AbeBooks
reviews and complaints

I recently had an experience with AbeBooks that left me feeling frustrated and disappointed. I had ordered a book with an estimated delivery date of May 12, 2021, but unfortunately, it never arrived. I followed the instructions on the site to allow extra time due to slow mail, but even after waiting, I still didn't receive my book.

I tried to contact the bookseller multiple times, but received no response. Eventually, I decided to request a refund, but was told that I had waited too long. According to AbeBooks' policy, all return and refund requests must be received within 30 days of the estimated delivery date. Unfortunately, I had exceeded this time-frame, so I was unable to receive a refund.

I was frustrated by this experience, especially since I had followed the instructions on the site and had tried to contact the bookseller multiple times. I felt like I had been penalized for something that was out of my control.

However, I did appreciate the response I received from Mushfeequa P at AbeBooks. She apologized for the situation and explained that the bookseller had been made aware of the issue. She also acknowledged that my account was a bulk-buying account, which I appreciated.

Overall, while I was disappointed with the outcome of my experience with AbeBooks, I did appreciate the response I received from their team. I do wish that their policy was more flexible when it comes to situations like mine, where the book simply never arrived, but I understand that they have to have some sort of policy in place. I will continue to use AbeBooks in the future, but will be more cautious about the estimated delivery dates and the time-frame for requesting a refund.

So, I recently had an experience with AbeBooks that left me feeling pretty disappointed. I had been searching for a particular book for a while and finally found it on AbeBooks at a really great price with a reasonable shipping rate. I was excited to finally get my hands on it and placed my order right away. The seller had a 4-star rating, so I felt pretty confident that everything would go smoothly.

However, things quickly went downhill from there. After a couple of days, I still hadn't received a shipment notice, which made me a bit worried. Finally, I received a message from AbeBooks requesting more money for shipping. The seller had apparently decided that the book needed to be shipped as a parcel, which meant that the shipping rate had quadrupled from what was originally listed. I was not happy about this and rejected the request right away.

After waiting for four days, I received an automated message from AbeBooks saying that my order had been cancelled because the seller hadn't processed it within the required time period of 96 hours. By this point, the book had coincidentally come 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.

I was pretty frustrated with the whole situation, so I decided to reach out to customer service to express my disappointment. Their response was not what I was hoping for. They basically told me that sellers on AbeBooks are allowed to request more money for shipping, taxes, or tracking/signature confirmations after a purchase, and can cancel orders if they choose to. While this may be technically allowed under their policies, it certainly doesn't inspire confidence in their sellers.

I suggested that AbeBooks should consider developing tiered/variable shipping for their sellers, which is a feature that almost all e-commerce platforms have. In the meantime, sellers should be encouraged to set a rate that is middle of the road, so they make money on shipping sometimes and lose money on shipping at other times, and it all evens out. This would be a much better solution than trying to quadruple a shipping rate after the fact, which is likely to make any customer upset.

Unfortunately, AbeBooks didn't seem to be interested in my suggestions. They told me that they couldn't expect sellers to price packages for all of their inventory for all weights to all countries in the world. I never suggested that sellers should set individual shipping rates for every single combination of package of every weight to all countries in the world. I simply suggested that they develop tiered or variable shipping for their sellers, which is a pretty standard feature for e-commerce platforms.

In the end, I decided to close my account with AbeBooks. I don't have time to waste searching for books on their site 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. At least then I know that when I find a book and buy it, it will actually be coming home with me!

I have been a loyal user of Abe Books for many years now. It has always been my go-to online database for used books at reasonable prices. The books may not be the cheapest, but they are available from small bookstores across North America that are still able to sell their books, which were sitting on their shelves with no movement. I appreciate that Abe Books is giving a second chance to these old bookstores.

In the past, I have ordered books from them, but with each order, there was always at least one book that either never arrived, or the bookseller sent a flimsy copy of the book, or some other book scam. However, Abe Books would promptly get back to me and refund the book order completely to my bank-debit card account. This is why I always return to Abe Books.

My last experience was not good at all, though. I finally received a book that I had ordered, but it was after a month of waiting for it! Abe Books did get back to me after I complained to them about the bookseller sending me a bogus tracking number. The bookseller got scared and finally sent the book, after having ordered it two weeks ago.

But the problem was that Abe Book's customer service also stated that I could reject the order if it did not arrive at the Estimated Delivery time and get a refund. The tracking link was definitely hard to decipher too. I finally read that it was delivered to the destination. And this was true. But the long wait was horrifying. Imagine if I was a student who needed the book for a university class?

Here are the problems with Abe Books and the reasons why I am not going to use Abe Books' service anymore, even after years of good use.

First, many of the booksellers are disreputable sellers. Small bookstores, unfortunately, are often run by mentally disturbed characters. They can only relate to books and have become horrible misanthropes - and of course, bad Karma follows them continually through life. With Amazon totally killing the book selling market, these deranged individuals now hate on their customers - even though we are using Abe Books to avoid the Amazon Monopoly. This is the only reason I can fathom why any bookseller would not deliver a book, send a bad copy, or some flimsy summary of the book in a pamphlet, rather than the book itself.

These booksellers often have ratings that are not full five stars. There is no place on Abe Books to write bad ratings for them either, and Abe Books does not care about the bad ratings of booksellers. Abe Books will continue to use them. They only use booksellers that happen to have particular books in their dusty stocks, lying somewhere on a dirty shelf.

Yes, one has to read the bookseller reviews carefully - but to do this with every single order makes the experience of purchasing of just one book, another mode of suffering under the loaded gun of Capitalism. We just don't have the time to go through this rigmarole with every single order.

Also, keep in mind, Abe Books is now located in Victoria, British Colombia. The company runs on the commission scam like in South Asia and other money lender schemes, and just like Etsy and AirBNB.

The booksellers have to pay a sum to play. Abe Books' only concern is that it gets its commissions for every single order. Abe Books collects the profits, while the bookseller can finally unload a little of their book hoarding funk. This is late stage Capitalism folks.

Abe Books supplies the basic website, while the booksellers have to deal with their overstocks. Have you noticed that Abe Books searches often turn up the same books twice in a list? Have you also noticed that Abe Books has no customer service contact telephone number at all? This is only one step away from leading into corporate fraud.

Yes, I got my book finally. But I learned my lesson with them, and will not go through the suffering of waiting on a book for a month's time, and meanwhile, sending unanswered e-mails on an online comment form. No business is worth such suffering.

So what do we do about ordering books? Well, for those hard to find books, possibly out of print, we might have to bite the bullet and order from Amazon, or some other book service that specializes in out of print books. But beware... Just like Abe Books, read their online reviews first.

Most books are not in this order, however. All public libraries now have access to the Interlibrary Loan System. Now, any library user can order a book and read it for free. The reader can also extend the reading time of the book until it is finished. Having to buy an actual book and then let it sit on one's shelf to gather dust - never to be read again. Is this not the case with most of our books sitting on our shelves at home?

Finally, when looking up Abe Books online, I was shocked to see that almost all of their reviews online were totally horrible. Many of the scammed victims were poor university students. This is very bad. With all of the suffering Abe Books has given out, there is no way I could use their service in good conscience. Lesson learned, and I luckily dodged a bullet.

I have rented/purchased a textbook from your website under my e-mail. Your company has charged me with an appropriate sales tax. New Jersey Sales and Use Tax Act N.J.S.A. 54:32B-8.21 exempt sales tax on textbooks required for use at schools, colleges, and universities. Therefore, I request a refund in the amount of $0.61 to be refunded to my card. Your customer Service refused.

I ordered a book from you on 11 December Order no. [protected]; a book by Kaffe Fassett - which was in stock at Blackwell's. Considering it didn't have to be ordered from a publisher I expected delivery by Christmas - it was a Christmas present. - a big mistake on my part. The delivery service was abysmal - quite the worst that I have experienced!

Originally quoted for delivery 1 January 2022 which was shocking for something in stock; it is now 1 January and it still hasn't arrived.

The tracker suggests that it didn't move anywhere until 31 December - a full 20 days after I placed the order. Why? - what was going on? Online sales rely on prompt delivery - your new owners are expert at it. Please don't blame the Christmas holiday period - it would have slowed things up... but not so badly that delivery takes 3 weeks.
I've just checked on Trustpilot. Do you ever read the reviews? and if so - do you do anything about it? I have prepared a review for Trustpilot but will hold it pending your response
Ian Kerr CB4 1HX ian.[protected]@gmail.com

I ordered a book "When Corruption Was King" by Robert Cooley. Hippo Books described it as HARDBACK in LIKE NEW condition. Today I received it. IT IS A PAPERBACK IN TERRIBLE CONDITION. Water stains, many bent pages., stickers all over the book, creases on the covers, faded pages, and more. This is absolute fraud, as well as mail fraud. There are so many BBB complaints about them. You have many complaints about them doing the same thing to others. This is a continuing pattern and practice of illegal business practices. I urge you to not let this happen to others. I am in my 70s. Please don't do business with them.

Absolute liars and scammers. Despicable.

Dear Sir / Madam

I ordered two books through Abe Books which listed the books as shipping from within the UK. I heard nothing further for a number of days, and after chasing it up with the seller I was informed that the books had been dispatched from the U.S. and there were no tracking details that they could provide.

The items have still not been received, and Abe Books are refusing to refund the cost of the order £28.88, without my returning the books. I have had a number of email communications with you informing you that the books have not arrived. I have also asked for tracking details and waited until the end of the estimated delivery period, which has now passed. My complaints with Abe Books relate specifically to the following:

1. The Abe Website clearly listed these items as being sent from 'within the UK' with the seller based in Castle Donnington. They were in fact shipped from the U.S.

2. I received no confirmation of despatch or tracking information for the items I purchased.

3. At Abe Book's request, I waited until the end of the estimated delivery time frame of 4-14 business days as stated on the website. This expired on 17th September 2020.

4. Despite all of the above, Abe Books are still refusing to refund my money even though they cannot tell me where this package it and when it may arrive. The most recent email I have received from Abe Books is today, once again asking for the books to be returned.

The only reasonable resolution to this ongoing issue is for Abe Books to refund me in full the amount of £28.88, or otherwise provide some tracking information on the whereabouts of these books which were ordered over 3 weeks ago.

Thank you.

Saadiya Alam
[protected]@hotmail.com

I ordered a very good copy of The New Laurel's Kitchen from Hippo Books. It was ordered on August 21, 2020. The AbeBooks Sales Order Number is [protected] and the AbeBooks Purchase Order Number is [protected]. It is definitely not a very good copy. It is a former library copy and has a lot of wear. It is also torn at the top of the spine and bent on the back cover neither of which was mentioned in the Hippo Books description. It cost about $4.00 so it is not worth the time or money to return. I would greatly appreciate a refund, though, since it is not in the condition that I ordered. By the way, I checked Hippo Books with the Better Business Bureau and they got two stars, but AbeBooks lists them as a five star vendor. This seems very misleading and considering the reviews I read, AbeBooks should reconsider doing business with Hippo Books. Thank you for any help you can give me in this matter.

I ordered this book from Hippo through Amazon. First I waited two weeks (they do not provide any sort of tracking) before I threatened them with going to the BBB. After that, I received it in 5 days. Hippo said it was in good shape. It was in horrible and disgusting shape, stickers all over it, had writing on some pages, had dried up food on a few pages, and some pages torn. It was useless and I pitched it. Will never buy from Hippo again.

I understand that providing free shipping is gracious on your behalf but I placed an order with you on Dec 30th. On January 4th the shipment was in Huntington Beach, CA which is 100 or so miles from me. As of today January 16th I still have not received it. I buy used books all the time and your delivery is by far the worse I have encountered. I placed another offer through another book company at the same time and I had it a week ago. I will not continue to buy through you. There is no excuse for my delivery to take this long to be delivered.

The service the customer receives from ABE Books is largely down to the service provided by individual, independent booksellers. I have been a customer of ABE sellers for 20 years. In the last 9 months, I have received terrible service from two US booksellers who sent me the wrong book (i.e. not the one I ordered) and then refused to accept I had a legitimate complaint and refused to make refunds. What was also unacceptable was ABE's stance: they supported their sellers and were happy to crap on their customer.

I will avoid ABE as much as I possibly can, and order from their sellers ONLY WHEN I have exhausted all other avenues ... or maybe just not bother with a particular book. but find something else appropriate to my interests on Amazon, or another seller who actually provides a Guarantee Refund Service as Amazon does.

Abe Books has made charges to my credit card without authorization.
The amount on my invoice do not match the amount on my card statement.
Abe Books claims my card issuer pads charges.
My card issuer says the did not, it was Abe Books.

Warning!

The quoted price is not what they bill you!

(They make up multiple stories, one after another. It was shipping. (Shipping was free).
It was a foreign transaction fee charged by your card issuer. (No fees were charged)

It goes round and round.

My card company closed my card due to Abe Books fraud.

Beware!

I ordered the book via internet, via AbeBooks, on August 5th, 2018. It was supposed to take 3-10 business days. Even adding a week it's been over 15 business days, 16 including today.

Do you have any idea where it may be? If I just had a shipping number, I could track it down myself. The companies (AbeBooks, US & Book Depository UK) do not recognize me as a customer. Yet I have the purchase order.
Please help.

Bookseller: liu xing (JiangSu, JS China)
Received mold filled set of 15 books. At first we thought is was just the normal chemical spray odor that we smelled, until we opened the books. We had them examined by a professional preservationist, to assure us it was mold and that they should not be close to other book (we currently have them quarantined). They need to be disposed of. Seriously, passing them off as being old (2003) as a reason for mold is ridiculous.
A refund has been initiated through the order line. We would suggest a full refund and we will dispose of the books. It is a difficult process for a state university to return international items, but with nearly $500 dollars on the line, we'll do what we must.

Do not conduct business with this crappy company. The stress and lowered price is not worth the hassle.

Hippo Books through Barnes and Noble is a scam. I'll attach emails for proof.

I ordered on Jan 31 two BioChem books. One cheap lab workbook for $3 and a more expensive student textbook for $13 plus $8 or so shipping.

1. My order took almost 3 weeks to ship even though the company is supposedly a 15 hr drive from me. Pretty sure they're outside of the U. S. Ordered on Jan 31 - arrived Feb 20-something.

2. As soon as I got my box, opened it and saw I had gotten 2 beat up copies of the super cheap lab manual. Emailed them instantly.

3. Didn't get a response I sent to my email I sent on the 25th of February until March 5th and it was a 1 or 2 line message asking for my order number.

4. After sending them my order number on March 6th, literally the next day, it's been radio silence. I've sent them 4 emails from March 6th to March 27th and have gotten no response.

If this company screws you over - do not let them get away with them.

Report them!
I'm reporting them to the BBB, I'm having my bank report the transaction as fraudulent and getting me a refund.

This company operates on the knowledge that they can screw people and get away with it because college kids are too busy to report it. Do not let them do that. Report them until the BBB closes their crappy business down.

You don't conduct business based on gaining funds from people you've screwed over, who are too overoccupied to report your shady behavior.

I'm getting what I ordered or I'm getting my money back, if your business is closed in the process, so be it.

Barnes and Noble should be ashamed for having any ties to this shifty company.

I very rarely eat lunch/dinner at Abe's and the one night I planned to enjoy a nice meal made just for me and my husband I didn't even receive. I was very disappointed how no employees around even acknowledged us. We sat down waiting patiently to be greeted and served, while 2 other people have been helped and seated. We waited patiently for a booth And had asked twice if there was any booths available yet while your employee was over the counter on his phone and when we asked the second time he said one just became available and finally was able to seat us . We sat there for about 15 minutes and didn't even get any drinks while waitresses and waiter are helping everyone around us out I was very disappointed with my night and this isn't the first time this has happened

I always try new book services. And this one is the worst. First of all, their shipping is very slow. You can get your book or textbook when you already don't need it because its shipping/delivery will take a long time.
Next, they have no protection for customers. If something wrong happens and it happens often, believe me) you will be the one interested in your issue resolution. That's how they are.
Please, don't waste your time and money and shop elsewhere.

My complaint is simple and I want simple things.
I bought a book that was out of stock (I didn't know about it though). They decided that I would be ok with another book on the same topic (and they were wrong). So I got a different book I really didn't need (and it was a little cheaper than the one I ordered).
I asked them to fix this problem, they refused to do it.
Then I asked for a refund, which is very logical. They never answered.

That's all. You have to stay away from these scammers. Save your money for better websites where every customer is valued.

I placed an order on 6 October and the order number is [protected]. However, I still did not receive the book 12 days after the estimated delivery date (19 October 2017). I tried to contact the bookseller for twice but failed. I also asked usps about my package and they said they did not know where the package was. I really need the textbook right now and this has wasted too much time and energy.
Now I do not want waste any time on this and require refund immediately.

I hope you admit your company sux.
Why do you offer an expedited delivery if you never deliver on time? Even though I never received my order, I thought that maybe I would ask it.
The worst thing is when I contacted them to find out where my book was they said that they actually never shipped it.
Wonderful. I asked why. they didn't know what to say.

I have tried to buy a book from Abebooks, but never received anything. When I made my order they charged me right away but I didn't receive any confirmation and when I contacted Abebooks their rep said that something went wrong and they were not able to process my order. I was asked to make another order and I actually did that. I had no idea that was a scam and I wasn't expecting them to charge me for the second time. I was really in need of that book and simply couldn't find it anywhere else, that's why I so desperately tried to place a new order.
As a result, I was charged twice and didn't receive the book. Company didn't reply when I asked for a refund, they simply decided to ignore me for the rest of the time.

I bought a book from Abebooks online store and that was a gift and I needed to get it as soon as possible.
I paid extra money for fast shipping and they promised I'll get my book within 5 business days. 5 days later there was no sign of my book so I contacted Abebooks and their rep said that they need more time. They assured me it will be here within a couple of days. Another lie.
17 days later I sent a cancellation message and they replied that it was already too late for that. Asked about the delivery date and heard nothing back.
Please, do not deal with this store, they are nothing but a bunch of scammers. It is now over a month and still nothing.

I have ordered a book from this website Abebooks in December and did not receive it. I asked them to cancel my order numerous times but they did not reply. I want to cancel my order and get my money back and I have absolutely no idea what to do. Delivery was taking way too long so I ordered from another site because that book was necessary for my class. Received it within a couple of days.
Abebooks seems like a scam, they don't deliver orders and do not reply. I would not recommend buying from them, they are highly unprofessional!