rarebirdsbookclub.com Reviews 5

Like the reviewer below I am also not a fan of the changes Rare Birds Books have made to their subscription service. I only subscribed in December 2022 and had a few months of the lovely book marks and books arriving promptly at the start of each month. It's now 12 June and still no sign of June's book. It's been shipped but doesn't appear to be in the Royal Mail system yet. Not sure I want to keep paying £15 for an inferior service.

I’ve enjoyed being part of the rare birds since 2019. But I’m really not keen on this switch of covers, they look cheap and badly made, I would much rather have the original, high quality covers. I also don’t like the new bookmarks, they also look cheap. The book specific bookmarks were a nice touch and I miss having them. I hope they switch back to the way things wore, they were great and didn’t need changing!

I've been a member of the book club for 2 years. I've also ordered from the online shop, and visited the store in Edinburgh several times. The staff are always friendly and helpful, whether in store or by email/social media. The book club allows me to read outwith the genres I would normally choose, and I've discovered some absolute gems! I am very excited that all of the book club books from Jan 2023 will be exclusive editions. For a small business, I've seen Rare Birds go from strength to strength. No mean feat with pandemics, rising cost of living, and royal mail strikes!

I had previously left a negative review as I had ordered a calendar in November for the start of December. Unfortunately this did not arrive and I was trying to contact the company to see what was going on.

After 3 emails (and 3 replies which I had missed as they went into my spam folder) Rare Bird Books, specially Amanda has been a great help.

I missed all of the replies, and Amanda was very helpful in getting me a refund straight away. The issue was NOT Rare Bird Books at all. It is due to the Royal Mail and I would imagine the constant strikes so my grievence is with them, not with this company.

They have a wide range of products, and I will be shopping from here again. They have some great creative ideas and I will be back for a calendar next year, and certainly some books in between them as well. Excellent customer service and I totally retract my previous review.

I bought a 3 month subscription as a Christmas present for my partner. Having read about the book club, I thought this would be a good way of helping my partner to socialise during lockdown as she was struggling with the lack of contact. However, the reality was somewhat different. She made every endeavour to keep up with the reading, but this was not always possible. So often she was behind in interacting with the forums. Sadly, after she finished the final book, because the subscription had ended, she was unable to comment and interact about this or any of the other books. Whilst I appreciate that the subscription had ended and no other books would be sent, we did think at the very least that she would be able to continue the conversations on the forums. However, in order to do this, you have to renew your subscription; the minimum subscription period being 3 months.
Ultimately, we are incredibly disappointed. This has turned out to be nothing more than an incredibly expensive book club. The books you read are a complete unknown until they arrive, with only the description to base your choice upon. You can find these same books on Amazon for a fraction of the price, and you could form your own book club for free. Further, we contacted Rare Birds Book Club personally to give our feedback and have heard nothing back. This illustrates the lack of interest they have in the people that purchase their subscription.
A complete and utter rip off. Do not waste your money.