Books A Million

Terrible company; terrible/zero customer service. Delayed shipping. No accountability if your package is lost, misdelivered, never delivered. The company will blame the postal carrier. BAM totally sucks!

I've had in total 3 experiences with books-a-million (referenced as "BAM" from this point). One that was in person and was absolutely lovely, as well as 2 online experiences - one that had zero issues and then the experience that resulted in this review. I had ordered a book from BAM on 8/7/2025, that was listed as in stock on their website. The item then shipped within 24 hours after being ordered. I was eagerly following its progress and everything was going normally until the package hit Dallas, Texas. 24 hours after arriving and departing in Dallas, I received a notification that my package was out for delivery! I check and sure enough it is… in the wrong state. Confused as to why, I double checked all my information - convinced maybe that I had mistakenly entered something wrong such as a zip code. But my account, my order confirmation, and even my shipping notification were all the correct address down to the zip code, so there was no reason it should have been in that state, especially since I'd never lived nor had an address there. Checking their FAQ, the most I could find was information on when customers select the wrong address themselves, nothing regarding my situation - however I did notice a particular little policy, that once items are marked as delivered regardless of if their sent to the wrong address BAM does not issue refunds (the most you can receive is a one time replacement shipment or a store credit). Now worried that despite the error not being on my end, I would be in this boat, I contacted their customer support via the form on their website (this is at 7:30am which is prior to their work hours which don't start until 9am). While waiting, I decide to do some digging around to see if I can find a solution or how it had worked out for others in the past, leading down to a rabbit hole of less than stellar reviews for BAM for a variety of reasons including from site jabber. Now increasingly worried, especially since it could take 24 hours at earliest for them to respond via email - I contacted their live chat support at 9am (I did see several people mention online they had quicker and better support via their online live support), which is when I was informed of the following: After informing the rep of the problem at hand, I was then informed that this was because the item was returned to sender, however the item had never been attempted to be delivered - in fact it never made it to my state! When I inform the rep of this, I am then told that while it should have gone to Louisiana after arriving/departing the Texas facility - the Texas facility returned the item to sender, and "this could be due to damage or other package issues". Upon further prompting as to what I was now supposed to do or what the next steps are to receiving my order, I was then informed that I would be refunded once the warehouse processes the return. I had to inquire further to find out what this entails, which while I will receive my refund on my original form of payment they could not give me any specific timeline as to when I would be refunded. As the rep stated "it depends on how long the return process takes when it reaches the warehouse floor. Then from that point you will get an email and a refund that takes about 3-5 business days to post after it is issued." So now I'm unfortunately waiting for this refund, additionally even once I receive it - I will need to look elsewhere as the book that I ordered is now on backorder. To explain my rating - I'm not rating this less than 3 stars, because they were able to inform me as to what was happening via their live chat option which yielded significantly efficient and quick customer service times (I was in queue for less than a minute), as well as this is the first genuine issue I've had with them. Additionally, despite my order being returned to sender - I'd rather it be returned to sender than receive a damaged product. However I am rating it only 3 stars, because I had to contact them to find out what was happening, as well as I had to continuously prompt the rep to give further information: Why was it out for delivery in another state > How could it be returned to sender if it was never in my state to begin with > What do I do next? How do I get my order? > How long does a refund take? Will it be refunded to my original payment? After the first initial question or the second one at most, the remaining information should have been readily provided especially considering the fact that most people will not know that your returns are dependent on warehouse processing times which can vary. Plus, while it isn't 100% their fault, it does further add a damper to the experience that even once a refund is received I can't order the item I originally wanted because it's now on back order. * At the time of this review, I have not received a refund or further information regarding this order's status - I will edit this specific section as to when I receive a refund or update via the comments if I'm unable to edit my review. *

BEWAre! Terrible company. Will NEVER order from them again. Absolutely terrible. I ordered a $150 item from them on the 9th of December for my daughters Christmas gift. They Cancelled my order without notifying me whatsoever on the 15th. A WEEK later! No explanation, No Email, Nothing... Just cancelled. Now I have to Reorder Elsewhere a week before christmas. Pathetic.

Millionare Club review: had the millionaire club for a year which went fine until renewal. I knew I signed up for the automatic renewal so that part was fine. What wasn't fine, was the fact they charged me two months in a row for said renewal. Obviously I did a credit card charge back on the second knowing it was a mistake. Fast forward a month for some Christmas shopping and the cashier can't find my membership. After showing my renewal email and credit charge they honored my 10% membership savings. But when I called the help line the next day, they said that they cancelled my membership since I did the charge back. Mind you, they charged my card TWICE, so I only charged back the duplicate charge. They said their records said it was an issue with my bank and to call them. Wouldn't help out whatsoever. So what did I do? I cancelled the original charge, got my refund and have now sworn off book-a-million for crappy customer service and an even crappier membership program.

Everytime a new release titles comes out, they never have it but yet Barnes and Noble and Amazon have it day of release, would be nice if they concentrated more on books than the over priced junk toys they have there, will not renew my membership, why should I when I either have to buy for BN or Amazon?

I'm genuinely confused how this company is able to stay in business when their prices are 2x higher than their competitors! I bought a series and then quickly returned it when I discovered it's $40 cheaper through Amazon/Target/walmart etc. Listen, I'm all about supporting local/smaller businesses but good lord, even a normal book in the series is $7 more expensive than what I find elsewhere. At least price match

Was excited to see they had a Hardcover version of a certain book that I was looking for, order 3 of them immediately since I knew it is something that would sell quickly. Then was seriously disappointed when I received 3 very cheap Paperback covers of that same book. Made sure to try to contact Help and see if they could send me what I ordered. If I could give 0 stars I would, 1 is too many. I got the run around and they found it outrageous that I expect to get what I ordered and that I didn't want to run around during my limited time off to jump through hoops to get what I ordered online. Then they made me feel like I was trying to scam them out of 3 crappy paperbacks and refused to do exactly what they were expecting me to do, to fix their mistake. Long story short after spending thousands of dollars, yes thousands, on books from Books A Million I will no longer be spending my money here. And from the other reviews here I can see that this will be another book store that slowly fades away.

My local BAM downsized the magazine rack to a 1/5th of what it had been. They got rid of all the magazines I would have looked at. They also got rid of their cafe. Meanwhile their selection of computer books has dropped to virtually none. Their selection of non book stock has surged, leading me to wonder whether it wants to become a toystore.

I don't get to a bookstore very often but this visit just tells me that BAM is not far from going under.

Do not buy from this online bookstore. They changed my shipping fees at the last minute (after you click purchase they end up charging you double) and then they don't ship it in the time they say they would. When I received the book, it was damaged. The customer service is bad. They give you stock answers and don't address your issues. Of all my experiences buying books online, this was the absolute worst. Trust me, you will regret purchasing from this seller.

Store tried to charge me $10 more in store than their own website. Manager told me to go buy it on amazon

I ordered 2 books, 1 was a preorder. The 1 at book "shipped". The tracking # showed it never left the warehouse. Took 4 weeks to get a refund! Then they just canceled the preorder without telling me. What a joke of a company.

I ordered 2 books the last week of February, it's 3/12, and no word on if it's shipped, no eta on delivery, nothing, tried checking online and it won't open.

Bought an Eric Burdon and the Animals LP for $16 which had an "Anti-theft" sticker preventing me from seeing the record. I was told I if I opened it, I bought it. Took it home and played it. Very scratched, even after deep clean. Virtually unlistenable. Will never set foot in a Books a Million again.

I took 20 used, good as new books in to sell. They picked 11 (mostly hardback Stephen King books) and wanted to give me $8.00 for them. Not even a dollar each. I'd rather give them to goodwill to sell. Barnes and Noble for me now to buy books.

Order the Pokémon booster pack for Christmas on 12/11/22 It was shipped on 12/15/22 and the item was returned back to sender 12/22/22 (Unknown reason & BAM doesn't know why it was sent back to sender either)

They got the item back and did not process a refund. I reached out 1/17/23 and was told they need to confirm with the warehouse department (even though the tracking confirmation is proof) I still waited a week, no reply. Have to dispute with my bank.

They stated on the website

"Both USPS and UPS only hold tracking information for 120 days.
We are not able to conduct a proper investigation after that point to take further action. We apologize for any inconvenience."

Think they're just trying to drag it out so they don't have to do a refund and think they're the one that rerouted the package back to sender. First and last time ordering for them.

Ordered 3 books that were supposed to be in stock - 2 in transit and 1 label made after 5 days when delivery option said 3-5 days. Customer service inept, has a link to bam.com which is not their website! Unbelievable! Never again, but I got a gift certificate so had to use.

Have ordered multiple times from Books-A-Million and I continue to receive outstanding service from this company! I highly recommend.