AbeBooks Reviews

Name: AbeBooks
Rating: 2.05

2.1 Rating 163 Reviews

26 %

of reviewers recommend AbeBooks

Company Reviews

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Metrics

2.1

Based on 163 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Postal Service
Average Delivery Time	Over 7 Days
On-time Delivery	Greater than 29%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 55%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Email, Live Chat, Telephone
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult
Returns Process	Could Be Better

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AbeBooks 1 star review on 5th March 2025

Anonymous

AbeBooks 1 star review on 8th November 2024

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“After I ordered a hardcover book in good condition, AbeBooks’ partner delivered a softcover book in poor condition — see photo. After I demanded a refund or other resolution, they took days to get back with me. They then required that I drive to a post office to mail this nearly worthless book back to them. They provide no pre-paid postage. And there is no person you can call or email that I can find to resolve the situation. Terrible after-sale service!”

AbeBooks 1 star review on 28th June 2024

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Posted 1 year ago

“Would give Abe book sellers 0 stars but that does not work. Ordered 6 books through Abe from 5 different sellers as it turns out . Got two books within a week , that's the good. The bad is finally got notice 11 days after paying that one of the others is getting ready to ship their part of the items purchases. Will not be buying anything else from Abe, way too many better places to do my business. The first book received was damaged on the spine and had a sticker over the damage to hide it . It was listed as a new book.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY. I ordered a book. I was sent a fake tracking number. Never received the book. I’m still waiting on a refund promised “soon” with no actual date. It’s sad that this kind of business is allowed.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Bought a book set and it was marked as shipped within minutes without tracking, the next day I noticed the sellers account appeared to be suspended so i reached out to the seller for a tracking number, abe policy is the seller has two days to provide tracking after purchase which was not done, policy also states they have two days to reply to any questions from buyers and or potential buyers and this was also not done. Now by this point between the account being suspended and no replies i know im not getting the books so i reach out to abebooks to be told i have to wait until the delivery date has past but they do acknowledge the seller is being investigated NOW my issue with this is the seller was either hacked or a scammer and abe shutting the seller down without reaching out to the buyers is a dangerous game, the policies were already broken so in my eyes im due my refund but in their eyes i am due nothing until the arrival date has past knowing full well the account i bought from is committing fraud. I reached out to paypal and was refunded in FIVE minutes, ive only had to dispute with them one other time and paypal took days to decide so that makes me wonder if they get inquires about this company often? My advice if you do buy. 1. Request tracking immediately 2. Screen shot every single detail from abe policies to the sellers and the description of what your ordering. 3. Dont waste time, give them the two business days they are allowed and then go for the refund,if they arent following policy thats between them and abebooks not your wallet. 4. PAYPAL my buyer didnt accept paypal but i have a paypal debit card so i used that via my applepay and im grateful i did and i would never buy anything online any other way.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“I ordered a book that one of Abe Books' suppliers could not deliver on its behalf. It took Abe Books some time to track it, but without a prompt from me the Abe Books team arranged a refund to me”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Ordered 3 books and only received one. Wrote asking for tracking info on the other 2 and they said that the request was sent to their book vendor, no reply from them. It has been almost 30 days and no books or refund. NEVER AGAIN. I have switched the Thrift books....”

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Posted 1 year ago

“I ordered expensive (almost $200) Breviary from Abebooks, it came to me with a different shape and size than the seller’s picture. I returned it, the German seller wrote to me that the Custom office hold my book and he has no car to pick it up and returned my book to me again!!! He keeps my money!!! And Abebooks customer service bounce my inquire. I feel the hole company is a shame. BE AWARE!!! If you there looking for old book, you could fall for this trap!!! I may hold a legal inquire for this nonsense!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

“Placed an order via AbeBooks on 19/4/24 for a hard to find textbook. I received a shipping notification on 25/4 which gave me a tracking number and identified the carrier as Royal Mail. Incidentally, my credit card payment was taken on 19/4, the same day as my order. Upon attempting to track my delivery I found that the Royal Mail tracking app wouldn't accept the number provided, so I decided to leave it a few days and check again later, just in case there was a delay in Royal Mail entering it into their system. I tried again after the weekend, only to get the same result, so I queried this with GreatBooksUK and got the oft quoted 'bot' response which didn't address my query, but did state that they usually shipped with either Yodel or Whistl so I tried the shipping number provided with both of these companies, only to get 'unrecognised shipping no.' responses to both! It was only at this point that I started to have doubts about the wisdom of my purchase (not cheap at £46.65) and started reading reviews of the company, including those on this site. This really got me worried so prepared myself for the worst, and ensured I had copies of all correspondence etc. safely stored in case of what looked to be the inevitable problematic outcome. Today (30/04) Yodel delivered my package. The book was new (as quoted on the order), still wrapped in the publishers shrink wrap, and in perfect condition. I am very happy with it! Basically, my complaint with the company is the dire state of it's communication and documentation, which I found problematic, and I know from other comments on this site that I'm not alone. With regards to the product, I cannot fault them in any way. I have marked them down to 4 '*s' for the reasons already stated. I thought they deserved at least one positive review. Whether they can improve certain aspects of their business administration so that they can collect more positive reviews remains to be seen. I hope so!”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Terrible company to deal with. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't waste your time with this shower.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“When there is a problem with the book, Abebooks does not care about a long term customer. They only care about the seller. Because the books come exclusively by mail, we can't inspect them first. Don't expect to be able to return a book with a problem.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“The wrong edition of Lapham's Quarterly was sent. When I contacted them I was told to mail it back. Then, rather than sending the right book and refunding the shipping cost of the return, they gave a refund only for the one I'd ordered. They ignored my emails protesting this. I ended up spending $4.65 for their uncorrected mistake.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Do not buy from them as there is a very high chance you will not receive your books and for sure you will not receive a refund.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“AbeBooks is an amateur website with no oversight and incompetent staff. I was shipped a $200 book via the cheapest possible method, resulting in the book being thrown on the ground in front of my house and lost/stolen. AbeBooks made no effort to use signature-on-delivery. When I contacted them, the representative was indignant and uncooperative.”

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Posted 1 year ago

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Posted 1 year ago

“Purchased two Hard Cover books that were mailed as paperback. Such a hassle that I just donated the books to a street reading library. Out the cash but learned a lesson”

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Posted 1 year ago

“I ordered a book from Owls Books via abebooks.com January 20. The book didn't come. Filed a return/refund request February 8. No response. Couldn't pull up a tracking# in my past purchases page. Sent in a second return/refund request 10-14 days later. No response. Sent in a THIRD return/refund request. No response. Asked to cancel my abebooks account and support contacted me. Been going round and round. They finally authorized a refund, then retracted/cancelled the refund the next day. Stay away from abebooks. See attached email correspondence.”

AbeBooks 1 star review on 6th March 2024

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Posted 1 year ago

“Paid for book. No delivery of same. No direct contact available so unable to resolve issue. Same applies to the actual seller, GreatBookPricesUK, who is using the Abe Bokks platform. So I am £12.68 and Abe/GreatBookPricesUK are in profit by £12.68. Now that I understand that Abe Books is owned by Amazon, I can understand why it is impossible to contact anybody. Be warned by my loss. DO NOT BUY FOM THIS COMPANY.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“SELLERS CAN'T UPLOAD IMAGES NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO. ABE BOOKS IS DYSFUNCTIONAL GARBAGE.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Ordered a book with specific cover art that I wanted, but received some mass reprint instead. In order to return it I'd have to spend 55% of the overall cost to ship it back. Feels like I'm dealing with those websites from China. Last time I ever buy from AbeBooks.”

AbeBooks 1 star review on 20th October 2023

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Posted 1 year ago

“their www. Is obstructive & unhelpful as are their superfluous unwarranted www.forms. A simple eMail, should have sufficed. I should not have had to enter county for address line 2. N/A, for city as where, my sister resides, where co-incidentally, my banks debit card is registered lives remotely. Hence I have to enter 'just off, the trunk road, Number.'. Hence facilitating delivery. Not compound problems as do their supercillious, unwarranted, www.forms. Nor should they like others make it so difficult to contact them, to rectify the problem, they created & compounded. Please eMail, vivisection.is.criminal@gMail.com, where upon receipt of proof of purchase, I should return as such asap.”

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Posted 1 year ago

AbeBooks is rated 2.1 based on 163 reviews