' to their own slipped standards & poor customer service but also adhere to THEIR 'guarantee' (listed prominently on their site)?
No, instead, i had a newer order cancelled, ALL blame put on me for the 'increase' in refunded items (not ONCE addressing the MASSIVE, worrying drop in quality of items).
Laughably, i was told:
"... it's become clear that we're unable to meet your condition needs. Due to this, and the fact that such a high rate of refunds has become cost-prohibitive for us, we're unable to continue shipping orders to you."
BIG problem is, they don't even meet THEIR OWN 'condition' standards - not specifically MINE!

Here's their general condition that they claim to have/follow:
"Standard
What does "Standard" condition mean at Powell's? Books in good or better condition, free of writing or other markings in the text (with the possible exception of a previous owner's name in the front). The great majority of the books in our stock fall into this category. In short, when a book is listed as "Standard," you can expect it to be a high quality copy."

"All our new, used, and out-of-print books are in good reading condition — guaranteed.
We recognize that ordering used books on the Web, sight unseen, requires trust. If you've ever tried to sell us your old books, you know firsthand how tough our standards are (haha - we wish!). By enforcing strict quality guidelines, we can guarantee that every book we sell, new or used, is a good reading copy."

A LOT of FALSE/FRAUDULENT/DISHONEST claims made on their website - insult to injury, one of the worst is:
"We're nothing without our customers. Powell's would not be the destination it is now without its loyal customers." - CLEARLY COMPLETELY FALSE, unless you're a customer who is fine with near throw-away/give-away items amongst ones that DO fit their (meaningless) 'standards'.
Based on the proud history of this store displayed on the website, personally, i'd say the store's founder/s would be rolling in their graves to see just how their 'family business' is being conducted AND how their 'loyal customers' are treated!
STAY WELL AWAY!"

"Powell's offered the most money for an older textbook. Wasn't much (under $10), but I was selling several textbooks. I ended up using 3 different book buyers in order to get the most money. Each paid for standard shipping. Powell's took the longest to pay, (about 2 weeks), but once they processed the book, my PayPal account was promptly credited the money. I would use them again. "

"I am an avid book reader and my favourite genre is fantasy. I recently ordered 3 books from Powells because their prices were really good and they offered shipping which made me confident in receiving my products. Keep in mind, I am in Canada. A month and a half and no books have arrived. I have corresponded with them via email 3 times and nothing much beyond apologies and a shipping refund have been given. I JUST WANTED MY BOOKS! I have used Betterworldbooks, AwesomeBooks, Book depository and Thrift books even during the CanadaPost strike. All my orders from them arrived. Such a shock. So disappointed and angry"

"I have bought books from Powell's, maps, etc. from Powell's and they're ok. Nothing special other than large inventory. But recently we brought a special book there to sell. That was a mistake.

We brought in a guide to birding in Italy (English edition) that can be found nowhere on the internet. (Out of print, out of circulation.) I paid ~$90 for it as a present for my wife before a trip to Sicily. It was very useful, and there is no equivalent book available in English. The buyer at Powell’s said ‘it doesn’t matter’ when I told him it was not available anywhere else. He said they’d list it at $35 and pay us 16% of that. So $5.60 for the book! That's absurd. We kept it. "

"I have purchased books and other items from Powells.com for years. The order described below was for an antique book on American History, published in 1947. The book I received is in excellent condition -- almost like new. That was good, because I bought it for a gift! If you order from Powell's, you may want to request "easy to open packaging." I did that for this order and it came in a well packaged box. Normally, though, Powell's packs in a hard cardboard "envelope." The envelope contraption protects the contents very well, BUT is extremely hard to open, even with scissors or a sharp knife."

"I'm a book collector and bookseller, so I've purchased books from Powells several times over the years. In general I'd say they're pretty good, and I've given them favorable reviews in the past - on Amazon, for example. My most recent purchase was made through a system (Biblio) that does not allow for feedback on canceled orders, so I came here.

Three days after I ordered a book they canceled the order, writing me that the book was no longer in stock. I thought this odd, because after receiving the cancellation notice I searched for another copy and noted Powells still has the book listed as available for purchase (though the price has gone up quite a bit). So I checked their web site, which shows they have over a dozen copies in stock running from Good condition to Brand New.

Powells told me they had sold their last copy, yet their own web site says they have numerous copies available in numerous locations. But the price on the web site was about double the price originally advertised. What's a rational person to make of this?
"

"My order went smoothly and I got everything that I'd originally ordered. Since it is a used book store, they naturally may not have every volume of a series, but it has saved me a lot of money shopping between Powell's and the two Half-Price Books stores in my town before I go to buy new. They also got here quicker than expected.

I had to contact customer service about something that was entirely not their fault (it was, actually, the shipping company's), and the entire time they were very helpful. I have already placed another order with them. "

"There was a certain "Dummies" book that I wanted so I went to Google to see if I could get a good price on it. I found the book at Powells.com for $20 less than the going price. I ordered it and paid for it with Paypal expecting it to be a used book but I didn't care.

Well, it arrived today,8/11/2007 and it was well packaged and also brand new.

One caveat, and this is not Powell's fault-- I am in California and it was shipped from Oregon and took 15 days to get here via media mail.

I would certainly order from them again but if I wanted it in a hurry, I would pay for faster shipping. In this case, speed was unimportant."

"Very fast delivery. Good packaging. THe website is easy to navigate. I had no problems with this order and the product is in excellent condition."

"deleted..........................................."

"order arrived one month after they told me they shipped it.it shipped to romania(central europe) by world mail.it arrived a bit late,but possibly because of the local postal services.the books are in very good shape,it is hard to tell the difference between the used ones and new ones.order confirm and
time till they posted the order was normal,satisfactory(few days in total)"

"The shopping experience with this retailer is extremely bad. I ordered a text book on Jan 9 and got the confirmation email in a few hours. However, just three days later, I received a cancellation email from them stating something like "first come, first serve", "our local stores have thousands of customers coming in everyday". This means just one fact to me -- they don't treat online customers equally as other customers."

"Purchased the book from Powell's via Amazon.com shops, communication was great, and it arrived on time and very well packaged."