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philward

New Member
I just want to share an experience I have been enduring over the past month or so. I wanted to buy my sister a special birthday present and, as we play backgammon together, I decided I would get her Backgammon For Profit by Joe Dwek - it is something of a classic in its field. It has been out of print for some years now so hardback editions are quite tricky to come by and can be rather expensive. I was pleased when I found one on Biblio.com which was reasonably priced and so I ordered (and paid for) it straight away. That was when my difficulties began. When I made the purchase I was told the delivery would be made within 8-10 days. 5 weeks later (3 weeks after the birthday) the book has still not arrived. After 10 days I emailed Biblio.com to ask them when it would arrive and they suggested that I direct my enquiry to Allbooks.tv - the bookseller. I did so and was told by them


...we definitely sent the book out [...] sorry that your order got mixed up at the post office, hopefully the birthday present can still become a Christmas present [...] contact me if it doesn’t turn up in another 2 weeks and we’ll arrange a refund


After other attempts to contact Allbooks.tv without any success I went back to Biblio.com to try to either get my book or if not possible get a refund. They responded


...If you can not resolve this issue with the bookseller, your credit card
company can assist you with recovering the funds by issuing a chargeback...

I think that the service is attrocious - Biblio.com have refused to take any responsibility for the purchase I made through their company.

My advice is that if you want to buy a book, especially as a gift do not use Biblio.com! Judging from my experience of their service, I think that you will be fortunate if it turns up with a month. Beware! It may well not turn up at all.

Sorry for the ramble, I had to get it off my chest.

Does anybody have any suggestions of reliable websites or mailorder companies to buy secondhand books from?
 
I tend to use AbeBooks (US|UK) whenever I want a rare book.

Surely Biblio are only acting as a broker between you and the vendor, therefore it doesn't seem as if they are responsible. They no doubt have such a liability statement in their terms and conditions.
 
Sorry about the bad experience, not very customer friendly if you ask me. I can't sing Amazon's praises enough. They'll ship to someone for you, which is very convenient and is what I'm doing for this year's secret santa operation. Barnes & Noble has a great site, but they are more expensive.:eek:
 
Thank you for those recommendations - much appreciated. Stewart, I am certain that you are right, biblio will be competely covered by the small print in their contracts. I just think that it is a real shame that despite the fact that they obviously receive a commision from sales, they refuse to take any responsibility for the delivery of those books - or the vetting of sellers. [:-(
 
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