"Ordered a hardback leather-bound red/gold/black edition of ‘Dracula and other horror classics” to add to my new collection, deliberately not buying from Amazon as they only advertised a silver edition (never had any problems with them and products always as advertised). However BD sent the silver version and upon querying this claimed images are intended as a guide only. This is unacceptable as the photographed item and the written description (eg “full colour illustrations throughout”) bear no resemblance to the item I received and there is no footnote to indicate you may not receive the advertised item-if I knew this I would have avoided and look elsewhere. The customer service in dealing with this has been poor. After initial complaint, no offer to rectify situation was made and the advert is still showing red/gold version, which is blatant false advertising. After having to repeat details again they then offered a refund upon return (with no apology whatsoever) but are unwilling to pay the postage. I keep receiving stock responses from various people. This is their error and distance selling regulations state if item is not as described then they are liable. After threatening them with Trading Standards they said they would be in touch “very soon” but since then nothing despite my repeated chasing (via email as they have no phone number).

My advice to anyone considering ordering from this company to avoid them and choose instead one of the many other more reputable and honest booksellers available online."

"I ordered two books and they both arrived within the 8-day estimated delivery time. Unfortunately, one book was not the book I ordered, but it was enclosed with the correct invoice; so clearly a mix-up from Bookdepository. I contacted them and after an internal investigation they took the responsibility for the mix-up. They told me that I could keep the “wrongly sent” book and that they would re-order the “right” book.
The “wrongly sent” book didn’t interest me and I have decided to give it to the local library with compliments of Bookdepository.uk. My book arrived today and I am highly impressed with how Bookdepository handled the entire situation. Their prompt communication and overall understanding has made it certain that I will continue to be a loyal customer of Bookdepository.
"

"said book was dispatched gave fake tracking number books never arrived"

"This highly dubious company has no scruples about advertising / selling what are clearly used items as 'new'. When this is found out and question, they will lead the customer on a merry dance, all with the purpose of getting out of refunding money.
Their tactics are beyond belief and they should be banned from trading on-line and made to repay every customer they have deceptively ripped off since 2010.
Of course, this faceless, careless, spineless company operates from London.....enough said !"

"Book Depository sent me the wrong book and had clearly mixed up my order with another customer's; his label was visible beneath mine on the package. I've been trying for several weeks to get either the correct book or a refund, to no avail.

Every time I ask whether the correct book has been sent, I enter the same customer service script where they tell me it was delivered; I explain that it was the wrong book; I answer a series of questions about the title I received, details of the order and the package, and my address; and they promise to send out a replacement, with no indication that they have done so yet. I've repeated this circus three times so far.

I am giving up. The other book I ordered took nearly a month to arrive anyway, and while they blamed USPS, the problem actually seemed to be with their shipping contractor Liberty Express / On Demand Mail Services. Book Depository (now owned by Amazon) seems too much of a mess to bother with again.

They also post fake five-star reviews on Trustpilot. Nasty company with bad-faith fake customer service; not the place I remember ordering books from in past years. "

"I bought an item recently at 374€, via their own website. Few days later, I saw the exact same item sold at a price 25% cheaper, just via their account on amazon. Noting this and requesting a compensation, due to this illogic and unfair price difference, I was stone-walled. A regular client as I was, I want you to take not of that, and suggest you'd check others dealers via amazon for even cheaper prices! Clients should act according the way they are treated!"

"I’ve read some of the reviews posted here and I must say I am quite appalled at the experiences their authors relate. But I cannot share any stories of my own concerning poor customer support.

Living in Mexico, most of the books I am interested in buying are far too expensive for me to afford, particularly in the field of History (which accounts for the vast majority of my purchases): I have looked for books in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, and the local availability of much of what I want is dubious, at best; surcharges for imports are often double the on-cover suggested retail price, and even triple or more if the book is brought in as a special order.

Over the past five years or so, I have purchased several hundred items from The Book Depository, paying out thousands of US dollars for them (always through PayPal). True, in the first eighteen months or so, I had an irritatingly high number of undelivered items (around 8%, according to my records), but considering the not-wholly-undeserved bad reputation of the Mexican Post Office, I accepted this as the cost of doing business abroad. (Equally true, delivery times averaged over thirty days, but then again, that is something I have come to expect from the local postal service.)

In each and every case, though, when I reported a loss to TBD, I was immediately offered a replacement or a refund. In the end, I’ve never lost a single penny because of an undelivered item. And in almost every case, I found that the people working in Customer Service were eager to help find me a solution.

I did have the bad experience of having a book order suddenly cancelled and having to reorder it at a slightly higher cost, but this was under exceptional circumstances: I wanted the IfZ’s “Critical Edition” of “Mein Kampf” for my studies, and the rather limited first run apparently sold out incredibly fast. When reordering, I ended up paying about 5% more. Considering that other online sources were charging up to four times the original price (it was, after all, something of a collector’s item), I chose to reorder the two-volume work from TBD.

I’ve also had problems with poor bibliographical entries or incomplete descriptions: I once bought what I thought were three different translations of a book into Spanish, but it turns out that two of them were actually different presentations of the same translation. I reported this, and I had to argue that I certainly was not willing to pay for this second book, especially since the limited information available on TBD’s site seemed to indicate these were two different books. In the end, I did receive a refund covering the cost of one of the two identical translations.

Overall, in the last three years, I have received every item I have ordered, and almost always in perfect condition (the only time this was not the case, the problem was quite obviously due to poor handling from the Post Office).

Now, I quite suddenly find that, once again, ten of the last fifteen items I purchased (in two different orders) went missing. I informed TBD of the fact and was quite disheartened to see that I was apparently going back to experiencing the delivery problems I had originally had to bear, but I discovered that all missing items had been returned to TBD’s warehouse by the Mexican postal authorities: the problem was that the parcels weighed over three kilos each, and local letter carriers will quite often refuse to deliver anything over that weight. TBD was therefore not to blame.

They reshipped the one book (“Monty Python’s Flying Circus… All the Bits”, which weighs 3.02 kg), and this time, I got a notice telling me to pick it up at the Post Office. As for the other items, they were reshipped in smaller packages, and so far, I have received everything but three books (which I expect any day now).

In every single case but one (at the time of the two identical translations), the people with whom I was in contact were friendly, courteous, and most helpful. I was provided with tracking numbers when I requested them, and I was offered acceptable solutions, sometimes with an option to choose either a refund or a replacement.

Since some of the more negative reviewers feel it is necessary to mention the names of the TBD people with whom they have corresponded, I will say that some of the people I have had the pleasure of dealing with recently are Salama Laattoe, Jamie J, Qiqa Mevana, Lekita Harris, Sarah Bailey, and Dean Sass (to name but a few), and that every last one of them has been friendly and helpful. As far as I am concerned, they all deserve to be thanked for the excellent service they provide.

Now it is true that there is room for improvement at TBD: for example, more accurate bibliographical entries would be nice, and I have oft suggested that customers be offered the option of paying a bit more for shipments to be sent by registered mail. But all in all, I could scarce be more satisfied, and I most certainly will continue to buy from them.
"

"My experience with Book Depository borders on the comical, if it wasn't so frustrating and unbelievably stupid.
Issues began with the non-delivery of purchased items, which was handled by a colleague who left the business shortly after. All the details of the order and when it was to be expected along with emails from all parties were left in a hand-over of documentation.
when the books still had not arrived by the nominated date, contact was initiated with Book Depository on the matter. Several emails back and forth, often repeating the same information (no, it wasn't at the post office, no it wasn't in the mail room) finally got me moved up to a more senior staff member who was able (after being told it was not possible) to send me a tracking number for the item. Except the tracking number did not work, with my local postal service, or any other one I could find on the web. After bringing this to their attention (and again answering the same questions about whether I had checked the posy office and the mail room) I was told it had been delivered to a "Safe Drop" location. Great. Except our workplace does not have a "Safe Drop" location. Upon querying this, I was suddenly told that they would no longer assist me, as I was not email from the address used to order the books (at which point I drew their attention to multiple previous emails in which I had clearly stated that the person who had ordered the books was no longer with the company, attaching all the relevant emails and permissions), and that they had sent an email regarding the matter to the person who had ordered the books (who's account was closed). After some more back and forth, i was asked for a bunch of security questions, which were answered, and relevant attachments of previously attached emails and permissions supplied, at which point I requested to have my matter escalated. That was two weeks ago, and I have not had any further answers to my inquiry emails. They are a NIGHTMARE when things go wrong. Best avoid like the worst plague you can possibly imagine. If I could have given 0 stars, I would."

"I have used Book Depository for a long time, and until recently have had good, but sometimes slow service. Lately however they seem to have gone down the tubes somewhat. New management ? Getting to big to manage easily ? I don't know the reason but the service had faded away and the deliveries are getting unacceptably slow. The prices are not as competitive either. They used to be well below the competition, but now seem to be roughly the same for a much poorer service. The latest order has put the nail in the coffin as far as I am concerned, after a long wait I queried what was happening to my order and they said they were having difficulties supplying one of the books on it. Two had been dispatched but seemed to have been sent by literal "snail mail". The other book was not yet with them, yet a look on their web site said that the book was still "Available" and would be dispatched within three to five days. Yet mine they had not even received. I suspect they are now advertising books that they do not physically hold, and are taking orders then ordering the book themselves from another supplier. This is NOT good for the customer.
So for me, after a fairly long relationship with the Book Depository, it is back to the competition who everyone loves to hate, but who can actually supply books that they advertise, and deliver them quickly too."

"I've ordered books from the Book Depository for a few years. They are (usually) the cheapest source by far, and their customer service has always been pretty good. Until now there have been no issues or real concerns. Sure, sometimes it takes a book a few days or weeks longer to arrive than scheduled and, on one occasion, they sent the same book twice. No problem, you just send it back. But this order...

Imagine waiting with baited (hey, when you're hooked on a series, it's no longer just 'bated') breath for the next book in the series your reading, knowing you're covered because you pre-ordered it, and then getting an email saying "Your pre-order has been released by the publisher and is on its way to our warehouse. Your order will be dispatched from our warehouse soon, and we'll let you know once it's on its way to you"... only to get notified a couple of hours later that, no, actually, it wont. Here's a refund instead.

What? Wait! Why?! No explanation, just an email stating "We're sorry to let you know we are unable to fulfill your order of the below items, and have issued a refund. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused."

After visiting the site the same day, though, there's the book, still advertised, albeit for almost $2 more than the $10.48 you pre-paid. Send them an email and they respond with "there was an issue with the supplier" and they're getting a new supplier but that one wants more for the book for which you pre-paid an agreed price. The Book Depository decided it would be fairer to simply refund your money and let you re-order it... at the increased price.

Well, that's rude. One could look at the situation and be forgiven for thinking the Book Depository decided the book was so popular they could simply cancel the pre-order, refund the money, and have the customer pay more for the book. Given it is now, barely a month later, $4 more than the pre-order price, this seems entirely plausible.

Having worked in sales, it seems an odd approach taken by the Book Depository. Many businesses apply the standard practice of supplying what was ordered and paid for and accepting the loss in profit that would be gained from the newer price. Sure, I get it: other stores are selling the book for more than that pre-order price, sometimes even double, but really?

What's black and white and red all over? An angry customer who pre-ordered a book only to get told they have to pay more for it than the agreed price. Oh, and the flag of Cornwall caught in the splash zone of a protest at a fur convention."

"I had a totally bad experience and the customer advisor person Salama Laattoe I have been dealing with is just totally infuriating.

I ordered a book on 25th May. It didn't arrived within the timeframe of 5-8 business days. I contacted customer service and Salama Laattoe replied and confirmed it was dispatched on 30 May from Melbourne (I live in Sydney), and asked me to check with the post office if anything was held for me. There was nothing so he/she emailed back saying they have resent the book. Again it didn't show up. This person confirmed the book was sent on 14 June and asked me to wait until 26 June. I asked about refund if I don't get it by end of 26 June. This person didn't address this question just told me to wait.

I'm so sick of waiting. Its totally ridiculous to wait for a book for a month when its coming from Melbourne. I got onto the Live Chat today and was advised by one of the customer service staff that I could check the Australia Post Article IDs (Thank God there is someone who knows something there). I checked both Article IDs with Australia Post and was advised they have not been scanned at all, which means they were not sent at all!

If I kept waiting like the idiot Salama Laattoe has advised I would never have known what has happened. This bloody idiot could have advised me the AP Article ID so that I could get to the bottom of the issue earlier. I could have got my refund earlier and order the book somewhere else. Instead I wasted so much time waiting for nothing. Then I had to spend all this time to investigate this issue myself. This stupid idiot doesn't seem to have a brain or how to do their job, and could only send pre-formatted emails with one solution - WAIT! I'm totally disgusted with this experience.

The funny thing is nobody thought about investigating what's happening with the Australia warehouse where the book was supposed to be sent. There's obviously something sneaky happening there. Someone's not doing their job or doing something bad.

Also they don't even have a complaint option on their website. Their service is far from perfect that no one would complain.
"

"Terrible experience with BookDepository when ordering from New Zealand.

My order never turned up and after dealing with an extremely rude customer service team they told me it's my responsibility to talk with our local "post sorting office" to see where it is even though they don't provide you with any tracking number and the NZ Post say there's nothing they can do without a tracking number.

Attempting to get a refund results in more incompetence, and the only option left is to file a chargeback on my credit card.

STAY AWAY"

"I will not shop at Book Depository anymore! Horrible customer service. I placed an order and waited for a week for the delivery notification. Nothing came through. I went to check the order status online and found that my order got cancelled. I did not request for the cancellation. The transaction went through on the day I placed the order but no delivery? So made a request to explain, got the response finally but did not receive a valid reason for the cancellation.

The customer service personnel were rather uninterested. No care in the world at all. They dont mind losing customers, from the way I see the quality of their response.
I am not even sure if the customer service team is based in the UK."

"Worst customer service!

We purchased multiple books in the same transaction, and when checking out, we put our postal address down correctly for an address in AUSTRALIA. Only after initiating contact with them, we found that they shipped our goods to BARBADOS!

The two country names are not even closely spelt to each other to warrant a mistake such as that. For a book seller, a literacy inaptitude mistake like this is somewhat ironic, yet, borderline comedic. My two year old could do better data entry than that for goodness sakes

Noting other negative reviews on another, and their 'copy and paste' response from the company in reply to those comments clearly shows that the Book Depository is not customer centric at all.

All we are asking for is our money back, and to be told after multiple back-and-forth emails that it can take up to 10 weeks for the money to be returned is utterly deplorable.

If you want better customer service, please be sure to shop elsewhere.

Shame on you Book Depository!"

"I placed an order for 5 books on the 3/5/18. All books ordered were meant to be dispatched within 3 business days of the order in the UK. 11 days later my order had not been shipped. I had emailed Book Depository but had not received a reply. I completed and submitted the order cancellation form on the Book Depository website. The following day I received an email telling me that my order couldn't be cancelled as it had just, conveniently for them, entered the shipping phase. My order only entered the shipping phase after I had attempted to cancel it. The company stated in the email that they would be unable to reimburse me for the shipping costs. This company conducts itself in a very dishonest manner and I wish I had read all of the reviews before shopping with them. Their idea of customer service is pathetic. Don't order from the book depository if you expect customer service and to receive your order without using threats of disputing transactions. I will never shop at book depository again.

"