AbeBooks Reviews 

Ordered a set of books, 30 books and a fact file. I received the fact file, and the 30 books never turned up.

No one has responded to my emails, no-one to call. Waste of my time and money. Automated email asked me to send the books back in the post for a full refund...

DO NOT TRUST!!

I ordered a book entitled "cello solos" but it only contained the cello and piano combined score (which is for the pianist), not a separate cello score for the cellist!

This company is now a front for Amazon a corporation that has poor employment practices and evades tax. Nothing on their site warns you they are really Amazon. No customer service. No means of contacting them.

I don't think it's the website's fault - this website seems to act as intermediary between bookshops in the US.

I bought a book for £20, delivery charge was £42 on top of that and delivery times were 3 weeks! After waiting for order and then asking for tracking info from the bookseller - I was told they sent the book but have no tracking info.. Really? For more than $50 postage they have no tracking info?

I t hink the bookshop in question is simply using orders as 0% financing, they don't sell any books, they don't post anything. They simply get your money, use it (to produce milk maybe or maybe to pay credit card bills) - and when the refund is requested, they give your money back (this is more than 1 month later). I am still waiting for refund, hopefully it will be processed on a timely manner.

I ordered the same book from india (after having wasted 3 weeks waiting for order that never arrived) - same price, but delivery charge is £3.50 (and it has tracking info!).

Definitely won't be ordering again from this company. I ordered a book and when it arrived it had a huge sticker on the front which could not be removed without damaging the cover of the book quite badly. I emailed them but they didn't even have the decency to reply. Wish I'd seen all the negative reviews before ordering.

Absolutely brilliant experience. Had a book coming from Germany to UK. I contacted seller before purchasing to ask something and reply was within 24 hrs. I absolutely recommend this site

I can’t praise Abe Books enough. I use them occasionally when I’m struggling to find a particular book, and more often than not they come up with the title I’m looking for. The prices are good, and the service is quick.

I ordered an Italian text book to use with my Italian course that started in January and as now finished, - instead i was sent a CD that accompanies the book, but in German, - and no book. I've been asking for a refund for months now, but always get the same computer-generated holding reply. I'm trying to find the contacts for the CEO, but no success as yet.

Ordered and paid for a book. Their website says it has been dispatched. Website just gives the run around cant ask where my property is or even fill in online question. Totally unable to make contact with customer service. I bitterly regret using this company

I ordered a used first edition hardcover novel from a bookseller called Orlando through Abe books - £39.99 including postage. Why did I use Abe books? - it was simply the cheapest price I could find for this particular edition anywhere.
Immediately AFTER ordering and paying for the book I looked at some Trust Pilot reviews for Abe books on the internet - what a horror show! I was obviously worried about the high frequency of appalling reviews and was expecting to encounter problems with my order.
The book arrived earlier than expected (Royal Mail 48 hours tracked). A beautiful pristine copy exactly as described. What's more it had been packaged very neatly and carefully, by a human being who knew what he or she was doing, to ensure safe arrival. Wasn't I surprised.
Not sure what the problem is with Abe books as there seems to be a lot of quite angry/unhappy customers - perhaps the problem has more to do with the specific bookseller you end up buying from rather than Abe books themselves. After expecting the worst I felt I should post a positive review.

I had never had any issues with Abebooks until I placed an order with a bookseller in the USA (SAVE WITH SAM - avoid it like the plague!!!). What a disgraceful experience, Abebooks would benefit from getting rid of booksellers like that. She increased the value of the order by requesting additional shipping charges. She created two shipping labels with different tracking numbers to cause confusion. The book that was actually sent/received WAS NOT the book that I had ordered. Throughout, the seller was more interested in having the wrong book returned, and was not providing any information whatsoever about the book that I had actually ordered. She volunteered a 30% refund to enable me to keep the wrong book and avoid the shipping charges to return it from the United Kingdom. This was a SCAM. My credit card company advised that, if I had accepted that 30%, the scammer would have kept the other 70%, and my credit card company would not have been able to recover it. Abebooks should make it a policy that, if booksellers send the wrong item, the receiver is entitled to keep it. If the bookseller wants the book to be sent back, he/she must cover the shipping charges for the return. In the end, I got a full refund without having to get my credit card company involved. This was thanks to the sterling assistance that I got from Abebook's Customer Service. It took time, but without their help and perseverance, a full refund would not have been possible. In my direct feedback to Abebooks, I alerted them that NONE of the Customer Service links in their website worked. This must be rectified by their technical people. I could only get through to Customer Services by emailing the Abebooks Media address.

ordered a book ...it arrived.... condition was better than expected...what more to say?!!
Thank you Abe books .

book never sent and also stolen money for my item and not sent, what kind a business is this, a conn I am reporting it to Irish consumer and the UK consumer about this matter, nothing after 14 days no tracking ended so you could take my money and then send nothing, its illegal to sell pictured items you dont have or physically own and then take peoples money.
Sales Order # 745743112

I am visiting friends in Italy and I wanted to buy a gift for a friend. I found it on AbeBooks UK. I chose this seller because it indicated 3-5 days for shipping. I checked it out without reading the fine print in the payment page but when I received the confirmation by mail I found out it would take 45 days (6 weeks) for delivery. The book is being shipped from the USA and most likely somebody is bringing it by swimming through the ocean

I am in Europe and bought a book from a US seller. The seller sent me an incorrect book. When I tried to obtain a return label, I was told that I was expected to send the item to the US at my own expense. AbeBooks is impossible to contact. They give no email address and no way to file a complaint. This will be the last time I'll buy anything outside of Europe through AbeBooks. I suggest you avoid them if you can.
Update. I managed to get in touch with AbeBooks, and they issued me a refund 'as a goodwill gesture'. The seller wasn't responding to email from AbeBooks. What can I say? I still think that we, European buyers, should buy from US sellers on AbeBooks as little as possible, since the possibility of wrong books sent creates a lot of problems for the buyer because the buyer is expected to send the incorrect book to the US, and only when the book arrives to the US, receive the refund for the book and postage for sending it to the US. One option is to write to US sellers in advance and obtain confirmation that the correct book is available before placing the order, but not all sellers respond to such queries. I have changed my rating from one star to three since AbeBooks did solve my particular problem in the end. There is still no general solution and ordering from US sellers via AbeBooks remains risky for European buyers.

If I could give this company a 0 I would. I question whether they should be allowed to trade in the UK. Perhaps one of the mainstream media companies would do an expose on their whole operation and complete lack of customer care. An email I sent to the CEO Mr. Arkady Vitrouk received no response. Further research showed he was resident in Canada.

Scam! I wish I listened to the majority of these reviews! Order a Toy Story book and they have sent A Scrap book of General hospital’ book. Laughable really. I have requested refund! I will not be paying to send the incorrect book back. Please do not buy from this company!

The book supplied was not as described, and had a few pages missing. Four pages were copies.
The pages were clearly scanned with words curling around the edge. AbeBooks UK reached out to the seller, who did not respond, AbeBooks said they could do no more especially as I paid with Pay Pal.
The seller didn't reply to Pay Pal either.
This is sales by deception with no recourse.
Even though AbeBooks is just a platform for sellers, as first point of contact, they should back up the buyer in these situations and get rid of the shonky sellers.
Here's the funny bit, AbeBooks gave me a coupon to use, which I thought was good, but the coupon can't be used unless you use your own money and then get a refund. WTF!!!!!!!!

I ordered a hardback copy of a book that I saw on the website of Abebooks, it stated the book was in good condition and the publisher was Penguin. What I recieved was the same title however it was a paperback with no similarity of the image that was on the website and published by a different publishing house. The condition of the text is the worse I have ever seen it was so bad that on some pages the text could not be read. I raised this as a complaint on the Abebooks forum on the website. I was given clear instructions to return the text to the original seller and a guarantee that the cost of the postage would be returned (£17). This all happened at the start of January 2025. Abebooks are now not responding to my emails and neither is the seller. So I now have no book and have paid for postage. Do not buy from this site.

698207756 Unacceptable Sales Practices

You and one of your sellers are illegally advertising books they don't have. Then illegally "up sell" from that interaction as part of the complaint process. I am out of pocket nearly £500 for books that were not the ones advertised. Then telling me I can pay more and receive what I actually ordered. It is a scam.

Abebooks used to be good. Now it is as bad if not worse than ebay for scammers. The irony that the books are about law and this is now going to court.