Bookdepository Reviews 62

9 weeks post payment and 7 weeks post shipment from the UK to Denmark, and I still did not receive the book I ordered. The extended delivery time from UK to Denmark because of the coronavirus is max. 16 days - as the information stated on their website. It is more than 50 days since they have shipped the book (or at least this is what they informed me about) from the UK to Denmark. I asked for a tracking number or an update on the location of the book in 3 e-mails. In all of the e-mails they completely disregarded the content of my e-mail and replied with an automated message. I asked for a refund, and as of today, our e-mail count is 39. And they still have not paid me. They write thanking me for writing and that they will forward my e-mail to a customer assistant, whom answer I shall wait for. Then the reply comes: thank you for writing us, I forward you to the right associate. Next reply: thank you for writing to us, I have just forwarded your case to the proper department. And 39 e-mails later: still no refund. At the beginning, 3 different associate asked me to confirm the correctness of my address. I thought once would be enough, but then I kept on receiving the same e-mail: thank you for your e-mail, please confirm your address. Three times. I confirmed it three times, but not for the forth ask, then I expressed my disappointment. I am not sure they have even read my case. It didn´t seem like they read it or worked for proceeding with my case, not to mention reaching customer satisfaction. It was rather as if they needed to have a message quota. Then in further rounds of e-mails, they asked me to wait 20-25 days until the book arrives (16 days was the mentioned shipping time). Meanwhile they could not provide me with a tracking number when I asked and disregarded the content of my e-mails. It was quite a one-way communication, such one, that I have never experienced before. In one of the e-mails, an associate asked me to wait for the book to arrive until a certain day of March, whilst the calendar day she wrote the message had already proceeded that day. So it didn´t make sense. Later they wrote they already refunded me the price of the book. Funnily, that refund was concerning another book - which they could have easily seen in the system. So it wasn´t even the same case. I found that they really don´t want to pay. Further rounds of e-mails, they transferred me a partial refund. No clue why, the problem is that they don´t know it either. Further e-mail exchanges to point out the mistake, that they just don´t seem to acknowledge, therefore pay. Days and weeks go by, my case goes from hand to hand. Earlier in April, an associate confirms the payment - hurrah, you would think. But the money did not arrive. I contact them again, they send my e-mail from person to person, e-mails, days and weeks go by. They don´t know why it didn´t arrive, and when I asked for a transaction ID, they say, they cannot see it in the system. Since my last e-mail, the 39th, the stopped communicating with me. No book, and I didn´t receive my money either.

Meanwhile: I had the time to read fellow customers´ opinions here on Trustpilot, and it was quite significant, that 5 stars evaluators are mostly people, who evaluate only this company, not others.
Whilst people with bad experience, they have further evaluations regarding other companies, services.
Just something to think about.

At my previous evaluation regarding my first book order disappointment, the company wrote a reply here on Trustpilot. It was an automated message, that I read often since at the end of other´s bad experience. The closing lines of that message was: a colleague of us will soon contact you.
Well, nobody reached out to me. Months passed by.

I am wondering why there is no option to give my order number for the company here, as at many other companies require. How could they reach out (as they replied earlier) without that?...

I'm very pleased with the performance of Book Depository. Living in Crete, no where near a source of good quality English language books, this vendor has been a lifeline. Delivery can be a little slow as normal postal services are used, but that's the acceptable aspect of no charges. Books arrive in mint condition and well packaged.

Context: For over a month I've been looking for a book that is unavailable anywhere (except USA but as I'm in Europe I have to pay almost the price of the item in customs). So a few weeks ago I placed an order on 2 different shops to be on "waiting list" until stock became available.

Finally, the book became available in bookdepository.
Great. I proceed to order the book through bookdepository, the book was available and I was charged for my purchase.
Thus, to avoid being charged on the other 2 places I "pre-ordered" I canceled those purchases.

Over a week later, the item wasn't dispatched and the book became available and then sold out on the other websites. Now it's unavailable on bookdepository, I asked about it they said they had a problem and that when it became available I would be sent a copy
The book was not dispatched and I got refunded and my order canceled without saying anything to me. Lost the place on the other waiting lists and the opportunity to have the book already if I had not canceled the other purchases because of bookdepository.
How can they charge for a product and then basically say: Oh sorry it was available but its unavailable now but when we have stock we'll send it to you (Be it in a day or 2 or a year from now) What a JOKE.
And this is how they treat a customer who spends over 300 Euros a year on their website. (had some minor problems before but nothing too bad)
Was my go-to site for a long time to acquire books but I'm done with them

I Bought 3 books from the site and I’m very Happy and satisfied with everything 😁 I will definitely Recommend the site to others and I will be buying more in the future, if it keeps being cheaper than other Sites. 👍

Order number BDM-287-03638708417

One month has already passed and the book has not been sent. Is this a serious company? I don't think so.

Avoid buying from this website.

Pros: Fairly fast and reliable shipment (I live in DK); books are always in mint condition without subtle creases or damage from shipment (which is not uncommon with other book providers)

Cons: highly volatile price levels going significantly up and down one week to the next. For example, I ordered eight books on 19 Feb 2021, but now they are all up +25%! Seems as Bookdepository has not managed to decide on more stable, predictable price level following Brexit?
Price level, although "free" shipment is still included, is not as attractive as before and Bookdepository is no longer my preferred book seller.

Put my order in approx 4 weeks ago, just had an email telling me it has been cancelled due to no stock, although both the website, and what I expect is their Amazon shop branch both show it in stock
They have just held my money for 4 weeks for nothing

I recently ordered 2 books I had been looking forward to. 4 weeks later and there is still no sign of the items or a decent resolution. I contacted support who clearly do not have an SLA. I have been waiting nearly 3 days for a response to my most recent email. I would not recommend using Book depository. When I contacted (after the estimated delivery date) I was asked to wait an additional 2-3 business days. After waiting this I again contacted support and did not receive a response for 3 days. Finally I was promised a replacement item but was not provided with any tracking information and am still waiting (another 3 days) for a response from support.

This business is appealing and I would not recommend their service. I could have ordered the items from amazon and received them significantly faster. This has left a bad taste in my mouth and will most likely be perusing a charge-back for the items not delivered.

I have used this company in the past for world wide deliveries and no problem

This time . Order to Australia 10 th Jan. Email on 13 th to say order was on its way. ( daughters bday )
Email today saying refund made as books were undeliverable.

I understand it’s difficult times but i am sure I m not the only person ordering to Australia during Covid.

I notice customer services ONLY reply to positive posts.

I have asked them
To explain the reason the books didn’t arrive.

Ordered many of books over the years. Except for one messed up order had no other problems.
So many categories and choices to choose from. Easy Web Site to use.

The standard reply you get is always to wait for 5-10 more days due to whatever..
I understand less expensive books send free of charge will not mean traced and overnight service.
Have been waiting for a book since mid November. They sent out another copy but both of these expensive books have not arrived in their own mentioned time frame, including several, please wait another 5-10 days bla bla bla.

Not the first time an order gets screwed up but it used to be some kind of service without the continuous BS and unemphatic answers you get from them nowadays. Definitely the last time though.

This is a good bookshop with a wide range and consistently competitive prices. The only issue it that they can be a bit slow to deliver, can take anything from a few days to a couple of weeks. But if you're not in a hurry, it's usually the cheapest option or near it.

If you buy new books from 3rd-party sellers on Amazon, you've probably bought from these guys already as they're one of the top sellers there. It's a bit more effort, but why not go straight to the source so that Jeff Bezos doesn't get a piece of the action!

Buy as many books as you like, one of them magically will never arrive. It happened with every order I have made here, one of the items is always missing. Their delivery times are lies, only to try and fool you that they ran a quick service. Their costume service speed dial answer is “kindly wait more x days” even though you’ve waited way longer than supposed. Delays happen, of course, but it seems this isn’t a one time thing, so it makes you wonder if they actually dispatch the item since you never see proof of it - they say “dispatched via an untrackable delivery”, how convenient. Not worth the trouble and definitely not recommending to anyone.

ORDERED A BOOK UNAVAILABLE IN MY COUNTRY ON NOVEMBER 30th. HASN'T ARRIVED YET 28/12 TODAY THOUGH I HAVE FOLLOWED ALL THE INFORMATION OFFERED BY THE SITE ON POSSIBLE DELAYS DUE TO COVID ETC. I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO TRACK MY ORDER - WITH THE HELP OF A CUSTOMER ADVISOR WHO I REPEATEDLY DISTURBED WITH QUERIES SINCE HE WAS GREAT HELP - HOWEVER I LEARNT THE HARD WAY THAT FREE DELIVERY MEANS UNTRACKABLE POST SERVICES AND CHAOS.. APART FROM A VERY DISAPPOINTED CHILD WHO STILL WONDERS WHY SANTA DIDN'T BRING HER THE ONLY THING SHE ASKED FOR , I HAVE NOW NO CUE WHETHER I SHOULD STILL BE WAITING FOR MY ORDER OR NOT.... THEY SAY MY REFUND IS ON ITS WAY BUT THE ITEM MAY APPEAR IN THE FUTURE AS WELL....... I GUESS I WILL HAVE TO ORDER IT AGAIN .. NOT FROM THE BOOK DEPOSITORY THOUGH .. NEVER AGAIN .. MY DAUGHTER HAS NEVER CRIED ON CHRISTMAS DAY BEFORE . had it not been for customer advIsor CHARLIE who really tried to help, I WOULD VOTE FOR ZERO STARS

Ordered several books from Amazon which were passed by them to above. However, a whole week after ordering I was advised that two were not available which left me scrabbling about to get them elsewhere in time for Christmas as they were part of a series.Most of the rest arrived ok - every single one was sent individually. One was in German which was no good to me but when I went back to my order to check, it did say German but it was not very obvious. Another which had been unavailable from the outset was advised as being back in stock so I placed an order immediately. Several days later, it turned out not to be. Now it's only 3 days before the big day so no chance of obtaining it in time. Why send me an email and accept an order when you clearly don't have it? Won't take the chance in future if it's required within a time frame. Upside is free delivery and refunds do arrive so that's why I've given 3 stars.

(See update to this review at bottom)
Having had good experiences buying books in the past I am disappointed with Book Depository at the moment. So do be cautious ordering from them. Details below
– This time I have bought stationery packs to give as Christmas presents, Two of the nine I bought do not look as good as they did on Book Depository's web site, so I submitted a form on their web site to return them.
– I received a standard email asking me send photos of the damaged good. I wrote back to explain they were not damaged but that I still wanted to return them. I included photos. No response
– I prompted, then seeing a Book Depository address, starting with 'letushelp' (sorry can't give full address here) on Trust Pilot, wrote again, giving details, to ask for help. Nothing forthcoming. Maybe this email address is out of date but it is given in a response to a recent email.
– Book Depository's returns policy isn't great. Unless I have misunderstood you have to pay the return postage, and the return has to arrive within 2 weeks of raising the return request. The delay in response is going to make it difficult to achieve that. I certainly would not want to have to pay first class postage in order to meet the deadline.
– So Book Depository, if you're reading, please take a look at order number BDU-955-52908499185, clarify any misunderstanding I may have had and let me know what you can do on this. Thanks.
UPDATE on this review. Possibly this review prompted action as a couple of days after it was posted I received a response from Book Depository that they would be happy to refund on receipt of returns, provided I paid the return postage. I sent items back using Post Office's 'Signed for' service (the cheapest option with some tracking) and subsequently received confirmation that refunds would be made.

- Delivery was slow.

- Impossible to get a pdf Invoice or receipt for bookkeeping from the website. Was also not email to me.

Book Depository is a very trustworthy and Customer Focused Company.
I myself bought 2 books from them and their customer Services was very impressive on answering all my questions and making me fell highly appreciated as a Customer
I highly recommend this company.

Terrible customer service, sent out wrong books on 2 occasions, recently cost me £6 to return wrong book, they've also refused to reimburse me and have refused to send out correct book, they've said due to price having gone up, refusing to honour my order. Yet to receive refund. Avoid this company. Bad company practices.