AbeBooks Reviews 

Great service! Ordered a book and it arrived the same week. Great price. Would use again.

Picture showed an attractive hardback edition but when it arrived it was a paperback. I take responsibility if I missed something in the description about it not being the book shown, but I do not like feeling conned into a purchase so I would not use again. I could have got this edition much cheaper elsewhere

Awful company it seems for taking payment then refunding after saying book not available. Wish I had read the reviews before I placed an order and same happening to me.😡😠
Think need reporting to Trading Standards. 🤔

I will no longer use these.

I have used AbeBooks on a few occasions. One time the seller sent the wrong book and just refunded me. Not sure why they sent the wrong book if they didn't have the book I bought in stock? But it proceeded with a refund so can't complain.

Bought another book shipped from the US and after a month with no book contacted the seller. Seller told me chase the sipping info. I did and found it had been delivered to the wrong address! I said I have no received the item and now they are refusing to give me a refund. Firstly, they wanted me to contact USPS and file chargeback? No. The contract is with the seller. Then they asked me to contact Royal Mail regarding the order! Again, I told them no - the contract is between seller and shipping company, not me. I have evidence it was not delivered to me from the photograph Royal Mail provided, along with Ring Doorbell footage. Not only that, but when we spoke to the people who took it they said it had their address and no name which is why they returned to sender! Once again, all captured on ring door bell and still AbeBooks refuse to refund and at this stage I will just be contacting my bank for a chargeback as I have never received the item and I have asked for a formal complaint to go through because that service is diabolical.

I cannot recommend as I've had more bad than good experiences with them.

8Impossible to contact their customer services after poor treatment from one of their sellers. I recently placed an order on AbeBooks from Invisible Books, Brighton. I received no contact from Invisible Books, I did, however, get an email from Abe, telling me Invisible Books no longer had that book in stock and had cancelled my order. The next day I noticed Invisible Books, Brighton, had the same book available for double the amount of my previous order. So, not only am I unhappy with Abe's woeful customer service I also would advise any AbeBooks members to avoid Invisible Books, Brighton. Their manager Paul Holman, seems somewhat questionable in his business ethics.

Very poor service ordered a book all went through then had a email to say the book was not in stock. The funny thing is is now in stock at over double the price what a rip off merchant.

Awful. I paid for a book to arrive 10 days ago, nothing has come and vendor hasn’t replied to emails. Avoid this book seller….

Started setting up a seller account 3 weeks ago. They messaged me twice with the same follow-up questions over the course of several days, and don't respond update emails. Setting up a bank account is faster, and they ask for less info. I won't be buying, selling, or recommending. Don't waste your time..

Do not buy from here. Google pay completed the transaction with wrong address. I contacted them a second later asking that they change the address. Thru refused saying it was already on its way out. Also would not cancel.the order. Stay away from this company.

The naysayers have been unlucky... Abebooks is great!
I've used them for years and have dug out all sorts of cheap, good quality books that would be impossible to find elsewere. And I don't remember ever having problems with customer services.
All sites with a multiplicity of sellers have both good and bad independent 'stores' (Amazon and Temu anybody!) but on Abebooks I'm sure you'll soon find reliable sellers you'll want to go back to again and again. (I would advise you though, if the cost of postage is more than the book, DON'T BUY!)
When internet shopping, we know always to be prepared for disappointment, but book-condition reports on Abebooks have always seemed fair enough to me ... and, if you're particular, their excellent search tool allows you to specify author, publisher, ISBN, price, condition ...and more. Try them.

Avoid at all cost. I cancelled an order and I am struggling to get a refund. 'SuperBookDeals' are refusing to acknowledge my order despite money being taken out of my account. Also impossible to contact to Abe UK customer support directly (through their website), they literally don't have a customer support contact (email or phone). I will chase through credit card company if I must.

I do not understand the large number of negative reviews for AbeBooks. I have bought from them many times and as recently as last month. Never experienced a single problem. Competitive pricing, accurate description, prompt shipping, enormous selection. What more can I wish for?

Placed an order for a book and paid. Later the order was cancelled and a refund given. Rubbish.

Appalling service! Is this a scam website? Ordered a book. Tracking actioned the next day. Book never posted despite tracking being created. Promised a refund. Refund never arrived. Chased by email. Responses poor and generic, not directed to my query… then next lot of replies said they couldn’t find my order… I wouldn’t touch these crooks again with a barge pole

Hit and miss company - avoid if possible

This is a hit and miss website, because you are entirely in the hands of the independent booksellers who use the platform - and they are far too many rotten ones (I have found inaccurate descriptions of used books & cancelled orders are commonplace) that are never weeded out. To make matters worse, when things go wrong you are pretty much on your own with next to no customer support or protection.

This is what happened to me recently: I bought a cheap(ish) book from France with the book & postage coming to around £8. When it came, it turned out to be a totally different (and 100% useless!) book. When I initiated a return, I found it cost £12 to send back, even for a basic untracked service. But Abe's policy is only to refund the same amount as the initial postage, which was about £3.

In fact it was even worse than that as Abe advises that you use a tracked service for returns - say £15 in this case.

So in the end, I had no real choice but to give the book away, write off my £8 and let the crummy bookseller & Abe keep their ill-gotten gains. Quite ridiculous when the mistake wasn't mine to start with.

While Abe can sometimes be useful to source obscure used books, my tip is +never+ spend more than you can afford to throw away.

The chances of ending up with a dud book that you can't return are much higher than you might think. And Abe's buyer safeguards are pretty much worthless.

It's definitely a site to avoid if you can - especially for foreign orders.

I ordered a book on the 4th July should have delivered by the 21st July still waiting no way of getting in contact don’t reply to text I wouldn’t advise people to buy from them bad company to deal with.

Very poor customer service.
Do not bother selecting priority postage as Abe Books will not honor this.
I select priority postage as I wanted to receive the book within the 3 working days stated. It was sent by Royal Mail 48h tracked, but the tracking showed that the post office only received the book on the 3rd day after my order so it was never going to arrive on time. When I complained to Abe Books about this they said that late delivery was down to the courier and they would not provide a refund.
Poor service all round, I will not be using Abe Books again.

I read the reviews before placing my order and I didn’t think the service was going to be great based on the majority of reviews, but I decided to risk it and I was very pleasantly surprised. I placed an order, it was delivered within 4 days including the weekend. The communication was great and the value amazing. I do not have anything bad to comment on. I am very happy with the service.

Ordered a book and within minutes tried to cancel as I had ordered the wrong one.
It appears they have no one there to cancel orders only to take the money, so, it was dispatched before anyone even saw the cancellation.
They said I could send it back but as I had literally cancelled within minutes of making the incorrect order I dont see how its now down to me to return the package. I wont ever use them again.

This review is for LONDON BRIDGE books Ltd, not Abebooks as a whole.
Grading system seems random and customer service keeps sending standard replies without acknowledging there is an issue with the grading so they tell me I can return at my own cost for a refund!
I placed 3 orders: one book (classed as "good") was so dirty, creased and had part of its spine missing that it wasn't fit for sale in my opinion.
One order was cancelled as they could not find it (it said 3 in stock when I ordered). Moments later it showed online they had 14(??) copies at a slightly higher price. Odd! The 3rd order arrived with most pages underlined. It is a study book so quite distracting. No mentioning of this beforehand.
I would avoid unless they change their grading and customer service!