Book Buying Addicts Anonymous discussion

Question....who out there has ordered from the bookdepository.com? I see the shipping is free. It almost sounds too good to be true. Are there any hidden fees? Membership fees? I am a little skeptical because I ordered a book once from an unknown book website & paid $35 for a $10 book! Additionally, they were going to continue to rape my bank account for an ongoing $25 a month!

Dorsi, it may sound good too be true, but so far I have been nothing but satisfied with BookDepository. I've gotten some great deals from them, things like 50% off cover prices. Only thing about them is you don't know for sure when your book will be arriving, but my orders so far have arrived within a reasonable time frame. The only maybe bad thing I can think to say about this site is they are a book buying addict enabler, I've bought so many books from them I probably would not have bought if they weren't such great deals, amazing prices and no shipping costs.

Joseph, sounds right up my alley. Something else to feed my ever growing addiction! Thanks much for the info. Now you know I have to get on & start my purchasing!

oh yeah as I said on the other group about bd.com, IT ROCKS! it did sound too good to be true, but it's awesome!!! You will not regret it Dorsi!

I order very frequently from the UK website of the book depository. I have a lot of favorite authors that publish first in the UK and it can sometimes take a year for Amazon, B&N, or the USA book depository to carry the title. And yes, free delivery to the US also! The only problem I have had (in probably 100 orders) is in getting a refund for some merchandise I pre-ordered and never came in. They kept messing up refunding my credit card and eventually had to issue me a check which I still havent received (its been almost 6 months).....but I still order from them.

Has anyone noticed that since Jan. 1 a lot of their prices have gone up? There are several books that were 50% up through Dec. 31 but now they're only 10% off. Not good!

Looloo, yeah, I noticed some like that. But I also have seen others where the prices have dropped way down or just stayed the same. I don't think it is anything different than usual.

For the PNR and UF books I've been thinking about buying all of them have gone up in price. Thank goodness I ordered a couple on the 31st when they were still 50% off because now they are all just 10% off. I think I was looking at 10-12 in total and all have gone way up in price. Maybe it's just for those genres.

Looloo, it is a bit strange. Bone Magic is still %50 off but most of the other UF I fortunately did already order have really shot up in cost.

Hmmm.... I've only had the one experience with the bookdepository. Since then, I haven't seen any really great deals on anything that I've wanted on their website. Especially when I can always get 10% off at BAM. But, I have noticed a trend (or at least I think I have), of UF and PNR novels never being part of a sale, or the prices going up at the used bookstore. Maybe its due to the genre's continued to growth in popularity; great for book sellers and bad for us.

Well that's so not good to hear!!:(:(

I usually order from Aphrohead.com, which seems to be significantly cheaper than Bookdepository for most books. It also has free international shipping, and I receive all my orders very quickly, especially considering they're shipped from overseas. Customer service has also been exceptional, I have been given refunds with no fuss or questions (received a couple of books with slightly bent covers, most have been shipped in perfect condition).

I've just ordered my first book from the BookDepository, it's been 15 days and counting and I have yet to receive my order. Not the worst international shipment time I've had, but certainly far from the best.

To its credit, BD does seem to have a larger catalogue to choose from (which is why I ordered this particular book from there).

Arkadia wrote: "I usually order from Aphrohead.com, which seems to be significantly cheaper than Bookdepository for most books. It also has free international shipping, and I receive all my orders very quickly, es..."

I live in South Africa and Aphrohead even delivers free to us! (unbelievable really) Hubby and I have ordered lots and lots from them without any trouble. We love them! I will have to check out BookDepository now too - have not heard of them yet.

I order from bookdepository.com all the time, but I did notice that some of the prices have gone up. I'll have to try aphrohead.com to see what's going on over there. I like free shipping! ;)

I have ordered quite a few books from bookdepository. I have been very satisfied with them. They often have new releases for 50% off. Get them while you can, the price will change without notice. If there is a book I want, I just keep checking til I see it on sale.

I hadn't heard of aphrohead. Looking at it now, all the prices are in pounds. I don't see an easy way of converting to dollars on site. I also don't see the paypal logo. Too complicated for me, I'll stick with bd.

I got [image error] this week from bd. Waiting on

Anne - I just ordered the new Larrisa Ione book from there yesterday. Can't wait!

Looloo Ican't wait for the new one either! im so getting it the day it comes out. I miss the boys.

Joseph wrote: "Looloo, it is a bit strange. Bone Magic is still %50 off but most of the other UF I fortunately did already order have really shot up in cost."

OMG ... A new website (to me) and the book I'm wanting at 50% off! Thanks for the info! I don't know if this a good thing or a bad thing for me. LOL

Audrey wrote: "Joseph wrote: "Looloo, it is a bit strange. Bone Magic is still %50 off but most of the other UF I fortunately did already order have really shot up in cost."

OMG ... A new website (to me) and the book I wanting at 50% off! Thanks for the info! I don't know if this a good thing or a bad thing for me. LOL"

Hey Looloo! Look! We've corrupted another one! lol

Joseph wrote: "Audrey wrote: "Joseph wrote: "Looloo, it is a bit strange. Bone Magic is still %50 off but most of the other UF I fortunately did already order have really shot up in cost."

OMG..."

Doesn't take much to corrupt me it come to books! LOL

Hehehe! I knew I was good at something!

I love the Book Depository! I find they are a good source for Brit lit and other titles that are not yet available in the U.S. I just ordered the 3rd book in Stieg Larsson's series from them. There is one extra cost you may not have noticed and the last time I ordered from them was the first time I was charged for this....currency exchange from U.S. dollars to British pounds from my credit card company but the total cost was still waaaay lower than AmazonUK.

I also ordered some books from BookDepository for the first time on October 2010.
At early November, and while my books never arrived, they said that a full refund of 137.5 euros will appear in my account shortly.
Shortly became FOREVER, so at January 10 of 2011 after I managed to find aphone number of them at last(!!!),some representative called Lu reassured me that they would send a cheque shortly (AGAIN!).
Then on February 17 after I wrote them that if I don't get my cheque until the 25th, everyone on the web would hear my story, they replied that they would immediately contact their accounting department in order to send the cheque ....guess again....SHORTLY!
I really hope they will clear my issue eventually and save me from 137.5 euros of expenditure, which -believe me- in Greece especially is a large amount of money!

I'm very sorry to hear it. I can only guess how angry you must be.

Bookdepository has bad, bad customer service. I have been ordering from them since last May without fail. Since December however I have run twice into problem with them and they were extremely slow to act and failed to answer half of my emails in between. Lucky for me, the amount was small in both cases, and one even turned out to be a very late delivery (25 days) so no refund was finally needed. The other one was the purchase of an ebook, which of course, should be IMMEDIATELY delivered to my computer. When I demanded a refund a weel later after being unable to download it because of a technical problem of their own, they asked me to wait and wait, until they finally agreed to give me back my money 22 days (and many emails) later. Guess what amount it was? 3.49 euros!
It's ridiculous to even make a fuss about such an amount, especially since it did not involve a real book, so they didn't spend money sending it to me or anything!!!

I'm extremely unwilling since then to place orders for them that involve more than a book or two. For larger orders, I'd rather pay the premium with Amazon and know I can count on them for customer service, than to risk loosing my hard earned money.

Awe. dang...I'm real sorry both of you have had bad expereinces with BD :(

Steliosdr- Did you pay by cheque originally? Otherwise you could have contacted your credit card company about the problem and they might of been able to fight the cause for you.

In my own experience BD is good company to deal with but the books take a while to arrive in Tasmania,Australia. Usually up to 3 to 4 weeks I'll wait for my books.

I'd use Amazon if the shipping wasn't ungodly expensive. I remember it used to be a lot cheaper but now to order some books...It's horrible.

I have ordered many, many times from bookdepository over the last 3 years. For the first 2 years I had pretty much nothing bad to say about them other than that their packaging could have been better, especially when ordering multiple books at a time. I adopted a one-book-at-a-time ordering strategy (why not with the free shipping?) as their packaging was better that way (still, if you want fine/fine collectible hardcovers, then bookdepository--and any big bookstore--is not the way to go). However, in the last year or so here's what's happened with me and in general that makes bookdepository less attractive:
1) As mentioned by others, prices that were in the 47%-51% off range on many pre-order books have dropped to around 25% off (sometimes a little higher)--still not bad when the free shipping is taken into account, but not as good as it was, generally.
2) In the last 6 months or so, bookdepository has begun enforcing market restrictions (set by publishers, apparently) on certain books that will be released earlier in the UK than in the USA (or even simultaneously with the USA). Where I could previously pre-order the UK books by authors such as Philip Kerr, Jo Nesbo or Steven Erikson (just a few examples), I and everyone else in the USA now get a "notify me" message on those books, because the publishers in the USA do not want people to go overseas and damage their domestic sales (from what I've been able to gather via internet searches on the topic); this is apparently a common practice (many Australians are pretty pissed about it, too). I have confirmed that bookdepository screens the books based upon the location of one's IP address as I used a free UK proxy server to log in to bookdepository and, sure enough, the books that I couldn't get were readily orderable to the "disguised" UK IP address. Now, the part that really frustrates me is that all these books can be pre-ordered from Amazon.UK with no problem--other than that you'll have to pay the shipping cost, which can sometimes be more than the book itself, so I've just gone back to paying more from independent bookstores where I know the book will be fine/fine condition (and I can often get the books autographed, to boot). Why it's okay to order from Amazon.UK and/or independent booksellers (but not bookdepository) is anyone's guess; I haven't been able to get a straight answer from anyone.
3) Regarding the delays in shipping, this is not bookdepository's fault, or Amazon's (took 32 days to get a book to me last month) or any other overseas bookseller. It is the fault of Homeland Security, which has now imposed restrictions on what types of packages can be shipped on commercial airlines (previously the favored method for most foreign bookstores). Thus, many packages now have to go via ship or cargo plane, which is significantly slower (for more information, do a search for the notice from the UK Royal Mail that came out a few months ago explaining the whole thing). Orders that used to take 6-10 business days now take a month or more to show up (if they show up).

Just looked for the three newest hardcovers from Philip Kerr (Field Grey), Jo Nesbo (The Leopard) and Steven Erikson (The Crippled God) on Aphrohead.com (had never heard of the site, so thanks for that whoever mentioned it first, above), and not one of the books came up on the search (checked by author and title). Thus, while some more research may be needed, I think Aphrohead.com may be doing the market restriction thing, too.

Love BD, but found a new site: www.betterworldbooks.com: no shipping to Switzerland anyway:-D and used books, so cheaper! Verrrrry bad for my wallet though!

Thanks to this group, I now know about bookdepository.com and have madce 2 orders already. Man, some of the books you can get really cheap! I bought Hamlet for .99!! that's crazy!

Also, I'm super SUPER excited to be ordering more books :)

I have a HUGE complaint about the book depository. Their costumer service refused to take me seriously.
I'm living in Brazil. Shipping time is "up to working 15 days".
After 20 working days, the book I was eagerly waiting for still hadn't come.
So I complained, and they offered me the choice between a new shipment "free of charge" - which would mean waiting another 15 working days to get the book without any compensation for the ridiculous delay - or a full refund, which would mean that, after about a month, I'd be back were I started. Again, no compensation.
I thought this was unfair, and let them know.
The "customer advisor" I talked to refused to acknowledge my complaint, she simply ignored my requests to register it.
I wrote the website about that and the next adviser only answered "I can confirm that a full refund has now been processed for this order". Again fully ignoring my complaint.
This is a terrible way to handle a customer. And not very smart. Writing "We apologize for the inconvenience and will endeavour to improve the service" or whatever would not have been so hard, and it would have already helped. I'm never buying there again.

Luan wrote: "I have a HUGE complaint about the book depository. Their costumer service refused to take me seriously.
I'm living in Brazil. Shipping time is "up to working 15 days".
After 20 working days, the bo..."

I'm from Chile and, even if they say 15 days, you have to include Customs house and local post service.

Here in Chile this two institutions delay the shipping (remember it's a free, non-certificated shipping) two weeks approx.

In other words, TBD says my book will arrive within 15 working days, but the average time of arrival to my very hands is around 1 month-1 1/2 month. If it's special season (like Christmas) the delivery may take up to two months.

PS: I use TBD since many months and I've bought many books. So I can confirm that with any doubts