"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. "
"I hope everyone reading reviews for AbeBooks understands that they're a platform on which many sellers sell their books. I ordered a Precalculus book sold by BooXX in Stock. The terms of the sale gave them many days to ship, but within a very few days the book arrived. It was in like-new condition. 100% satisfied!"
"I ordered a book 9 months ago and still havent got my order. I cant ask for a refund either. Dont buy here."
"Absolutely ATROCIOUS. DID NOT SEND ME THE CORRECT BOOK, I PAID TO RETURN IT AND IT WAS NOT ACCEPTED AND SENT BACK.
COMPLETELY INCOMPETANT COMPANY
NEVER AGAIN."
"
Purchased a children's book for my grandaughters school library as a donation. The book arrived falling apart separated from the spine completely in several large clumps and shreds. The pages were falling out and it basically just completely fell a part in my hands as I tried to open it. I must say I was more than a little disappointed. But lesson learned. I will no longer be buying anything from AbeBooks!"
"They shipped my book in the thinnest plastic bag and it tore on 4 sides, exposing the book. Abebooks wanted me to pay return shipping for a refund!"
"I ordered new condition book but they sent me a used book.
On the first page, I could easily found some note which wrote by someone.
And the price was also so horrible. the seller (Ergodebooks (Houston, TX U.S.A.) ) purchased this used book from Amazon and resent it to me so I had to pay shipping cost. All my experience was totally horrible. "
"First i ordered a 2 volume set. They only sent me volume 1, apparently it was lost . So i asked to be sent volume 2, thay said; no longer available. But we could see on the site that volume 2 was for sale, so i ordered vol 2, thay sent me vol 1. Come to find out vol 2 is very rare. "
"I've ordered only once, to Belgium, and I've faced an extra 33 euro of shipping cost totally not expected (and not mentioned during the order). AbeBooks estimation of the shipping cost was 15.99$ US, in fact this amount peaked at over 55$ US (it would have cost me less to order a brand new book...).
Their answer: "Duties, taxes and brokerage fees are the responsibility of the buyer and vary by country. AbeBooks is unable to offer refunds of additional charges if they are deemed applicable by your customs authority."
Be ready for unforeseeable prices, a very nice feature when ordering online."
"I should have been suspicious when the Irish Booksellers, (Portland) created a shipping label immediately for $17 for a book that cost only $15. I waited a long while, and even e-mailed them with no response. Finally, I requested a refund. No response. I cancelled the payment through my Visa.
I ordered things before through Abe books and they're fine. You just have to watch out for the bad sellers using their site."
"I ordered a book from Irish Booksellers through AbeBooks. Book never arrived. Contacted seller through the AbeBooks website asking them to re-send. Got no reply. Contacted AbeBooks's customer service department. Also no joy. Looked on the AbeBooks website to see how I can give negative feedback to warn other potential customers. Found out you cannot give a seller feedback on AbeBooks. The seller ratings on AbeBooks are based purely on the number of books someone sells! "
"I've been dealing with abe.com for a number of years and it has been a good source for out-of-print books. I recently purchased a book as a gift for a friend from BOOK DEALS. The book turned out to be a smaller format book than I thought I had ordered (no dimensions were given in the listing) and I returned it for a refund. BOOK DEALS has been stonewalling me on the refund, so I stopped payment through my bank. This should not have been necessary, but BOOK DEALS is run by a crook. DO NOT BELIEVE THE FIVE-STAR RATING GIVEN THIS BOOKSELLER! ABE.COM REVIEWS AREN'T BASED ON BUYER FEEDBACK!"
"I wanted a copy of Golf **** for my son's birthday and searched Abe Books. It showed a copy from Irish Book Sellers, which I ordered for $161.72. Instead of Golf ****, they sent me a worthless pamphlet. I returned the pamphlet via certified mail and have sent multiple emails to them, but still do not have a credit for the book they never sent. Abe Books has a responsibility to their consumers to stop affiliating with this seller. I bought the book, because I've used Abe Books before and I trusted Abe Books. Never again."
"TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE
In all the years I've dealt in online purchases this is, by very far, the worst experience I've ever had! I ordered a book - it eventually turned up having been packaged by a moron. It was not as described it was an entirely different book. I returned it but Irishbooksellers 'claim' it didn't arrive on time so I lost all my money AND the shipping costs! I feel utterly violated and it feels like this is a fraudulent operation. Horrible. NEVER again! Do NOT use this company of crooks."
"This merchant is straight up a scam. They don't even hide it. They will take your money. Including money paid for expedited shipping. They will hand over the order to some vendor and they will simply blame the vendor for everything. I thought I would give them a chance (instead of buying from Amazon all the time). Now I know why Amazon is the best - at least they deliver. Abebooks should call themselves I-scam-you.com"