AbeBooksReviews 715

I bought a book in mid-April through AbeBooks that was supposedly being sold by Gyan Books. I have never received the ordered book and refund has never been made. Gyan Books does not reply to my emailed inquiries. AbeBooks is totally worthless when a problem arises, such as this situation, and has never offered any help in getting the item or being refunded.

I've bought a lot of books through AbeBooks over the years but that was then and this is now. I will never deal with these fools ever again, and I will caution everyone I know against dealing with this outfit. Apparently, crime pays very well.

I placed an order with AB on 7/25. AFTER I clicked "Pay", I was informed that the book may not arrive until 8/18! (The problem is, I'm leaving the U.S. on the 13th & wanted to bring it with me as a gift for my hosts.)
So I emailed AB & asked for expedited shipping - request denied. So, I wanted to cancel - told the item'd already shipped, which I naively believed! Turns out, the item didn't actually ship for 5 days! Then, in 2 days, it turned up in N Vegas, where it's been sitting for 9 more days!
I've sent multiple emails to AB "customer service" - answered with useless, generic replies. OSM Worldwide, their shipping partner, is equally useless and both try to pin their inefficiency on the USPS. Shame on them! I will NEVER order from them again in the future! I ordered a 2nd copy from eBay, and it has already arrived over a week ago
Abe Books is a lousy company!

My card was charged immediately but I never received my book. Horrible Customer service. DON'T Buy from this company.

Their books collection is quite massive and the quality they provide is great too. I have been a regular customer of Abebooks and I love purchasing from them.

Order confirmed, but then cancelled for unavailability. Still listed as available on website. Unreliable!

I purchased, "Saga of the Coeur D'Alene Indians". Several other sites like Amazon and EBAY had copies but in fair or less than good quality and they wanted anywhere from $20-$80 more for the same hard copy that AbeBooks was selling. AbeBooks was cheaper and had better quality copies. I ordered the copy on a Saturday and received the book on Thursday from Boulder, Colorado to Spokane, Wa, 5 days. The book was wrapped in packaging very well to protect the book I purchased. When opening the packaging I was amazed in what great condition the book was in, it looked brand new. I want to say thank you to AbeBooks and the person who did such a magnificent job of wrapping this book to protect it from getting damaged. I would definitely buy another book from them as well as refer everyone to them

I ordered a book. The wrong book was sent. When I contacted AbeBooks.com I was informed that I had to deal with the seller. I replied that I bought the book through their site. They replied with an email on how to contact the actual seller to attempt to return and get a refund for THE BOOK I NEVER ORDERED NOR WANTED. They were totally putting the monkey on my back. Their instructions with a myriad of loopholes with no bottom line assurance of a refund was SO CRYPTIC AND AMBIGUOUS. On my iPhone the steps they detailed to attempt a refund caused me to scroll through my full screen twice, it was that long. It was peppered with "if that doesn't work try this" yada yada. I told them that abebooks.com was my single point of contact for the screw up. Finally I told them that it wasn't worth my time to swim in their jello of instructions and that I would just throw the wrongly sent book in the garbage and take the loss. I had previously thought they were an upright company. They are anything but that. So tempted to close this review with a big swear word.

Buyer beware!This is a sham operation that drop ships books from random places and they know nothing about what they are selling you. I ordered an art book for $135.00 for my son that was described as "new", from Gold Books in Austin, TX. What I received was a dirty book In fair condition at best, with wrinkled pages, various colored majic marker marks on the sides of the pages and half-torn off price stickers from various previous sellers, one of which was less than 1/2 of what I paid. The book was shipped from a Habitat for Humanity resale store in South Carolina, where it was probably being sold for $5. When I tried to return the book for misrepresentation in their sales and selling me an old damaged book as a new book, they told me through email it would be a strike against them to return and offered another book or a discount. I fought with them for over 3 weeks to get the book returned and a refund, after they already had the returned book in their possession for over 2 weeks. I finally got an email that would get a return on the book after I told them I had reported them to the BBB, Texas attorney generals's office and had disputed with Mastercard. Live and learn

Purchased book marked as New - it was actually used and had an inscription from the previous owners in the front cover. Apparently, seller had 'sent me the wrong one' and now did not have a new one to send me.

Terrible customer service, I received only canned answers by bots that didn't address any questions in my emails. Literally, they usually were about stock levels. I didn't ask anything about availability or quanitity! This seems to happen to me with multiple sellers.

I have had good experiences. And not so good experiences with this site. Some book sellers are good others not so good. In pictures are listed the better to the worst sellers and some information pictured on worst in last.Very last seller has not sent the best quality or just terrible shipping. In the first picture of large box in of a better seller. It's best to check out sellers carefully.

Book bought from Gyan Books, Pvt., Ltd, through Abebooks site. The book description is totally inaccurate and seller was contacted. Of course, no refund issued. Abebooks was emailed on several occasions and the answer was the same with no refund or any support at all. Very frustrated from Abebooks and Gyan Books. Do not recommend at all.

Purchased item by mistake, abebooks need 24 hours to respond to help, order has been processed. So now I have contacted the seller to try and work out a cancelation and purchase of correct item. Just avoid abebooks. Can't give zero.

Totally misleading throughout the website from various sellers and very unhelpful/unapologetic customer service.

Bought two books with one turning out to be a CD and one turned out to be a miniature pocket book when I had purchased a novel.

Ridiculous. Do not use this website

I placed the order on May 20th 2023, then I have sent a several inquires to check the status of the order. I was told by Raghda Ghonaim (Blackwell's) that item is being processed for shipment.
After 18 days they told item is out of stock. Bad, unacceptable services! No wonder that the company has only less than 2 stars review.

I ordered a "new" book as a replacement for a library book my toddler had damaged. The "new" book arrived and had peeling on the gold covered spine and a small puncture hole. I initiated a return only to find that I had to pay return shipping for a damaged book. Any book labeled as "new" should be in perfect condition. This is such a hassle. The cost of return shipping just adds to the cost of the replacement. I should have ordered a new one from amazon. This one cost almost as much! You can see in the picture the library copy next to the "new" AbeBooks book.

AbeBooks used to be a decent resource for used books. Now it seems to be a resource for fraudulent sellers to take advantage of customers. AbeBooks does not allow customer reviews, so many of the booksellers send books that are nowhere near the quality described, and the buyer is left with no recourse and no ability to downrate fraudulent sellers. My latest purchase was listed by the seller in "very good" condition with no serious flaws, yet when I got the book it had a damp musty smell and was heavily foxed throughout. Buyer beware.

The condition of the book stated "NEW". What I received was an old book, missing parts, cover that had gooey stuff on it, corners dented, and surface torn. Inside pages written on. This is new? I got taken, won't order from them again!

Book ordered on May 1 never arrived. Bookseller number not correct and apparently fraudulent. No one to contact at abe. Following support request links on abe website results in endless circle which goes nowhere. They never respond to emails. Wasted money.