AbeBooks Reviews 

Awful packaging. I ordered a beautiful photography book which was sent in an Amazon envelope (one with with an in-built single layer of bubblewrap and completely unsuitable for a heavy and delicate book) which arrived with a split corner. I must admit I hadn't realised AbeBooks is owned by Amazon. As book sellers, AbeBooks and Amazon should be able to use adequate packaging. Insult to injury is needing to pay tracked delivery to return the package at my own expense. I won't be using them again.

Unable to get hold of anyone easily.
One book has not arrived since order dated 11th June. Despite repeated attempts to get this rectified and quoting the Sales Order number at top of their invoice I’m told that number doesn’t cover the book I’m chasing. And yet it is at the top of the page under title - Sales Order.
I have found anither no in very small print under title: Abe books PO No: let’s hope this sorts the query out.
While the books are cheap it’s not worth my time or effort trying to sort issues out so I won’t be using again.

Worst site to deal with!

I purchased two books through this reseller, but they arrived in such poor condition that I had no choice but to return them.

Unfortunately, I had to pay the return postage myself, which meant I lost around a third of the purchase price. To make matters worse, I now can't get in touch with the company at all.

I'd strongly recommend staying clear of this dodgy company.

Ordered book collection
Mr men and little miss magic collection of 10 books in box
Received 1 book sent email wanted me to return the book and would sort out collection advertised to be sent. Received 1 book again today playibg in their court now cant be bothered to email people who say that collection is on way confirmed when asked collection was on way only to receive 1 book again. Would I use them again definately not try to use my money on better no truthful communication could do with somebody of equal intelligence answering emails with confidence and not just guessing.

The book when received was damaged. and not in the post either. It was returned at my expense. Eventually the seller, not AbeBooks themselves refunded the cost though they believed they were doing that because of no delivery. Only the cost of the book was refunded not the postage I paid to send the book back. When I questioned this I was referred to AbeBooks. There seems to be no way to query the refund made by the seller with Abebooks who seem to be some kind of portal for other booksellers. Over a month to get a refund for less than a tenner and I am still out of pocket for the postage. Abebooks is a good alternative source of rare books to eBay and Amazon but no one seems to take responsibility when things go wrong. To be fair it is Awesome Books responsibility under distance selling rules but I wont use either again unless I have no choice.

I used this website for the first time as it was the cheapest place that I could find the book I wanted. I ended up ordering two extra books from the same seller and they all came in less than a week. I will definitely be using it again.

I have used abebooks loads of times. Books tend to be a bit cheaper compared to Ebay. I just had an issue with a book I bought and the seller wasn't very helpful when I contacted them, so I reached out to Abebooks customer support and they resolved it for me. If you have any issues, make sure you contact Abebooks customer support if you can't resolve things with the seller. I highly recommend buying from this website.

I bought five second hand hard-back copies of a much loved author through Abe books. In each case the hard back was descrive as good, very good or as new in quality. Three of the books were fair quality, one was a soft back and of poor quality and one bizarrely was a collection of photocopied pages in a hard binding. Initiating a return is fairly easy but the returned books have had to be sent at my own cost - one to Australia and one to the US so hardly worth it. I would never use Abe Books again.

Received my knowingly used book. Very prompt delivery and the book is in excellent condition. I am delighted with my purchase.

I had no trouble with this seller. I was kept up-to-date with tracking and even though they are UK based, they were cheaper than NZ.

Mixed experiences. Books bought through abebooks are cheap and their condition reflects that. I don't tend to keep the books after I've read them, I either donate them to a charity shop if they're in good enough condition or throw them away. I buy them knowing that will be the case. I draw the line, however, at one book that appeared to have excrement on a couple of its pages.

On the whole my experience of about 30 years from Abebooks has been good, but recently I purchased one from America, they asked for extra postage, I sent that, then a few days later I asked for a tracking number. Then I got a refund and was told I can keep the book when it arrives. Sounds iffy?; the book never arrived. More recently I purchased a book from Nigel Bird Books, the order was confirmed and then marked Shipped. A day or two later I get a refund, with Nigel saying 'I can't find the book' this is after he was supposed to have posted it.

Ordered a book but was sent a completely different title by same author. Now I have to pay postage for the return of a book I did not order. Will never use them again.

As of this moment, I am having a lot of trouble with one of their sellers and there is no way to complain to Abebooks about that seller or get someone to help. (The seller keeps sending me the same meaningless boilerplate email about an order I have not received.)

It is always hit or miss at AbeBooks. Most of the dealers are very bad at describing their books. There are far too many "dealers" like ThriftBooks and HalfPrice books that do not have the book they are selling at hand. They cannot answer questions. They do not know a first edition from a piece of toast. Books have arrived with mold and other disgusting attributes. Abe really does need to have a rating or reviewing system to weed out the dealers that sell junk.

I don’t know why this company has such low reviews. I ordered a discontinued book from the 90s (that I read as a child) for my daughter. It arrived faster than it predicted, was an excellent price and the book was in mint condition. Will definitely order from here again, thank you.

UPDATE: After reading all the dreadful reviews, I was able to go back into my order and cancel it and take a screenshot of the cancellation. Dodged a bullet there!!

23 May 26 - Placed an order cor a normal size book, with delivery stated as 2-3 days - so 26-27 May at the latest accounting for a Sunday and Bank Holiday. Checked it out and delivery changed to 1 June! What a con! I am so annoyed. 4.99 p&p for a book should be for next day delivery! I Will NEVER purchase anything from them - absolutely disgusting 😡 Avoid at all
costs.

We had problems with the delivery of a book we had ordered using the AbeBooks platform. What had happened was that the book had been delivered to an address about 3 miles away. However, because the tracking number showed that the book had been delivered, it was impossible to start a refund claim on the AbeBooks website. (We had already tried obtaining a refund from the seller, but had got absolutely nowhere.)
it proved impossible to escalate the issue since there does not appear to be any way of contacting AbeBooks, there being neither an e-mail address nor a 'phone no. is anywhere to be found on their website.

Cant say for others but my books arrived on time and complete no issues at all great service to get books cheaper then usual.