Better World Books

I recently (late Jan 2019) ordered a specific title, third edition from Better World Books. Getting the third edition of this title was important to me, so I intentionally selected the BWB listing that indicated it was the third edition. The book I received, however, was the second edition. When I contacted BWB, they confirmed that I had been shipped the correct SKU /ISBN for the book listed. But, the listing was incorrect - it was a second edition, not the third. BWB's response, essentially, was "stinks to be you". They were "sorry I was disappointed" but not sorry for their error. They offered to refund my money, if *I* paid to return the book. I was not about to pay to return their mistake.

This item arrived, but it was wrapped in plastic!!! ... I also tried buying books from Better World Books months ago but it uses plastic in the mailing materials. Cardboard must be used, like they do in Germany and France and other countries that are aware that plastic does not go away from the planet. All plastic end in our oceans even when they are "recycled". I also wrote to Better World Books, this was on July. On July 10, 2017, Leah from Better World Books told me it could not be done the way I requested, unless I buy several books. But she thought it was ok to use plastic #4, which creates waste anyway. I tried explaining to her about the plastic issue, but she seemed to know nothing about it and ignored me by commenting on standard clerk-writing, which surprised me, coming from a clerk whose company claims is environment-friendly. For the plastic matter, she said: "For small orders, we use a number 4 recyclable plastic that form fits to the size of the book, and in effect, uses only the necessary amount of materials needed to enclose our items." Long after that, I tried buying piles of books, so they could use cardboard but for a reason never explained, they cancelled my paid order. They refunded the money, yes, but I didn't want my money, all I wanted was the 10 books I had ordered with such care as to fix the freaking box, not an easy task to do, when you have to track where the book inventory will come from. So my time was wasted. Having said this, I think the non-profit company must stand for its name, a better world, and using plastic in their mailing process is not the way to do it. Please fix the burden your business is putting on your planet and use cardboard for regular orders, it will make Better World Books bigger and will get higher credibility. I appreciate the space given to comment this. I hope you continue to improve yourself. I will keep on trying to support you. Thank you.

Admittedly, I've used BWB as a source for the purchase of some books for my online store. In the past, they've been very reliable with descriptions matching actual when-received products and if there were small problems, I'd photograph the item(s) and receive a quick reply and normal a no-questions refund. Now they've turned into the Comcast of online booksellers with misleading descriptions. For those reading about BWB hear for the first time, here is what they do. 1. They masquerade as having a charitable component so they can receive loads of books at little or no cost. 2. They overgrade books meaning that what you receive is often in poorer condition than they advertise. 3. They represent some books as "ex-library" yet many others that are "ex-library" are not described as such. 4. Even if you place a number of orders BWB will toss mixed orders into their thinly made cardboard books (which often need to be retaped by UPS/USPS along the way. 5. There are never invoices in any of the boxes. 6. They may ship parts of an order by UPS, another by USPS. The USPS orders are often without tracking info. 7. Their first layer "customer service." who is "Anny" most likely a robot operated by anyone who is working that terminal that day. 8. Their second layer is "Ana" and there's a question if this too is a real person. 9. They owed me more than $1300 in refunds mostly for books misrepresented for what that were including clearly damaged books. 10. I went "back and forth" a few times using the Northern IN BBB which itself was quite useless. 11. While BWB has a "liberal" return anything to us, what they don't say is that it's at the customer expense. My returns were (9) fifty pound boxes. 12. I broke down my books by order # created files for each order and listing each book and its deficiency. Yes, this IS a lot of work but getting anything from them hasn't been easy. They finally agreed to send 9 UPS box labels for return of their items---boxes that I as a 60 year man had to pack and purchase at Home Depot. 13. About a week after UPS picked them up, I received partial refund amounts for each order to my paypal account with no explanation. 14. Since this time, I've sent them messages concerning their method of calculation and what they were going to do. I have received no messages from them. As stated, I've received no help from the BBB in Fort Wayne, IN and my "representative" there Anna Anciani-Dutt. 15. To recover the transaction sales tax, I've been advised by Indiana Department of Revenue as follows: "If you have not received a refund of the sales tax from the retailer, you may file a claim for refund with the Department. The form is the GA-110L, which is found here: https://forms.in.gov/Download.aspx?id=7168. More information on the refund procedures may be found in Commissioner's Directive #13: http://www.in.gov/dor/reference/files/cd13.pdf." 16. Because this office of the BBB appears to be in bed with Better World, I'd advise skipping them and going directly to the State IG's Office which is my next step next week. Obvious after reading many of these comments BWBs hasn't chosen to single me out. Instead, they have morphed into the Comcast of online book selling. Biggest doesn't mean best and it would appear that whoever is pulling strings there now has not but contempt for those who purchase there including longtime purchasers such as myself.

i was a frequent buyer from betterworldbooks for years. at one point their value, customer service & standard of books was great but in time, i was sent more often than not books nowhere near the condition they were listed as - add to this deliveries that ALWAYS arrived later than the estimated period & a experiences with one staff member in particular who attempted to shift the blame to me (& dodge responsibility) despite my providing photographic evidence of poor condition of what was received. clearly, customers are NOT valued - only your MONEY is. on my final purchase for example, the inside covers (front & back) were stained dark yellow as if it had been pissed on! yet the book was listed as 'used-good'. disgusting... suffice to say, standards got horrible & i will not be returning as a customer. to sum up, many other online used book sellers do it better & the standard of the books is also much better. if you ARE a current buyer/customer, i urge you to check the the condition of the books you receive against their book condition standards - it's clear that they do not expect you to do this based on my experiences calling them out! avoid 'betterworldbooks'....

I've been waiting my order for more than a month and Better World Books refuses to refund me. They've kept changing the delivery date again and again (I've been choosing them over other seller because of the delivery dates) and ask me to wait until an undefined date to ask for refund. At the end of the day, I've lost 55$ and a lot of time dealing with their consumers' service. Oh, and by the way they were pretty unpleasant with me since they told me that, "[i]f this delivery time did not meet [my] needs, [I was] not obligated to place the order", which is inadmissible as they are unable to give me a delivery date ! I've made a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (I'm not the first!) and I hope I could get refund. Nevertheless, I've spent a lot of time demanding that the Internet Order Merchandise Rule be honoured, and time is money. Hope this review will help you, don't go with them, they are fraudster!

I ordered and paid for book from this company. Months later it still hadn't arrived (I assumed they'd sent it sea mail). When I contacted them, they told me - basically - "tough" and they weren't going to do anything about it. They did wish " have a nice day" however, so their email reply wasn't a complete waste of time. Order number 142212712

Bought a book on eBay. Three days later I'm told it's out of stock and to wait a couple days for a refund. I pointed out the obvious, and "Leah" responded by arguing semantics with me. No apology, but they cancelled the sale on eBay to avoid my feedback, so I'll leave it here. Not an ideal seller on multiple levels. Avoid if you're reading.

I bought a book that was described as a First Edition. It was not. In fact, it was the 11th printing. Very disappointing. It was supposed to be a gift for my nephew. I already had a copy so now it's going to Goodwill.

It has been avery good experience ever since i have become member.. i always find the book i desire and get it right away great..really

My books came wrinkled and water logged. The books could have been better packaged to avoid being exposed to the rain all day.

The book arrived so late I could not read it in time for my book club. Very disappointed.

They are using covid-19 as an excuse not to ship internationally.