ThriftBooks

My grandmother has been in isolation since March. She is an avid reader (I'm talking 5 books a week minimum) but can't visit the library at this time. I told her about ThriftBooks and made an order for her. Ever since she's been absolutely hooked! The price point is PERFECT for her (no more than $5 per book) and ThriftBooks always have the authors she loves. She tells all her friends about it. Since the beginning of May she's ordered about 25 books and they've all been very high quality. On top of bringing my grandmother immense joy, their customer service is PHENOMENAL. I was unaware that you could get points towards a free book until probably the third order or so. I emailed customer service to see if they could posthumously award points if I provided confirmation emails. They responded with in 6 hours and went ahead and put the points on for me, no effort on my end. Now my grandmother has credit for one free book and 391 points towards another. I could not give a more glowing review. We love you thriftbooks!

Ordered a book, Pet Semetary, book arrived with no dust jacket.

No where on the site did i see information that would let me know it was missing.

Asked to return and the site sent an email that showed an icon of a book beside the book title. This icon means that the book has no cover. How im supposed to know that... no information about icons on website, Also no icon when i look at the order myself.

So you have to purchase a book to find out if it may or may not have a dust jacket.

All in all, misleading information and not helpful website or staff

Example*

These pictures, harry potter book mentioned no dust jacket,

The Pet Semetary i purchased does not, how am i supposed to know that though?

I have used this site many times. I have always gotten what I ordered and I was happy with the price I paid. Then, I get a book I didn't order. The packing slip is for someone in another state. I can't reach anyone on the phone, so I email. I'm told I have to return this book with an original invoice, etc. Fine. But I have to pay to return a book I didn't order. What? So, I told them that this wasn't my fault and that I found this to be horrid service. I asked if ThriftBooks were going to send me the book I did order. I received a very lame reply that they can't send it to me now. They will reimburse me for the postage if I email them a receipt with the tracking number. Well my confidence in this going correctly is less than zero. I will never use this place again. Ever!

Ordered a book last month from them. Expected arrival date was the 1/1. It's over a week later, and nothing. The label was printed instantly, but it then took 4 days to be delivered to the first processing center, according to tracking information. There have been no further updates, after that. Also contacted the shipping service with the tracking number I was sent, and ThriftBooks emailed back saying that it was an untracked service.

Edit, as of 4/2

Reached out via email to ThriftBooks, to explain what was happening, a couple of days after posting my initial review. The person who responded to me looked into things, couldn't find any further details, and issued a refund within 24 hours. They also stated that were the book to show up, there was no need to pay again.

Then, on January 29th, 29 days after the estimated arrival, the book showed up in my letterbox.

So, great customer service has completely changed my opinions and feelings in regards to everything that's occurred.

4/5, due to slow delivery, poor packaging, and a tracking number for a book sent through an untracked service while I was given a tracking number. Would shop again, and recommend to others, but only if you're not in a hurry.

Thriftbooks was easily the best American seller for us living outside the USA.
Their prices were unbeatable & shipping cost was $5, no matter the size/ weight of the book.
Now, ThriftBooks have changed for International orders

I was charged $30 only for delivery!
That means I would also have to pay my country's Import Taxes.

Only a couple of months ago I would pay for my order $15 (with shipping included!)...
Now that price has risen to $55 for the same $10-book.
So, no more Thriftbooks for us International buyers

I am deeply sorry for losing this great seller.
But if you are American or don't mind the new high International shipping rates, go for it!
Their customer service is great and they will issue a refund if your order arrives in a not-as-advertised condition.
Their book prices are phenomenal!

I have been buying books from Thrift Books now for ~ 18 months, to date 378 books to be exact. ThriftBooks have great books, and I lover their website, but their customer service is horrible. They recently deactivated my account. Why? Because I have rejected too many books for quality reasons. The majority of quality complaints are that they send library books not sold as library books. The second reason is that they send paperback books sold as hardbacks.
So, when they can easily check that the book in question is a library book or not a hard back book, why would they still send the book, and why would they be upset that I complained about it?
Remind you of any dinosaurs that went extinct due to poor customer relations?
So, if you want to buy from Thrift Books, be aware that you better accept whatever they send you, because if you complain about more than 20% of your purchases you are too costly for them to do business with.
Yeah, not one word about sorry we sent the wrong books and we are fixing that problem, just a my way or the byway attitude.

I originally ordered a whole set of magic tree house books. 18 paperback books. I paid $45 for the set which was a very reasonable price. I received my order today which took a bit longer than usual. When I received my order it was not what I purchase. I only received one of the 18 books. Customer was friendly and helpful so for that I'm grateful. However, I was informed that it was a barcode label error. I was then told that ThriftBooks no longer had the whole set that I ordered and that they were only able to send single books instead of the set. I explained to her that it was supposed to be a Christmas gift and she then offered a full refund. I took the refund and shopped elsewhere for my purchase.

Their books do not come in the condition listed. Even if you choose "like new", you may get a torn, water damaged, moldy book. ThriftBooks are overpriced and have virtually no customer service. You can email them, but they have no phone number. All of their responses are automated, do not expect to have a live conversation with anyone, ever! If you read their reviews on Trustpilot they look like a great company, but try looking up their one and two star reviews to get a better idea of how they actually work. I was a loyal customer for a year, and order a lot of books, but their company has swiftly declined.

I ordered 6 books using the "summersale" coupon code, I placed the order and it took a really long time to load. Then it didn't give me a confirmation page or anything, it just kicked me back to the main page. All of the items were still in my cart, so I became skeptical. I went to my account and there was my order number, but it said "# OF ITEMS: 0, STATUS: Pending, PRICE: $18.82." I immediately emailed them and asked about this, about five minutes later, I go back to my orders and there's nothing there! I just checked my back account and the money is taken but it's still pending. I don't know what to do now, since I can't find any other way to contact these fools.

I was the victim of the recent postal service NON delivery debacle especially packages. This book ("Human Capital") was supposed to be delivered (so ThriftBooks said via their Informed Delivery service) LAST Friday. So I signed up for tracking alerts and the first email said this Thursday for delivery of the book. Then a second email said Tuesday (when it FINALLY arrived! And because I set up tracking alerts, now MAIL itself is NOT being delivered to my house as well as packages) I contacted ThriftBooks. Very prompt in apologizing for late delivery of the book (again, no fault of theirs; it's the post office that REFUSES to do their job timely or at all!), and they issued a refund. Plus I didn't have to pay even if the book arrived. I'm not a person who lies or cheats or looks for a handout. Since the book arrived, I resubmitted payment and let them know the check was in the mail. I guess I surprised them. This is a company who not only cares about their customers, but they want to make things right for them as well. A VERY gracious, friendly understanding book company! And those prices can't be beat either! Books are in very good condition for used.

Here is what I just sent them,

Tuesday September 7th 2021
Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada

Hi there!

I received the book "Bringing Up Boys" by James Dobson with the jacket of the book thgat I thought I would receive and that I had ordered with is "Chaka Khan - Through The Fire". I doubt that you do have Chaka Khan's book in stock, so I'm asking you to please fully refund me via Pay Pal.

Thanks.

Sylvie Groleau
160 rue Ouimet 2
Trois-Rivières
(Qc)
G8T 6E1

Note: If I do not hear from within the next 10 business days, I'll make a claim to Pay Pal.

I can return the book to Thriftbooks if you want, I really do not know this book at all. I wanted Chaka Khan's memoirs. Nothing else

I recently started purchasing books from ThriftBooks.com in an effort to support small businesses. I recently purchased 10 or so children's books, by a favorite author, that I heard was no longer going to be published. I wanted to be able to share them with my grandkids. A couple of days after making my purchase, but before the books had shipped, the value on 2 of the books I had purchased drastically increased and I received an email and refund from ThriftBooks, informing me that ThriftBooks made a mistake and did not have the books I had purchased. Because I know their website automatically updates, when a book is purchased, is obvious that they took back the books I had purchased because they could make more money from someone else. This is completely unethical. I will never buy from them again. So much for trying to help out the little guy.

Ordered a book from them. Got here in fine time, and "correct" book was received but... wrong *edition*. So... kinda entirely wrong book. So buyer beware, you need to check the very very fine print to ensure that what you're getting is the correct book AND edition, as ThriftBooks lump all of them into the same entry, and don't split seperate editions into their own entry.
Edit: within 10 minutes of me contacting customer response, they completely resolved my issue. So, the caveat above still stands, but also know that they are on top of things, and you really do just need to be Very Discerning. But, for the prices available, you could stand to save a lot of money if all it means is inspecting your purchase for an extra 30 seconds. I will be checking thriftbooks.com again for whenever I need a hardcopy book. Just, I'll be a bit more cautious.

The site's quality ratings are extremely unreliable. I have ordered "books" titled acceptable or good and they're far from it. Six of the books I ordered were excessively written in or damaged. A lot of the books look like you're purchasing one with a new cover. However, the book that comes in the mail has a cover from the 1990s. This is extremely frustrating as I'm trying to buy books to help build my classroom library. I don't want my students to have falling apart books from the 1990s.

There are higher quality and cheap books on this site. It's not worth gambling to see if you're actually going to get one of these books though. An in-person used bookstore would be a better choice than ordering from thrift books or just spending the extra money to go to B&N.

This site was at first very good, most of the books I received were not in the condition I purchased them at, but I wasn't keeping them so it was fine. I decided to try to build a collection of a series and most of the books I had to order 2-4 times to get the actual condition, asking for refunds for the mess ups. My account got suspended for asking for what ThriftBooks claim are one too many refunds.

Over 75% of the time the books are not in the advertised condition. You could order a Like New hardcover, and it will be missing it's dust jacket, be an ex-library book and have severe spinal damage, but if you request a refund for it, they'll hold you accountable for their mistake.

I have ordered books from Thrift Books quite a few times in the past and have always been pleased with their service. I've never had a problem with shipping or shipping times, with one exception. When one book never showed up, I contacted them and a a replacement was immediately sent.

Placed an order recently for 4 books, and received the customary note that I should expect them within 4-8 business days. No problem. The books were shipped immediately from Atlanta, GA and Dallas, TX. I live in Arkansas. After a few days I went to 'track your shipment' to see the status. Found out that both packages had been sent to Glendale Heights, IL and were still sitting there; not in a post office, but at a "USPS Shipping Partner?" This 'partner' is One Stop Mailing (OSM).

Did a search on OSM and read a number of horror stories: numerous people detailed how their packages (from various retailers, not specifically Thrift Books) had went to Glendale Heights, IL---and just sat! Some said that it was over 2 weeks before the packages were shipped from Illinois. I'm not certain what a 'shipping partner' is or what it does. I'm thinking that there must be some economical benefit to companies to use them, but it certainly escapes me how sending a book from Texas and Georgia to the Chicago area and then---hopefully?---sending it to me in Arkansas makes sense?

I'm sorry to see this happen. I've basically used Thrift Books to obtain missing volumes of mystery series that my local library doesn't have, and it's worked well. But as far as I'm concerned now, I won't even check TB any longer---unless I can opt out of OSM or something similar being involved. The USPS provides direct service from Dallas and Atlanta to Arkansas, but that must not be an option any longer?

I have been ordering books from Thriftbooks.com for several years now, and up until recently I just raved about the place to anyone who would listen- I even planned on buying gift cards for Christmas this year for friends and family who are readers and don't need 'new' to be thrilled with books. I really loved this site. And then... I ordered books that took 3 weeks to show up but only after I complained. ThriftBooks sent out a replacement order, I received 2 of the 4 books, one of which was in awful shape. I had ordered some more books thinking it had to be a fluke, a one time thing. Wrong. I still haven't received them. When I check tracking, it says, "Moving within the USPS System"... I have no clue where. Or when I'll get them, or IF I'll get them. However, no more ordering from this company. No gift cards for everyone. No bragging on how awesome they are anymore, because they aren't. If they changed their mailing parameters, or something? They need to change it back. My guess is, they did like so many companies do and changed things to make more money. Ah well, like a bad relationship it's time for me to move on. I won't use them again. Sad. I really did like them.

I think this whole company is a scam. I haven't even sold as many copies of JOURNEY OF A TEETOTALING VIRGIN as Thriftbooks claims to have in stock. And ThriftBooks are undercutting my $14.95 price and claiming they are "used" and "collectible." My book is so new that only my friends have bought so far. From reading readers' comments, I think they are only claiming to have books and will never send anything unless they happen to locate a used copy somewhere. But take it from me, they do not have ANY of the books I've sold so far. This is a total scam. It has to be. And the fact that many people give their money and never receive a book back at all proves it. Amazon should bar them from advertising. Feel free to contact Amazon and say so!

Ordered April and May 2021: Was nervous cause even though my mom & sister LOVE Thriftbooks, the online reviews weren't great. The prices are very enticing (though shipping to Canada can be pricey depending on what you order) and I ordered literally 12 books. 2 of them have come early and I couldn't be happier with them! I ordered "The Yellow Wallpaper" By Gilman in 'acceptable' and "Red Rising" by Pierce Brown in 'good' condition and ThriftBooks are in near perfect condition (especially the 'Yellow wallpaper'. No stains, rips, smells or other visible damage. These both came sooner than expected! Just know that since we're in the middle of COVID and postal services are used to the max, PLUS if you don't live in the USA, it might take longer than 2 weeks. These two came in 12 days I think. The first time I used the site, I ordered a book in the wrong edition by accident and quickly cancelled it. I think it's up to the seller whether or not they will cancel the order (depends on their policy --not entirely sure-). Anyway, the order was cancelled and the card was refunded promptly!
Very happy and am feeling optimistic/excited for my next orders. :)

I ordered a total of 6 hardcovered books, all very good or like new in quality. Only 3 books fit that description. One book arrived as a severely water damaged paperback (order summary conveniently doesn't state if what I purchased was hardcover or paperback), another 'very good' book arrived without its dust cover and instead had 2 very distinct water rings on the front cover! The final book has never arrived. I submitted 2 claims. One reply ThriftBooks said I'll get a new copy and the other said they were out and I'll get a refund instead since they no longer have the book. But I have no idea which book will be replaced and which will be refunded. They also left previous price tags on one book, showing that they bought the book from value village and then sold it to me for 70 cents more. Not my idea of a great gift that I thought I was getting.