Alibris
Reviews and Complaints

I almost ALWAYS can find the quirky books I want at Alibis AND for reasonable prices. Of course, there are some sellers that think they are selling GOLD so are ridiculously priced! I'll let the Oprah's and Gates have those. They are always fast too! So what's up with the 1.52 ratings? Are these the people that get on an airline and think they are going to get a 5 course 5 star meal?!?! More ridiculousness. Why? Words are Words. Some words are not better than other words. They all mean the same! Sigh! Prima donna's As my dad used to say (he had 4 of us girls) - you'd complain if you was hung with a new rope!

As a crotchety old fart, I have used Alibris for more than 10 years. I can't think of a single order that I didn't get what I expected, in a timely manner! That being said, remember that you are getting your product from someone who has listed it with Alibris, not from Alibris themselves. I have read some very negative comments, from people who have done business through Alibris that are confused about the relationship between Alibris and the actual vendor. Again, the product is coming from a customer, Alibris is just the company that keeps you from having to call every bookseller in the country to find your obscure, obsolete, out-of-print, have-to-have book. //rant off//

I ordered for a book, "Handbook of Tribology" online and fully paid with my credit card since mid-February. I received an email notification from Alibris CS that my book order was shipped February 27 and will be delivered March 17, 2011. Not receiving my order after March 17, I emailed Alibris but was asked to wait until 30 days after the shipment date (being March 29) afterwhich if not received they will fully refund me. I have email correspondences to this effect. I have emailed Alibris on March 29 and 30, notifying them I have not received my book order but so far their CS prefer not to respond. I earlier requested for their phone number, but none was given me. Now I am confused, sad and disappointed. If I know the appropriate Govt. Authority to complain to, I will hastily refer my complaint.

We placed an order with Alibris for three books on 12/8/10. We never received the first two items; we received an incorrect book for the third. We immediately contacted Alibris, followed their instructions and returned the book to them. We received an email yesterday stating this seller has denied our refund for the book we returned.

We have tried repeatedly to work with Customer Service to resolve these issues, to no avail. We have filed claims with our credit card company, and now intend to go forward with any and all legal means at our disposal.

My story: I wanted to order as many hardcover copies of Hermann Hesse's works as I could find, and Alibris offered many. I ordered about twenty or so. One, in particular, Narcissus and Goldmund, was listed as, "Hardcover: New, New, Great Conditon." I paid $37.00 for that one book, plus a shipping charge of $3.99. What I received was a yellowed, worn paperback copy from the sixties--something one might find at a garage sale. Alibris and I traded numerous emails because I discoverd that there was no way to contact them by phone, and they refused to call me, though I requested a call back, leaving my phone number with, at least, two people in my emails. I was shocked to find that they did not even have a record of the sale! They told me to go to Google and find it myself. When I could not find it, someone at Alibris, finally, sent me a copy, but all it said was Alibris and the name of the book. No details--just the title of the book along with Alibiris, Alibris, Alibris repeated over twenty times: no book seller's name, no price for the book, and no shipping charge. Please know that if you need to return a book, for whatever reason, you, the customer, pay for shipping--which I did. When I complained that I should not pay for returning a book to a bookseller that was, obviously, a scam, at first, they stated that was there policy. After a few more emails, I was told that they would pay for the return shipping. Needless to say, they never did. I returned the worn paperback copy of Narcissus and Goldmund to a bookseller in New York City that offered only a PO Box and no phone number or email address on its "receipt." I even offered to accept the hardcover edition that was described on the Alibris site from that same bookseller because one of the emails Alibiris sent to me stated that "even a bookseller makes a mistake" now and then. I discovered that this was no mistake. The so-called "bookseller" never contacted me, even though I sent a letter with the book when I returned it stating that this transaction might be a "mistake, " and they could send me that hardcover edition that it lists on Alibris. I wanted to return other books because they were in paperback or not in the condition described on Alibris, I even was sent a dust jacket with no book, but paid for the book. Only yesterday my credit card company finalized the the payback. Caveat Emptor!

On 12/23/09, I placed an online order for a book and received confirmation of my order(#[protected]). I was charged for the full amount $62.24 but never received the book. I tried to contact the seller several times and, on 4/13/2010, received an email letting me know that another copy would be shipped. However, I have never received the package. Alibris is telling me that, because the issue is so "old", it's ok for them to keep $62 (I checked I was charged but not reimbursed)... Isn't that considered theft?

I ordered a book from a Canadian seller, Aldresbook to be delivered to a Canadian address, 60 miles from the seller. Alibrist first requested additional $3 for shipping costs on top of $11 already paid then the book never arrived. Alibris partially refunded yhe missing book for the cost of the book but decided to not refund the shipping cost of $14.

I advise buyers to avoid Alibris at any cost - this is a dishonest retailer.

I going to said the same of the other.Please be careful when placing order with alibris. They are extremely slow in shipping and sometimes they claim that they have shipped, but the item will never arrive. The only offer a refund after 1 month of waiting and not receiving the item. Not to mention, they immediately charge your credit...

I ordered a book from NOMADE BOOKSTORE through ALIBRIS on Dec 15th, 2008. Until today, my order status is still pending. The expected arrival date of the book is on January 16th, 2009. I doubt that they can deliver the book on time if the status is still pending until today. I am worried that they are not going to send the book at all. If they did not send the book, I will report them to the authority for doing a fraud. They have taken the full amount of the order total value from my credit card on Dec 15th, 2008. I am totally disappointed with them because of this.

The book I received from Alibris.com was a disgrace.
The book’s condition was described as follows:
“Very good condition Good dust jacket.”

The book I received had:
*Mold on the inside cover and many of the pages
*Wavy pages from water damage (68 of the book’s 168 pages were wavy.)
*Several torn pages.

The book never should have been sold in the first place because it was in such poor condition.
Alibris' $3 coupon on my next order to help cover return shipping costs means nothing to me because I won’t be ordering anything from that company again. Instead, I will be filing a complaints with the Better Business Bureau and Colorado Attorney General.

Book ordered from alibris, allibris was paid only alibris forgot one thing... To deliver the book. Similar to last complaint alibris would not or could not respond to my complaint insisting I wait 30days before I contact them for further investigation.
Well I am not your average patient joe... I demand action so I have taken steps to contact the alibris ownership & management team...in other words I am stirring the pot.
This is a warning to others, alibris has a great business plan, sell a book, take the money to the bank & voila... Claim the book has been mailed, no proof of such being necessary "what you doubt our word?"
Stay away from them, their customer service is non existant as is their commitment to their customers.

I used Alibris.com to get a DVD box set for the anime Yu Yu Hakusho. I had all of the sets but the very last one, and since they are out of print I took whatever I could find. I found what I was looking for on this site and ordered it. I get a notice that the box set was shipped Jan 1 and would arrive no later than Jan 11 as packages take no longer than one to two weeks. My order number was xx706.

I waited until the 11 and got nothing. A week later I still have nothing and ask customer service what the problem is. They said they cannot do anything until at least thirty days have passed. So, I emailed the seller and asked what was going on. They did nothing but notify me that they were refunding my order.

So it seems Alibris.com did not have the DVD box set that they had in their search result but they still sold it to me. I got a receipt that told me that my money would show up in my credit card (I have a debit card) again in one to two weeks. But seeing as how reliable they are to get things done in this time span, I doubt that I will ever see my money again.

Now, I had to buy the entire series of this show through a website that does direct trade in Japan. It cost me 150 dollars for the whole series just so I could get one season because Alibris.com failed to due proper business and lied about their stock. I will never use this website again for anything. This is also the very last company I will ever buy from without searching for it here first.

Alibris has just given me the absolute worst customer service experience. First they failed to ever ship my order and second, the refund they promised was less than the amount paid. Emails are answered by what seems like people on Prozak - actually they are probably employed by a third party service in Asia. The language is too flowery to be North American and the manner in which detail is ignored seems un-American.

I recommend shopping with a company that actually can deliver on promises and one that cares about it's reputation. Avoid Alibris at all costs.

I ordered a textbook through Alibris from a seller named "Payless" and I paid extra for express shipping. I received a message telling me that my order was shipped on September 25th. It is now October 16 and I have not received the textbook. I inquired with Alibris into the status of my order, and in return I received a "form letter" telling me that their policy allows 30 days for orders to be received. I had a number of other questions about the status of my order and the questions were not addressed.

FURTHER... Alibris doesn't have customer service reps that you can actually talk to over the phone. For all I know, the entire company is a big fraud syndicate much like the Alibris seller named "Payless."

I'm not going to bother dealing further with this company. I'm going to simply dispute the charges on my credit card and order my book from another vendor. I did a google search on Alibris and the complaints are numerous.

Mike,
Cincinnati, Ohio

Do not order from this website.
Do not order from an individual seller by the name of "payless."
If you must order from this website, use a credit card which will allow you to dispute the charges.

Quick rundown of my experience.
*i ordered a textbook from alibris.com.
*i was notified that my book was shipped on sep 25th 2006 and i paid extra for express shipping.
*it is now oct 16th 2006 and i have yet to receive my book.
*the seller "payless" has not responded to my inquiries.
*alibris.com only allows you to submit customer service inquiries via a webpage.
*i filed a complaint with alibris and in return i received a "form letter" notifying me of alibris's "30
Day policy" where they don't respond to complaints until 30 days has passed from the shipping date.
*alibris does not have a contact phone number.
*alibris's business address is a "suite" in ca.
*alibris places high ratings on their sellers, but it's not possible for buyers to rate or comment on the sellers. This minor detail is probably the biggest indicator of fraud.
*do a google.com search of the words "alibris" and "fraud" and "complaints" and the complaints are
Numerous and very similar to mine.

If the price of an "unused/unwrapped" textbook is $20-30 less than the same used book from other
Booksellers... Then the deal might be too good to be true. At least this is the lesson i learned from
Using alibris.

If alibris is not guilty of outright fraud, then the policies and procedures set by alibris make it
Possible for sellers like "payless" to defraud potential buyers.
Either way, its still fraud.