"This was my second order with Alibris. I found their web site easy to navigate and searches were accurate. I was able to locate a few extremely hard to find and out-of-print books via their service. Ordering through their site went smoothly, although they are more or less a mediator in the transactions, so order tracking may be a problem at times. Both my orders arrived earlier than their estimates and in excellent shape, bubble wrapped and jacketed. Since both my orders went flawlessly, I didn't have to attempt to contact them directly and can't comment on the quality (or lack thereof) of their customer service. My experience with Alibris has been positive and I would recommend them to others looking for hard to find books."
"Awful site. Every time I attempted to complete the order I kept getting a message that the site was experiencing problems, to check again later. However, I found out that my credit card was being charged each time. When I attempted to contact them, I just got an email saying that their policy was to place a "hold" on the card, that it wasn't an actual charge. Mastercard assured me that it was an actual charge each time.There is no phone number on site for customer contact, the number I got from Mastercard is just an automated maze. After my third disputing email I did not even get a response. STEER CLEAR OF THIS ONE!"
"On January 28, 2005 I placed an order through Amazon.com for a book advertised by the reseller Alibris, New York. I was provided with a delivery estimate of Feb 7, 2005 - Feb 21, 2005. On March 1 I contacted Alibris and recieved the following ...
The text from their email reads as follows, "Thank you for contacting Alibris for more information about this item offered in the Amazon Marketplace. Most of the time we can research any question you have about one of our items, however, we are unable to do so in this case -- the item is not immediately accessible."
My credit card has been charged for a product they have not shipped."
"Horrible. I ordered a book on the 26th of January, and then they sent me an e-mail on Feb 2nd (SEVEN days later), telling me that they cancelled the order because the product was unavailable. Of course this is already after they charged my credit card for it. I needed the book immediately for class, and now am forced to buy it from the bookstore. "
"Book was not available but still listed in their database. My debit card was charged immediately. 24 hours after emailing they had refunded the charge no refund has been posted. Trying to communicate with Alibris is impossible, their customer service line is just a recording and email has not been answered. Two thumbs down!!"
"If ever a site screamed out "Buyer Beware", Alibris is it. This was perhaps the worst online buying experience I've had.
The site offers free shipping for orders of in stock items totaling $49 or more. This offer comes up repeatedly, never with a qualification. I sent in an order exceeding $49, and was charged shipping that totaled more than 70% of the price of the books. Turns out that they won't honor the offer (despite the order form indicating they would at the time I submitted it), for books shipped to Canada. They have a condition buried on a separate page requiring a U.S. delivery address, but there is NOTHING on the ORDER FORM to indicate that certain exclusions would apply. I tried to cancel my order within TWO MINUTES of submitting it (when I learned from the confirmation email that they were charging me huge shipping fees), and they refused to cancel it despite their misrepresentation on the offer. Further, their personal satisfaction guarantee states:
"If you are dissatisfied for any reason, return your purchase within 30 days of receipt for a full refund of the purchase price. We'll also refund shipping costs if the return was a result of our error."
Yet they are refusing to honor that as well. They won't respond to the points I've made in my emails and appear to have stopped responding to me at all. I am disputing the charges on my credit card and will find out how that goes, but I will never order anything from this site again.
UPDATE: Alibris has stopped communicating with me and has never responded to my request that someone with authority to deal with the dispute contact me. They have charged 100% of the cost of the books, plus shipping charges that are over 70% of the price of the books. They claim to have shipped the books, but I haven't received anything and they are now late (based on Alibris' estimate of delivery time). I'm not surprised. I'm disputing the charges with my credit card company."
"I ordered one book, I never received it, contacted them by mail , the explanation was "it must be lost in the mail" and a refund was promised last 23rd September. I have not received it either almost a month later. "
"Poor customer relations. Very rude salesmen and management didn't seem to care. Insulting when I called to cancel order due to harassing sales calls. "
"Ordered four books from Alibris on June 3rd. They showed all four as shipped on June 4th, but only three of the four arrived. Exchanged e-mails with them for a month, they don't seem to care. They don't have a functional phone number to call to deal with a real human. Almost two months later the book still hasn't arrived and Alibris seems to be unresponsive about the problem."
"I didn't get what I ordered. The ad was for a SET of 4 books. I only got 1 book. They said the ad was wrong. How can the ad be wrong? I just want what I ordered and they won't fulfill the order.I had a long email dialog trying to solve this problem and they don't seem to be concerned with customer satisfaction."
"Ordered via Amazon's used book service.
Book arrived in good condition with no complaints."
"Good prices, good communication, prompt shipping, and the book condition was exactly as descibed.
Highly recommended!!!"