CliveBear would not shop at Book Depository again.
Competitive prices but an terrible, malicious service team. Be warned!
As a research student, I have been purchasing from The Book Depository for a couple of years now. In that time I have purchased hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of goods from them. Every now and then I'd get a misprinted or damaged book, which I figured was fair enough considering their competitive prices. If the book was still legible, I wouldn't worry. If the error was bad enough to warrant a replacement, then I'd wait while they sent me out a new one.
Finally, a couple of months ago, when I received two of three books with damage, I decided to call them up on it. This time the damage wasn't bad enough that I couldn't use the books, only sufficient to make me wonder why I was paying full price for damaged goods. In my claim I mentioned that I wasn't interested in a replacement (their standard procedure), as it'd be a waste of paper, I'd have to wait for it to be shipped out, and in the end I'd be stuck with a couple of useless paperweights. Their service rep, a Mr. M*****d M***r, completely ignored my request, and responded by saying that they'd send out replacements. Feeling cheated, I reiterated my previous claim for a partial refund -- I was happy to only be refunded for the cost of one of the two damaged books. Mr. M***r immediately replied by saying that he'd cancelled the replacements and issued a refund for the single book. I figured that was satisfactory.
A couple of weeks flew by, and while I was doing some accounting I remembered the refund that was promised to me. I looked over my transaction history and it was no where to be seen. Furious, I contacted The Book Depository, and they told me that they'd processed it, but AbeBooks, through whom I'd placed the order, had not confirmed it. ("We've done it on our end!") This was an outright lie: to make sure that I wasn't cheated (again), I contacted AbeBooks, who said that they'd only just received the info for the refund on that day -- not a couple of weeks prior. In the end, after hours of accounting and drafting whiny emails, I was able to secure my $15 refund. Not at all worth my time.
Following the whole debacle, figuring that perhaps I'd just been unlucky enough to get a bad service rep, I decided to purchase a few more books from The Book Depository. Big mistake. In a single order of two books, both arrived with damage (one was severe, the spine had separated at the top). I thought "here we go...", and contacted them again. Over a week has elapsed and I have not received a reply. Now I'm left with damaged goods, and I can't help but wonder whether or not the damage was intentional, and what exactly it was that I did that was so horrible that I am no longer entitled to customer service -- not even a reply. Is it their policy to blacklist a customer who calls them out for neglecting to process a refund that they promised? Because that's exactly what happened.
I will not be ordering from The Book Depository again. Amazon also has competitive prices, sometimes a little bit more, but their customer service is fantastic -- well worth it in the long run. I have not enjoyed writing this long diatribe, but I figure that somebody has to warn other consumers about such a vindictive and incompetent service.
(I should specify that all of my problems encountered with the Book Depository were with services provided through their UK branch. I've seldom used their US service, but when I have, the packaging has been much better -- cardboard as compared to a thin satchel -- and I have not needed to contact their service team.)
You do know that Amazon owns Book Depository? So essentially you're getting different levels of service from the same people.
Emilyhoneybroo would not shop at Book Depository again.
Horrible customer service
i purchased a rather large quantity of books on the 11th September 2014, they were shipped out on the 16th September to the WRONG address.
i had typed in my correct new address, having 3 people with me at the time check since it was a new address and i wanted to be sure. on the 12 September i had to message them about a change of email address and requested the confirmation email be sent to me, i got no reply.
A month goes by and no books so i contact them to hear that they have been shipped to an old address of mine nearly an entire state away.
Ive been told to wait 5-10 weeks to even hear if the books do get returned and if they aren't bad luck.
i find this extremely unfair and was conversing with a Veronica from the book depository site about this when she wouldnt listen to my emails and has now been ignoring them.
I have contacted the post office in the area, the new renters of the home they sent the books too and have been told they never received any such books. i have been ripped off a large amount of money by them, after being a loyal customer for over 4 years and spending thousands with them yet they will not correct something they did wrong.
i find them unprofessional when it comes to handling these situations and will be taking further action against them if they continue to ignore my emails
This is the second time I've ordered with them and it was a totally positive experience both times. I ordered a couple of texts books for uni and found all of them for 40-60% less than recommended retail. The shipping took about 9 business days but was very reasonably priced considering they come from the UK. All three books were packaged well and came in perfect condition.
I ordered a number of books, but only a few have arrived so far. I don't like the fact that they're shipped separately, I'd much prefer to receive them all at the same time. Shipping is free, though.
The prices are lower than at any other bookstores I have purchased from.
One of my orders, The Man Without Qualities, arrived with a printing error. When I contacted the Book Depository about it, they only offered me a 50% refund.
Despite this, I would purchase here again, as the prices are very competitive.
I made a large purchase from the book depository of over 20 books. I got carried away with continual looking and due to the price I kept buying books. I could not find a better price or range on the net but the actual store can sometimes be hard to navigate. I purchased a large order but for some reason they came in individual parcels spread over about two weeks from the initial purchase. I found this odd and they did not provide any update of when I may receive other parcels. Overall the experience was good and I feel like I could trust the store.
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Finally, a couple of months ago, when I received two of three books with damage, I decided to call them up on it. This time the damage wasn't bad enough that I couldn't use the books, only sufficient to make me wonder why I was paying full price for damaged goods. In my claim I mentioned that I wasn't interested in a replacement (their standard procedure), as it'd be a waste of paper, I'd have to wait for it to be shipped out, and in the end I'd be stuck with a couple of useless paperweights. Their service rep, a Mr. M*****d M***r, completely ignored my request, and responded by saying that they'd send out replacements. Feeling cheated, I reiterated my previous claim for a partial refund -- I was happy to only be refunded for the cost of one of the two damaged books. Mr. M***r immediately replied by saying that he'd cancelled the replacements and issued a refund for the single book. I figured that was satisfactory.
A couple of weeks flew by, and while I was doing some accounting I remembered the refund that was promised to me. I looked over my transaction history and it was no where to be seen. Furious, I contacted The Book Depository, and they told me that they'd processed it, but AbeBooks, through whom I'd placed the order, had not confirmed it. ("We've done it on our end!") This was an outright lie: to make sure that I wasn't cheated (again), I contacted AbeBooks, who said that they'd only just received the info for the refund on that day -- not a couple of weeks prior. In the end, after hours of accounting and drafting whiny emails, I was able to secure my $15 refund. Not at all worth my time.
Following the whole debacle, figuring that perhaps I'd just been unlucky enough to get a bad service rep, I decided to purchase a few more books from The Book Depository. Big mistake. In a single order of two books, both arrived with damage (one was severe, the spine had separated at the top). I thought "here we go...", and contacted them again. Over a week has elapsed and I have not received a reply. Now I'm left with damaged goods, and I can't help but wonder whether or not the damage was intentional, and what exactly it was that I did that was so horrible that I am no longer entitled to customer service -- not even a reply. Is it their policy to blacklist a customer who calls them out for neglecting to process a refund that they promised? Because that's exactly what happened.
I will not be ordering from The Book Depository again. Amazon also has competitive prices, sometimes a little bit more, but their customer service is fantastic -- well worth it in the long run. I have not enjoyed writing this long diatribe, but I figure that somebody has to warn other consumers about such a vindictive and incompetent service.
(I should specify that all of my problems encountered with the Book Depository were with services provided through their UK branch. I've seldom used their US service, but when I have, the packaging has been much better -- cardboard as compared to a thin satchel -- and I have not needed to contact their service team.)