The Book Depository
reviews and complaints

Order number :BDM-946-[protected]

My academic books were dispatched on 16 July 2021 and when I followed up I was told that at the latest 1st September if the books had not arrived they would have to be considered "lost in transit".

I was also told to check that my address is correct (which it was) and to check with neighbours that the books were not picked up. In South Africa, if there a parcel at the post office, we get a collection ticket. No such collection ticket /notice has come to me to date.

I have now emailed Book Depository to inform them and almost 24 hours later there is no response.

I just want a refund so that I can buy my text books soon.

On july 14 2021 i order the hating game book and still haven't dispatch because they have had some difficulty in obtaining stock from they supplier in the usual time period but then why the hating game book is still available to purchase if you guys have problem with the stock? Please fix this.

As usual, their customer service is severely lacking.I have been exchanging emails and have responded with all of the information requested but have now been advised that my details are incorrect.Due to this I'm unable to discuss any details of my account, so cannot discuss a recent order. Its ridiculous, my details are correct. Maybe theirs aren't

Hello,

I've used book depository to buy books before and everything was alright. I had a personal account (associated with the email: [protected]@gmail.com) with an address associated and a PayPal account associated.

On the 14 of April I've made a purchase of 2 books in the value of 20, 96€. The order number is: BDU-622-[protected]. I've used PayPal to pay so it was not asked for my address. I thought it would use the one associated with my personal account on book depository, so I didn't worried.

After a while, the books didn't arrive so I went and I checked that the address was not right. It actually has no address associated to the order, no street number, no zip code, just a city. I've made the same process before and it was alright. This made me lose trust on the platform.

I contacted help service but they told me theres nothing they can do, only when the books are returned, if they are returned, they could refund me or send me the books to the right address.

As it was a platform error, that is not well programmed to after choosing PayPal or confirm the address or associate to the address on the book depository, I think I shouldn't be the one dealing with the consequence of probably don't receive the books or my money back.

Could this be solved in another way, that doesn't harm the client?

Thank you,
Kind Regards,
Rita Medina

Pre ordered a novel from BookDepository for about 200 Tl about 2 months ago.

2 days ago I received an email saying my order was cancelled and they are refunding me. After this, I check their website and this exact same novel is available now for 500tl.

How is this a fair business practice? Cancel my pre order and jack up the price by 2.5x...

When I contacted them about this problem they offered no solution whatsoever..

Unfortunately I'm not happy with my Books. The pictures are terrible and of a poor quality. The front covers of the books are very misleading as they are terrible pictures. I spend a lot of money with your company and I'm sorry but I just couldn't let this one slide. I wish to be refunded for the books returned please. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Kind Regards
Megan Gordon

I ordered a book collection worth almost 50 euro on the end of December, my books were dispatched 8th of January in which said they will take 5-7 days to arrive.
It is now February 10th and my books are still not here.
I used my address I use for every company and which is linked to my book depository account and my PayPal account, I have never had an issue with this address.
I contacted the company book depository to be told my ‘address is wrong ‘there is no postcode.
My address was 100% correct as I order a lot online and have never had an issue.
I was told ‘wait 5-10 weeks and if it shows up back to them then they will refund me'
The book collection I ordered was not cheap and was expecting it to be here for Valentine's Day for a gift for my partner.
As a loyal customer for 4 years to this store, I am very disappointed in now having to go the loss of my money and no gift for my partner for Valentine's Day.
I feel that this is unfair and have paid the money to this company if they had any problems with my address, they should contact me and also provide me some tracking information once I have paid the money for this product.
I really hope you can help me resolve this issue and if customer care can't help me forward my complaint to a supervisor of this company.
Many thanks

Lorna

I allready sent a message on 28th of January, for which I had no reaction...
Your website says answer in 24 hours...?
on 27.12 I ordered 3 books in french. 1 Was cancelled, and I received the above on 28.1 in English, which I dont read fluently.
The 3rd one I received also now, in French .ok...
order BDU-185-[protected].
What now?
Regards
[protected]@gmail.com

Its ISBN is [protected]. I bought it before the pandemic. Asked to wait for reimbursement to avoid bankrupting Book Depository. When I heard that on-line Christmas sales flourished because of the pandemic, I realized that Book Depository would be flush with cash. Always told that my request is sent to customer service. The attitude is most cavalier. To induce a response, I told Book Depository that I want to be at least credited with another book. I would prefer to be reimbursed. The book is still unwrapped. There have been over 60 E-mails on the matter.

I am in the US. I ordered a hardcover book costing $105.84. This was for Christmas. It arrived damaged. The top of the back and front covers are pushed in and the dust jacket is torn. For returns, the website said to fill out an online form that included the order number and my email address. I did that. Then customer "service" emailed me claiming I had used a different email address to place the order. I don't know what other address I would have used. They wanted not only my email address, but the order number [protected]), the date of the order, the full title, the payment method, and more. I basically had to give them all the information on my receipt. Because they already had the order number, they already had this information. Customer service just emailed me again, saying if I send them photos, they will "look into" the problem. Can you say "runaround"? I can send photos, but have no confidence that this will result in a refund. Book Depository is owned by Amazon. When I order from Amazon, if I need to return a book I just send it back and they refund me. Why can't Book Depository do this?

Trying to make me pay for their errors

After a 4-day delay, I finally receive my order and I realize 1 of the 2 books ordered has its book spine completely damaged and cracked.

The moment I realize this, I contacted Book Depository, sending a picture of the damaged item. Besides being in a never-ending email exchange for 5 DAYS in order for them to solve this situation, they tried to trick me into paying the shipping for returning the faulty item saying that only then would they be able to send a new book. Books depository's ONLY job is to send the book in a new condition, given they claim to sell new books, not used or damaged! Beyond absurd! And further more, on book depository's FAQs one can read the opposite of what the help assistant Rowan D told me: "You'll be responsible for the cost of returning the item to us, unless we delivered it to you in error or it is faulty".

It was already more than obvious that the item being damaged was Book Depository's responsibility, but then interlocutor Rowan D instead of having the client's best interests in mind, not only does not solve my problem, also tricks me saying that I will have to pay for the shipping for returning the book if I wanted to have this situation solved.

After this situation, another help assistant intervened asking me to explain the situation again, and it has been 5 days since I reported the situation and no solution for the problem whatsoever!

It is beyond unacceptable and I will never again purchase anything in Book Depository. When this situation happened to me twice with Amazon, they immediately returned 100% of the money or sent a new volume without even asking the return of the damaged item.

I purchased a book online on 28 Nov 2018 using a CommBank credit card, and returned it (to the NSW, Australia address) in January 2019 as an unwanted gift, and requested a refund.
In Dec 2019, I cancelled my credit card with CommBank, and I haven't taken out a new credit card with that bank.
In Sep 2020, Book Depository ("BD") emailed to say they were processing the refund to my credit card. I replied noting that they were well beyond the 14 day period for processing my refund, and that I no longer held that credit card nor any credit card with that payment provider. I asked them to issue a cheque instead, and gave my mailing address. BD insisted that they couldn't do that, citing credit card regulations, and insisted that I needed to contact my bank.
I spoke to the bank who advised that the refund payment would have been rejected because more than 6 months had elapsed since I had held a credit card with them.
I have emailed BD today asking, again, that they issue a refund to me either by cheque or direct deposit. I am filing this complaint now because (1) going on my previous emails with BD this issue is unlikely to be resolved without me having escalated it to an independent org and (2) in any event it is really substandard service that BD failed to issue a refund for almost 2 years, without apology for their failure, and that they're not being even slightly proactive and helpful to make this process smooth and make up for their failings

I placed an order for a book, received a horrible version of the book that I ordered with a completely different colour. I reached out to book depository and they are the most unhelpful group I've ever come across. I explained that the only reason I purchased the book was because I thought I would receive what I paid for, they came back with nonsense about "I'm afraid that the images on our website are intended as a guide only. As a depository we do not keep our stock on site, they are sourced from various suppliers. The images are supplied by the publishers who can have various cover designs for one ISBN so we will not know what design we will receive until it is delivered."

I also explained that book was creased and tatty on about 3 seperate emails, all of which were ignored until the third time where I got the following laughable response, " There is no damage with this book. I am afraid that we are unable to reimburse customers for expenses incurred when returning titles to us." How can they make an assumption without investigating the matter?

I am livid with the customer service at book depository, all I've requested is a refund for a misleading and faulty book and this company refuses to pay for the postage and packaging. I've explained that I don't want a replacement because I have ordered the correct book from another website.

Can you please advise on next steps?

Regards
Gurprit

On 28/06/2020 and 02/07/2020 I made two orders on book depository and it has been three months and I still have not received it. I have gotten in touch with the site and they have no information. I have requested a tracking number for my order and they have not given one, instead they just say I have to trust their word, that they have sent it. I would not recommend this site for anyone. They charge for your order but have no guarantee that it will be delivered.

I have ordered Cambridge IELTS academic 15 book on July 8, 2020 through book depository. The order number BDM-256-[protected] is dispatched from the UK on July 10, 2020. I still haven't got my book and today is July 29, 2020. It has been 14 business days since the dispatched date. After two weeks later from the dispatched dates, I requested a refund order, and the customer service advisor Lindsay talked with me on July 25, 2020. She told me that there is some disruption on mailing due to COVID-19, and the item should be arrived by then and she told me that I can tell her if the item is still not arrived. I told her thank you. On the July 28, I asked her how will the package be delivered. She said there isn't any package tracking number and asked me to find the local post office to ask. I asked her how could I ask the post office if there is no tracking number yesterday. I also tried to go to the local post office for confirmation. When I give the staff of post office the order, they say the order must be required a tracking number.In addition, the post office was helpful to see if there is the package that was arrived, but they didn't see any. Well, I asked Lindsay again and told her what was happened in the post office. I also request the refund the second time, and she didn't answer me that question and by just asking me if the address is correct and full. I said yes, It is correct, and I cannot guarantee what happened in the transportation or elsewhere as she didn't provide me any tracking number. I have done all my responsibility to ask. And I was so disappointed with the service that book depository provide. And I want to ask why the company doesn't provide tracking number? It is their responsibility. If they don't make a good explanation, I am requesting a full refund for the third time, and losing the item is on their responsibility. I have also explained that I didn't put comma after the last word of the address as the address, city and country spaces are all separated. After that, the customer service didn't give me an explanation and I requested the refund for the third time. Lindsay then ignored me, and I feel really frustrated and just demanded her to give me back my money. It is totally unreasonable. I couldn't track where my item is, and I have no idea whether it is lost by mail or other reason. However, the company expected me to wait for 9 business days maximum, and it is over. What I was furious about is that Lindsay doesn't seem to feel regret at all for responsible for the product and didn't give me a refund at the same time. The other thing is that no tracking number is provided, so I have no idea what happened to my order. I hope there will be a full explanation and the refund relating to this. Thank you so much.

I ordered a book in February, it is now July and I haven't received the order.

I'm very upset and angry because I paid for something and I didn't receive it!

After multiple emails, no one from book depository is able to help. They keep blaming the delivery company, however, I didn't purchase from the delivery company. My agreement is with book depository. They won't refund either.

Suzanne Emily Naicker

Notice of legal action

i want to notify you book depository that i will take up legal action against you for copyrights theft; i realised you have been printing ans selling my book without my knowledge as the author.
Over the weeks i have been complaining about this and you choose to ignore me

the title of my book is the secret agenda
by felicia c williams

Below are my details of an order I processed on the 4th March 2020

Name:
Miss Tracy Ritson
Customer number:
[protected]
Order number:
[protected]
Order placed on:
Wednesday, 4 March 2020

What can I say, 9 weeks since my order was processed yet still not delivered and money taken out of my account.

I have tried to put my complaint through RESOLVER however sadly they do not have your company listed 🙁

I must have sent at least 10 emails, after my 10th one I finally received a reply from, Eva Sóñora, Customer Advisor who stated that Book Depository was not the company I needed I needed to contact : The Book People: Buy Cheap Books Online for Adults & Kids, could not quite understand this as its still the Book People so surely you would be able to look into it for me? Anyway I then sent yet another email to the Buy Cheap Books Online for Adults & Kids and as yet still no reply.

Extremely disappointed. I have spent so much time trying to get some answers as to where my order is and received NOTHING !

I wish to ask for a refund as you have MY money and After 9 weeks I HAVE NO ORDER !

I have emailed all contacts in this message hoping that someone whos of good costumer care and wants to make sure their customers are happy I get a reply soon.

If no reply in the next 5 days I am taking this further as this is not fair now and I have spent too much time on this and getting nowhere.

Unhappy customer

Tracy Ritson

Sent from Outlook

My name is Felicia C Williams. I am the author of the book titled the secret agenda
I have contacted you several times notifying you of advertising and selling my book with the wrong book cover which is an outdated cover I had discarded since last year.
You have to contact nielson book data to get the current book cover
You must not sell my book with the green book cover or else the printer will be in bridge of copyrights
Thank you
Felicia

I ordered a book on the 6th of March and the email update said it was dispatched on the 11th of March, but still no sign of the book as of today. I have sent them multiple emails asking for their help but all they give me are apologies and the advice to check with my local post office. But my post office can't look something up for me because they have a big warehouse and need at least a tracking number, of which I have none due to website policy. They also said to wait 5-7 more days (with no results). So as you can imagine we are going in circles. Normally I get the books I order with no problems but this time everything seems to be in disarray because of the global pandemic, still I have changed my mind about the book and requested a refund from them, but so far they have ignored my emails. Beware when you make an order from this site!