"The experience on Thrifbooks is mostly good. However, the reason I give it three stars is because prices will fluctuate wildly day to day on the same exact items, sometimes as much as $5-$6 on a certain item. (books are priced according to condition, I am speaking of books of the same condition). Prices over $10 do come with free shipping, but... I have seen items on Ebay, sold from Thriftbooks with free shipping under $10, so that is not fair to those who use Thrifbooks primarily to purchase used books, when they can buy the same book from the same vendor from Ebay and not pay the shipping. Also, You do get points from purchasing from the Website or App, they do add up and you can get a "Free Book". This is Very misleading, you don't get a free book, you get what is basically a $5 store credit, and when you do, expect anything you look up to magically be priced at $5.09 or above, when they were well below the $5 threshold the day before.. The books that are under $5 are your usual yard sale fodder and you can probably get it from Ebay for $2-$3 or Salvation Army for even cheaper. Thriftbooks does not sell books cheaper that about $4, no matter what they are. The $5 store credits do not add up and are completely used up whether you use it on a $3.99 book or a $4.99 book, there is no remaining balance if it's under the $5. I would be much more useful if you could add up your $5 "free book" (store credit) to purchase books that are more money, for instance three $5 "free Book" (store credits) could be used to buy a $15 book, that is not available however to use in that way on Thriftbooks, the whole "Free Book" is misleading in this sense. Also, make sure you do your homework before purchasing a book You want. I am shocked to see books sometimes priced well over the price you pay on Amazon or from The publisher. I am speaking of currently available books that may be on Thriftbooks as used for over $20, and I check the publisher and they have it in stock new retail for $12 to $15. All this said, I do enjoy searching for books on Thriftbooks, I have gotten may good deals, but I also find myself on AbeBooks, Amazon, and Ebay just as much when searching for a particular item. The free shipping is nice and they may be sometimes a deal breaker when price comparing with other websites who may have the book for cheaper but you have to pay $5.99 for shipping. A bidding option would be a nice feature, but I realize it would probably not be feasible. The "Free Book" perk is not worth it by itself, there simply is no reason to want it for what you can use it for and I would possibly find it more useful if you could; 1. carry a balance on your Free book rewards (not use it up all at once), 2. Add up your Free book rewards to purchase more expensive books. Prices are usually good, but can be deceptive because they fluctuate wildly for no determinable reason. Customer service has been pretty good; I have received books that have had water damage, ripped bindings, etc.. and they have quickly resolved my issues with those orders. "
"I received a very dirty book with pages torn out and other pages torn. The book looks like it will fall apart if we read it very much.
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"My daughter recommended this place. Like new yea right. I wonder what the good looks like. All the books I got were in poor condition. I ordered one book that I had read in 1972. The book looked like the same copy. It said good condition the price was $4.19 Condition poor and the price on the book was $1.95 this book wasn’t a collectors or anything like that. Some of the old paperbacks had lower prices on them then what this Thrift Books charged me. I ordered a out 20 since it seemed like a good deal. However I did get two hardcover that were in pretty good condition."
"I ordered 2 books and i'm currently waiting for them to get here. In my spare time i looked at other books and added them to my cart to sit so i could see the complete total. I went to bed after and woke this morning to an email of order conformation (there's absolutely no way i authorized that order) of $96! So i have e-mailed for assistance and i will call on Monday. I am livid!"
"They sent one order to the wrong address. I corrected it and alerted them. Then, a month later, they sent ANOTHER order to the same wrong address. These guys don't know what they are doing. SHOP ELSEWHERE."
"The book I ordered was said to be in “excellent”condition when in reality it was written in, water stained, moldy and pages were stuck together causing them to rip when tried to pull apart. They also charged my card 3 different times for the same book causing me to call and get it canceled. The only good thing I can say about this experience was that the book arrived in a timely manner."
"I have ordered nearly 80 books from Thrift Books in the past year. I have been extremely happy and will continue to purchase from them. I did get a couple very old paper backs that were marked good and I think they described them correctly. I have gotten some pleasant surprises too. I've received 3 signed copies so far. I make a point to purchase the best grade available so most of my books are very good to like new. "
"I bought vintage books and the put glued on labels with their company logo on the cover. They destroyed my items after I bought and paid for them. I tried to resolve with customer service and their reply the "our system" requires the label. Don't buy from them unless you are ok with them trashing the cover. Don't buy from them if you think you may need customer service."
"Should be a 0. They took the money but the book never came. After a month asked again, they inform that it has been 31 days since the order and they only look into orders less than 30 days. When asked if there anything they could do, they kindly replied by sending the policy by email (it probably would have taken just as much time to look up the order)."
"I have ordered many books from Thriftbooks, but recently got an incorrect book(ok people make mistakes). Their customer service is appalling. No follow up, no emails, after three phone calls and the last one with a "supervisor" Jenn. I came to one final conclusion. "THEY DON'T CARE". do not order from this site, they take your money and then send you whatever they have in stock. and oh yes never received correct book."
"I’ve ordered twice from ThriftBooks, and had dismal experiences. I only order books that have at least “very good” quality ratings. Both times I ordered two large hardcover books. The first time one was “very good” and the other was “fair” when they arrived. I emailed customer service and they offered to credit me for the second one. I made the second order while waiting for the first to arrive. One of those two books was damaged in transit, and the other was the wrong book. So, I contacted them and they said they were sending out replacements. A week later nothing had arrived and I received no email notifying me of shipment, so I sent another email. I quickly received a response telling me that I would be getting credit for the original order.
This company is having a strongly negative impact on the used book trade, mostly by dominating Amazon Marketplace and the used book sites at the expense of good sellers. It’s pushing down prices and making it unprofitable for sellers who are honest and conscientious to make money. (I’m not a seller.) This is great for consumers who don’t care what sort of condition the product is in, but terrible for those of us who do care. Even if a book leaves their facility in good condition, they ship it in a thin plastic bag with no protection for the book(s), so it is highly likely that the books will be damaged in transit. I will avoid ThriftBooks unless they are the only possible source. "
"I ordered a book from Thriftbooks.com for school and used Paypal checkout. I never received an email confirmation of the order or a tracking email. When I sent them a message through Paypal, they never responded. So I left a bad review on their Facebook and then escalated my claim to a dispute via Paypal. They reply to my review stating that there must have been a problem with the email address I gave them and that my money appears to have been refunded because of the Paypal claim. They then give me a link for their customer service. When I tell them that the email address is correct and that I have NOT gotten a refund, they reply back that "Paypal claims are processed in the order they are received and again direct me to contact their customer service. Anyone that has dealt with Paypal claims in the past knows that once the claim has been escalated to Paypal, Paypal handles all further communication. This company is a JOKE. I'll stick with Amazon Prime sellers and eBay."
"I wish I'd checked online reviews first before buying from Thrift Books. I'm currently building a collection of vintage books in a series, and this seemed like a place that had a number of the titles I need, so I ordered two. The books themselves are in really good condition but I have two complaints that are deal breakers. 1) The first book was shown on the site as being a reprint of a vintage title, with the title itself on the front cover. I was okay with that since it's a hard title to find. When I got the book, I realized that the title is ONLY on the spine, and the front cover has the title of the reprint collection. This means that they photoshopped the title onto the book cover to make it look like it was printed that way. Not cool! 2) The second one I ordered is a vintage book from the 1950s, and the listing showed a dust jacket in really good condition. Even though I'm not buying vintage books for their value, I was extremely annoyed to find that Thrift Books put one of their business stickers on the dust jacket spine! They did this to a book that is worth several times what I paid for it! Whether I removed the sticker or left it on, that dust jacket was now damaged beyond repair, so I removed the sticker and it took off a layer of the jacket that includes the author's name. Never again will I buy a book from here! I'll stick with the honest, trustworthy vintage book sellers I've found on eBay."
"First book described as being in very good condition had broken binding ; writing on interior covers; water damage; dog-eared pages; yellowing even though published only in 2004. I was quickly offered a free replacement. It was in better physical condition but had extensive underlining. First book condition was poor, second fair. Don't depend on them to describe the condition of their books. I have asked for a full refund, price plus shipping.
Have been pleasantly surprised - have been given a full refund.
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"Ordered five books form them and they were shipped in three different shipments. Three arrived and two did not show up. Tracking number showed then bouncing around from one place to another and then back again. I called the Postal Authorities and had them check the tracking number and was informed that the shipper had left off the box number thus no way to deliver then. They had been sent back to shipper. I contacted Thrift Books and told no problem and that a replacement order was now being sent and quoted my address back to me as correct. Now remember half the order had arrived fine. Week and a half later no books ? I contacted Thrift Books again and told they would look into it. Still no books a few days later. I finally contacted them again and a guy supposedly named Ryan told me that this order had been lost as well and they did not have a tracking number for it ???? I have after weeks of waiting been told there are no replacements for my books ? Don't know what happened to the ones returned due to their address screw ups, but will be getting a refund in about a week ? I wasted all that time and effort, waited all this time and get no books and my money back in a week. They sure did not wait a week to take my money ! I will from now on got with other sellers or visit my local used book stores. My advise for dealing with Thrift books is run run and don't look back.
Jim Blevins"