AbeBooks Reviews 954

They allow the vendor to increase the price of shipping days after you already paid.

Bad experience over all. Tracking number provided does not exist. After three months, the products have still not arrived. Mails are not responded to. Do not use this company!

DO NOT BUY INTERNATIONAL. I requested via email confirmation that my international order would have tracking #. They reassured me that all shipment has tracking. Then made my purchase and never received a tracking number and despite paying more money for shipping than the book itself, Abe books refuse to give me tracking # or any proof of shipping my book, or inform me which courrier they use. It's been now 21 days, still no proof my book was sent. DO NOT BUY INTERNATIONAL . I request refund for failure to provide evidence. No refund.

Ordered. Tracking provided. Never received then went to check tracking at it was invalid because shipper didn't receive item. Abe Books will do nothing to help you and you have to contact the seller directly and they will do nothing as well. It's a scam.

I had a very unsatisfactory experience with this company. I placed an order on the evening of February 13. When I checked my email the next morning, I noticed that my credit card was charged four times for the merchandise. In my more than 50 years of having a credit card, I never had such an experience. (The credit card company later removed the duplicate charges).

Nevertheless, I immediately tried to cancel the order. That's when I found out that this outfit has no customer service phone number. As such,I navigated through their rather cumbersome "customer help" process to stop the transaction. Shortly thereafter, I received an email from the actual book seller, the proprietor of Abacus Book Shop, who I found to be both arrogant and condescending. I made him fully aware of my desire to cancel the order. However, my credit card was charged for the merchandise, thereby, requiring me to file a dispute. This has been one aggrevating transaction!!

Sellers for Abe Books use OSM, a carrier that takes FOREVER to move the package through their network. Once shipped the order typically takes 2 full weeks to arrive. Abe Books and their sellers respond to inquiries with one size fits all answers that do not help one bit.

1.7 stars. That figures. The website repeatedly showed me groups of pics. Id get one correct just to have to get yet another correct. Again & again! Gave up! Lost a sale! Fix your website!

I ordered a book last June, to be delivered to a Swedish address, and it still hasn't arrived.
Just try finding an address/phone number to complain to on this site!
Impossible!

Abe books has saved me so much money, helping me find great primary and secondary sources for research while building my own library. I'm fine with books being used, or slightly marked up. And at least in the US, shipping and honesty of sellers has not been a problem for me.

USPS has been "awaiting item" for over a month. Three efforts to contact seller (Half Price Books) failed. Abe Books refused (via automatic reply) to initiate refund saying "the seller says it shipped, so talk to them". No way to contact Abe Books, no way to get refund, no book, and I am out $15. Lesson learned: never buy through Abe Books

I had a very unpleasant experience using AbeBooks. I found a product advertised through AbeBooks on Google and purchased it for $300. Two weeks later, I received a completely different item that was in no way related to what I had ordered and paid for.
It took numerous attempts to contact the third-party seller, Pages of Boston, to resolve the mistake on their end. After nearly two months, I finally received a return shipping label. However, I was later informed that the book did not arrive back to Pages of Boston in satisfactory condition. As a result, AbeBooks did not issue a refund of my $300, and I was not allowed to keep the incorrect book that had been sent to me.

This entire experience was a complete nightmare and a significant waste of my time, energy, and money. I will not be using Abebooks again.

"I have ordered over 35 books from AbeBooks so far, and I couldn’t be more satisfied. The customer service is consistently professional, kind, and incredibly helpful. Every time I reach out, I receive a warm and personal response that makes me feel valued as a customer. Their dedication to maintaining such high standards is truly impressive. Highly recommended for any book lover looking for reliability and great service!"

Do NOT use this company! NO Customer Service to speak of, and no way to get a hold of anyone at Abebooks. They have the wrong address for me, even though it shows the correct one u der my name. So, my orders go to the wrong address. It is beyond frustrating and inexcusable that they do not fix this issue, or even let you contact them to let them know there is an issue.

Abe Books is a terrible system. You can no rate the sellers for lying about the book condition. If you request a refund they want you to mail it back, even though the seller did not describe the book properly. It is 100% hit or miss if you will get something in the condition it's labeled, and there is nothing you can do about it... Buy books elsewhere, where they protect the buyer.

Terrible service
I have been chasing them for weeks for a refund but they just sent a generic email.
Avoid!

Ordered twice at two different sellers. Paid already more than normal British postage rate for getting book shipped to Nethrrlands and, after placing order got request for additional shippibg fees for over EUR 23 each order. Order got cancelled by seller when I did not want to pay. it is a malicious and misleading practice to raise the profits, with already normal book prices. Bad thing AbeBooks doesn't check on that, which could be quite easy built in

Avoid this lot at all costs- ordered a book early January, tracking number doesn’t exist, approached Abebooks- delivery date hasn’t passed yet can’t refund- delivery date now passed - Abebooks “ seller has issued a tracking number( not a valid one) so it must be sent , contact seller - so if you want to throw money away on books that won’t arrive with a company that couldn’t care less Abebooks are the ones to deal with, if not use someone else.

Wish I had researched this company before I purchased any books, but at least I did not spend a lot of money. I ordered two childrens' books. One was cancelled because it was not in stock and they did refund my money for that one. The second one was a different book than the one I ordered, same author, different book. Requesting a refund is easy, but as others stated, you have to pay to send the book back and no guarantee the refund will be given. Customer service is a joke, again as other stated, as Joe Walsh leave a message, maybe I'll call.

I had a troubling experience with a stolen book, marking the fourth time this has happened to me as a self-publisher. My author name is Dorina Roua, although it is sometimes altered in metadata to "Roua, Dorina" by various publishers.

Currently, AbeBooks is selling my stolen book titled "Home Visit Best Practices: An Essential Guide for Social Workers and Care Professionals (Second Edition)," which was published with IngramSpark on June 26, 2025. On that very same day, my book was stolen and listed for sale on AbeBooks, where it is still today.

Despite my attempts to have the book removed, Nieseniq cancelled the ISBN and title, yet the company continues to profit from my stolen work. It is incredibly disheartening to see my work being sold for the benefit of third parties. The book is priced very high, and my royalties total £0.00.

I encourage readers to think twice before purchasing books from this company. It is crucial to protect authors' rights, as buying stolen materials only perpetuates unethical practices and encourages the exploitation of their work.

We have purchased books from a ebooks sellers for decades. In general I would say we would give it 4-5. Books that didn't come but charge removed, books that shipping took longer. Otherwise great experience; I was looking at body in the library and my husband thought he would surprise me, but I had purchased the book and we discovered it before the book arrived; we immediately contacted manor Collectables, but didn't hear back and they refused to take back an $1100 book; we said we would return it overnight by fedex, but they refused. We could have paid additional handling but no; this just bad by practice. The fact that after 20 years abebooks doesn't think it needs to intervene is sad. Avoid manor collectables, not reputable