Zooba Offers Books for a Flat Cost and No Shipping Charges
Written: Jun 29 '06 (Updated Oct 24 '06)
| Ease of Ordering: |
 |
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
|
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
|
|
|
| Full Review |
I have been a member of many book clubs and I often quit and rejoin the same club over and over again in order to get the lowest overall cost for the greatest number of books. Traditional clubs have treated me well but there is one book club that operates in a different manner and could suit the needs to some readers better than the usual club. It is called Zooba.com, a web site for book lovers.
What Does This Web Site Offer?:
Zooba is exclusively a place to buy books. The site sells books in all different categories, both hardcover and paperback. There are no audio books sold here or anything else. This is strictly a site for purchasing books.
How Does This Service Work?:
Purchasing from Zooba requires establishing a membership first. Setting up a membership is as easy as inputting your e-mail address and creating a password, then adding your billing information and creating a book list. This list is built by the member and it does take a little time. What you must do is browse through the site and the different categories and select books you would like to purchase. Each month, Zooba will ship the next book on your list to you and will charge your credit card for $9.95. It is important that you keep this list updated and make sure it doesn’t empty out completely. If it does, you will still be charged the usual $9.95 regardless (don’t worry if this happens- the people at Zooba are understanding and they will ship you a book as soon as you logon and select one provided you do this within 30 days).
Zooba does require a small agreement for new members. The site requires that you purchase three books before you can cancel your membership. You can cancel immediately and ship back your first book if you’re not completely satisfied. But once the first book has been accepted, you are obligated to purchase two more.
Pricing/Shipping:
Zooba charges a flat rate of $9.95 for all books. It doesn’t matter what the actual retail price is or whether or not the book is old or new. The price is the same for everything, making it easy to shop and easy to pay from a financial perspective.
Zooba doesn’t charge any additional money for shipping. The $9.95 price includes the cost of getting the book to your house. There is no sales tax either unless you live in New York, Pennsylvania, or Indiana. The accepted methods of payment are Visa, Mastercard, and Discover.
Final Thoughts:
Zooba is a good alternative for book buyers and it’s one of several services I have used to purchase books. Among all of my internet purchases, books are the item I purchase more than any other and I have been a member of every book club known to mankind at one time. I found out about Zooba from Mypoints.com and decided one day that it was worth checking into, just to see if Zooba could save me some additional money on my most frequently purchased on- line merchandise.
Several things about Zooba make it a good alternative to traditional book clubs. One thing I like is the fact that there is no unwanted “selection of the month” to deal with. Most everyone who has been a book club member has had problems with the selection of the month; specifically, getting a book you don’t want shipped to you because you forgot to return the card on time. Having the ability to go on- line and cancel the selection of the month has helped but it is still an annoyance. With Zooba, you don’t have a selection of the month to deal with because, well, every shipment is a selection of the month of your choosing. You will get a book shipped to you each month, yes. But it will be a book you want, taken directly from your list.
Another plus with Zooba is the flat, $9.95 cost. This is nice because you know that every order received is going to cost you exactly the same amount of money. And there is no shipping or tax to pay (unless you live in NY, PA, or IN), making this club an economical way to build your book library. You can buy more books anytime you want for the same flat cost. You can also cancel your membership after only three books are purchased, making the total cost of membership just $29.85- much less than the overall cost with other clubs. Traditional clubs offer usually four to six books up front for a low flat cost (usually 99 cents or so) plus shipping. Then, members are obligated to purchase at least three additional books (sometimes more) at regular club prices plus shipping. When everything is added up, traditional clubs will deliver a total of about eight books for a total cost of about $85 to $100 (assuming you purchase the minimum number of required books and then quit). So, as you can see, Zooba is slightly more economical overall.
Does Zooba have any disadvantages? Yes, there are a few. One is with the pricing. A flat rate of $9.95 is generally low and easily beats the prices charged by most other book sites, including both book club sites and general retailers like Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. But, this $9.95 rate isn’t always the lowest and this is especially true with paperback books. I have found some of the $9.95 paperback books in Zooba selling for the same price or less in general retail sites. Compared to traditional book clubs, however, Zooba almost always offers a better deal.
Another disadvantage with Zooba.com is the limited number of books for sale. The site does a decent job with its new release offerings but if there is an older title you would like to purchase, the odds are against finding it here, particularly if your older book is less well- known. Compared to other book clubs, the selection is comparable. But the disadvantage with Zooba is that it doesn’t offer links to purchase these books through an affiliate site. With other book clubs, I can search for an obscure title and still make a purchase via an affiliate relationship with another retailer. With Zooba, what you see in the site is what you get. Oh, and I have also experienced some frustration with Zooba running out of one or more of my selections. A book club, it would seem, should have enough copies to fulfill all orders or at least have the means to purchase more copies when the need arises.
Shipping with Zooba is free but it isn’t necessarily very speedy. It usually takes about 7 working days (1.5 weeks) to get a shipment. I have found that this doesn’t matter when the book is one of the automatic shipments from my reading list because this type of shipment is a surprise when it arrives in the mail (I’m usually not thinking about it or anticipating it) and the time between receiving books each month is consistent (30 days between each one). But the slower shipping could be a problem for those who place orders for individual books because it does take a little more time to get these shipments in the mail.
Zooba is owned and operated by the same people who bring you the Book of the Month Club- a club I have been a member of several times over the past fifteen years. I generally like Zooba but I’m not going to quit my other book clubs and become an exclusive Zooba shopper. Zooba is good for those who want to get books at a cheaper cost than most stores and for a consistent price. But traditional clubs offer a large number of books up- front and are still nice for those times when you want to get a large number of books more quickly for a minimal price.
Be Sure to Click the Links Below to Read More Reviews of Book- Related Web Sites:
Amazon.com
Barnes and Noble
Books- A- Million
Mystery Guild
Doubleday Book Club
Amazon Marketplace
Half.com
History Book Club
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Books
|
|
|
|
|
View Information
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.