Alibris

I'm completely dissatisfied with the way Alibris does business: I duly paid for a guidebook , which I need today, and for expedited delivery. The promised delivery date was April 9, otherwise I would not have placed my order with Alibris at all. The book has never been delivered. The advice from Alibris customer service is ridiculous, at best: they tell me to contact them after 30 more days of waiting. Also, they sent you, repeatedly, a whole bunch of boilerplate nonsense which has nothing to do with your case. When you ask them about where your order is they tell you you have to find and deal with their subcontractor, whereas you pay the money to Alibris.

Nobody needs a guidebook after returning from a trip, right? So I stopped the payment for this order because of non-delivery of merchandise, and asked Alibris to cancel the order.

I feel very bad about my experience with Alibris and I'll never deal with Alibris again.

Alibris has tempting prices, an easy site to navigate, and absolutely AWFUL customer service when something goes wrong. Frequently, the independent booksellers delay in shipping items, or announce the book is "unavailable" after you place an order. Alibris does not provide a way for customers to directly rate their sellers, so you can't depend on the Alibris ratings of individual sellers. Trying to get a refund is big trouble. Trying to convince them you never received a book when a seller has goofed up is an even bigger problem. It takes a minimum of three e-mails to their customer service to get a reply.

They have no customer service, as far as I can tell. I have sent somewhere between a dozen and two dozen emails regarding a lost shipment and have never heard anything back. Nothing. I repurchased the item(s) on Amazon and called it a learning experience.

They take a long time replying to your e-mails. Some sellers on the site will not reply to your e-mails at all. Some sellers will try to rip you off. You won't be able to get a refund from Alibris either. Don't trust their seller rating system, it is almost a scam to get you to buy something. Users can't rate the sellers, only the sellers can rate themselves. Usually they rate themselves as reliable sellers.

I love Alibris. I have ordered many times from this site and love it! Generally wide selection and what is not available today might be there next week! The prices are very reasonable and I have found the expected delivery date either right on the date or many times the books come even earlier. I would, and have, recommend this site to anyone. I love the recommended books when I search on a book or author. I have found some really great books that way. The one problem I did have with a book not shipped from an independent seller and the condition of another from the same seller was taken care of by Alibris promptly. They refunded my money after my email to then with no problem and it was credited to my card in just a couple of days.

I've been ordering books thru the net for the past 10 yrs, and my experience with my bookseller is nice. I get delivery within 2 weeks, and this is international shipping. I tried placing an order thru ALIBRIS since they had the book I was looking for, and at an attractive price. Well, I waited two weeks and my order was still pending. This is probably not the worst case, but it just simply discredits the seller, given the fact that they have competitors who do things more reliably. It is disappointing, especially when you can't even cancel the order, and try another seller who can do it better.

This is the worst on-line shopping experience i have had in my entire lifetime. I paid for expedited delivery, got deliveries in 14days after several emails. I returned the book 4 weeks ago and they still claim not to have received it therefore no refunds for me as of now. They are dubious.

I paid for a text book in new condition from seller pleasereadcommentsb4purchasing on Alibris and it arrived damaged (looked as if book was dropped on corners). Then, as I was going through the class the text book was for I realized that it was missing a whole chapter. The seller refunded my money for the text book but refused to respond to my requests for the shipping refund. In the end, I paid shipping to and from my house for a defective book. To add to that, a classmate of mine ordered her text book from a different seller (name unknown) using the unique ISBN number and received the wrong edition. Alibris would not refund her shipping costs either. She and I will never use Alibris again.

i ordered a book and it wasn't what was described on the website. i received the 7th edition of the book and what i wanted and what was shown was the 9th edition. i promptly sent it back and expected a full refund minus the shipping fee. but instead i received an email stating that my refund was denied. nowhere on their refund website does it state that a refund can be denied! i am very frustrated!

The day after ordering a textbook, I received an email stating the order has shipped. Seven days later, I contacted Alibris to find out the status of my expedited shipment, and they replied: "Thanks for writing in. I have gone through the status of your order, your order has been refunded in full due to OUT OF STOCK. If you have any query related payment please contact with Alibris Clients Services because payment related issue solely handle by them only." They never notified me that they did not have the textbook but were eager enough to charge my credit card the day of ordering. And, after ten days, they still have not refunded my credit card. I finally had to dispute the charge with the credit card company.

A formal complaint was filed with the BBB (Golden Gate & Northern California). And, as always, it may prove prudent to check with the Federal Trade Commission for possible violation of interstate trade laws of the Wheeler-Lea Amendment and the Robinson-Patman Act for deceptive online practices including false representation, deceptive advertising and selling claims.

Will I ever shop Alibris again: NOPE.

Do not be misled by Alibris's low prices. You get what you pay for. I ordered a book for a class, and I assumed it would arrive in a reasonable amount of time. Two weeks after receiving an email stating the book had been shipped, I still did not have my book. I contacted Alibris through email (they do not list a phone number), and they responded with a canned email that instructed me to wait 30 days from the date of shipping before making another complaint. After 30 days, I had yet to receive my book. Again, I contacted Alibris; and again, they provided no help. They claimed that this was not their fault. I doubt I will receive a refund. I feel like I have been robbed.

HORRIBLE. Paid 11.00 for expedited shipping, for in-stock books. They shipped on time, but 3 weeks later, no books. They have no phone#.

UPDATE: Received an auto-response email, saying wait 30 days before contacting them further, saying "it's rare, but sometimes the USPS encounters delays." I'd read many reviews and knew this delay wasn't "rare." I didn't like that they're trained to pin the blame on USPS. Also, how "rare" could it be if it happened to both my books, which shipped separately?

I wrote back to ask what $11 shipping method was used, and they responded saying they can't control the seller's delays (What?). Anyway, that wasn't the problem since other sellers weren't involved, and I didn't appreciate them again dodging blame. They also wrote "I understand the additional expense to receive your order quicker." Again, what? Glad they understand. I don't.

I wrote back to say their emails are negligent, that they're dodging blame, and to again request a shipping refund. This isn't about money, but it irks me that their shipping estimate dates are faulty and misleading. Though I doubt I'll receive a refund from Alibris, I hope they'll address this common problem.

Stick with Amazon!

Terrible company! I hope that people will stop buying from them until they take responsibility for their mistakes. First of all, they send me the WRONG book, and then I, YES I, have to send it back to them and I, YES I, have to pay for it, in order for them to refund me the money for the book (but not the shipping). So I pay for all the shipping, but I STILL don't get the right book....HOW THE HELL DOES THAT WORK??? Brutal. I hate online stores, especially this one!
I also could not contact them by phone, so I had to do it through email, which is even worse. Like who is running this thing?? Delivery speed was slow as well. What a headache... don't bother one second with this company.

SCAM!!! It's been 2 1/2 months. No book. 3 emails to customer service (that's a joke) no response. This is a theft ring. They should be arrested.

I need to say ALIBRIS.com is really bad. I ordered my book at their online bookstore, and they told me that I need to contact individual bookseller when I did not received my order book for 13 days!

It is SO ridiculous, maybe they can tell reader going to individual booksellers' website and buy book on these website. Furthermore, I can NOT find any contact phone number at its website.

In the viewpoint of service, Alibris.com is really NOT good. Amazon.com is much much better than Alibris.com