The Book Depository
Reviews and Complaints

I am a long-time Book Depository customer, and have spent hundreds if not thousands of EUR in orders over the last 4 years (and my wishlist being over 10 pages long, I intend to spend much more).

I have recently purchased books (order BDG-805-[protected]), which were paid for through PayPal, using my usual work address for delivery. Over a month later, the books still hadn't arrived, so I decided to contact the customer service team to get some information. When I wrote to enquire, I got a rude and unhelpful message saying that I had provided an incorrect address (i.e. the street part of the address was missing). I was further told that, as the error was mine, I'd have to wait 10 WEEKS for the books to return, and maybe get a refund or my books sent out again.

I sent proof that the address I provided was correct (the order went through PayPal who provided the delivery address), and that no part of it was missing, so seemingly the mistake in the address was made by Book Depository.

I was honestly thinking this would resolve the issue and prove me right. Instead, I received another, slightly less rude answer, but still telling me to wait 10 weeks until the books were returned. If the mistake was mine, I'd understand, but I made NO mistake, and the order was fully paid a month ago. Why should I have to wait? Why not just send me another set of books immediately, and YOU wait for the original set to be returned?

All this for a pathetic 14 EUR order; good thing I didn't go on one of my usual 100-plus EUR spending sprees. In any case, this would not have happened a couple of years ago when their customer service was really top class. Now, not only does it take ages for them to ship your orders, but they also treat customers like ###.

Book Depository, never forget that there are other online bookstores with free shipping, and that they'd surely be more than happy for me to buy my 10-page wishlist from them.

I recently ordered books from the website www.thebookdepository.com. After they charged my card, I haven’t received any confirmation email or the tracking number of my purchase. So now I have no idea where my order is. I sent them several messages through their website, but no response from them. Please leave comments about this website, because people should be aware when they deal with such irresponsive people.

"The Book Depository is awful store .

March 20th, morning, I ordered two books but while waiting for showing up order conformation site, something wrong happened ... over 5 minutes I waited but finally my PC was frozen. Later I ordered again.

I was afraid that I might order same books twice and asked customer support to make sure and cancel one order if there are double orders. Customer support just sent cancelation notification about order BDA-010-[protected] and never mentioned another order BDA-809-[protected] active.

I checked my order history and knew there was BDA-010-[protected] cancelled. Still now BDA-809-[protected] has nat came up in my order history,

Later I ordered same books at Amazon com (I live in California, USA).

Next morning, on 21th, I got notification about order BDA-809-[protected] and they said to me that ''Nineteenth fashion in detail' was dispatched (shipped ) and I could not cancel this ... I have to receive it and return it from SF USA to England. After they receive this, they will refund book fee on my credit card . Also they don't pay returning cost from SF, USA to England.

Many times I asked why this happened, why my order history can not show up order BDA-809-[protected], why I need to pay returning cost from USA to England even though I have no way to know order BDA-809-[protected], Customer support just said that they can not assist this case any more.

Also I read another review, same double order happened and he returned one book from Australia to England, it past 6 months, they continued to say ''they have not received it yet and they can not refund him". Finally he gave up collecting refund !

I am so afraid that same case will happen and I can not get refund about book at all.

I am still thinking that book Depository must pay refund book and returning cost from USA to England.

Customer support and this Book Depository was so awful !

I ordered several books in Nov/Dec 2012. All arrived on time but one was in German which I cannot read. I reported this to their customer service department and was directed to the full listing for the book which did state that it was in German. Based on that my request for a refund or exchange was denied.

The issue is that I had never seen the full listing of the book. I had searched the title, added it to my cart from the "top results" section and proceeded directly to checkout. No where in the "top results" section of a search is any information on the language of a book displayed, nor is it displayed at checkout. The only place that language information is displayed is on the full listing page for the book yet the site allows you to purchase from all the reduced information sections without warning.

This is clearly a fault on the Book Depository end as they are allowing customers to purchase books without providing vital information such as the language the book is printed in. So far their customer support has been unhelpful, when they do bother to reply. I don't hold much hope in seeing any satisfaction from them in this matter and will not be purchasing from them again.

This is my on-going saga with them: I had ordered a pre-order release of a book for USD6.74 which I paid for via Paypal. The book was scheduled to be released on 27 Nov 2012 so when 30 Nov rolled around with no news from them, I emailed [protected]@bookdepository.co.uk to enquire on the status of the book. On 1st Dec, someone from Book Depository emailed back and informed me they had successfully cancelled and refunded me as I had requested!There was no such thing, as I merely enquired on the status! Meanwhile I had received an automatic email notification that the book I had ordered had been released and was on its way to me.I quickly replied the customer service advisor, telling him/her NOT to cancel my order and refund me..I just want the book! But according to Book Dep, it was too late; the order had been cancelled and if I want the book I have to order it again! But the new price for the released book is USD8.02 so I asked whether they could honour the original USD6.74 since the mistake was theirs. Also, where was the USD6.74 gonna be refunded to i.e. my Paypal account or to my credit card attached to the Paypal account? I’m then told that their “service provider” is unable to refund me so they will send a cheque. BUT, a USD6.74 cheque will incur a loss for me after undergoing rate conversion and bank charges (I reside in Malaysia) so a cheque sent to me all the way from the UK (if it even arrives at all) is not feasible to me financially, so I request they just keep the USD6.74 and send me the book.And book depository cannot even do a simple thing like that! Why can’t they just take the USD6.74 which is already in their hands, and send me the book? Now I'm book-less with USD6.74 in their hands! They're like robbers!

I recently ordered four books from them. They give a promise of dispatching the books within 48 hours. I has been five days, and I had to contact them before they told me that there was problems with them receiving the products. So at the moment I am still waiting. Please do something about this, the Book Depository has shafted too many people.

On May 16 I paid for a pre-order (reference BDG-730-[protected]) of a book called"Rheumatology Secrets".
I was told on September 16 that the item was out of stock and that I would be given a refund.
Since I paid with a virtual credit card I was told that a cheque would be sent to the address I provided. No cheque arrived and I was told by my bank account manager that a cheque from an international bank would mean additional expenses (meaning more expenses than the value I paid).
So I informed Book Depository that I prefered:
1. transference of the amount directly to my bank account
or
2. transference of the money to another credit card
I was given the option of a voucher which I don´t want.
After so much time, I exchanged tons of emails with Book Depository assistants, which were always very sorry but didn´t seem to communicate between them and to understand and solve the problem.
I consider that:
It´s unacceptable that after more than 6 months after the purchase, I still haven´t been refund.
It´s unacceptable that I should have additional expenses for a procedure where I didn´t have any fault.
It´s unacceptable the lack of coordination between the assistants and the lack of efficacy in solving the problem.

I paid with cash and want to receive my refund in cash without additional expenses.
If Book Depository accepts payments with virtual cards they should also be able to do refunds in these cases without extra charges for the customers.

I have used Book Depository before and had never had reasons of complaint, except for this time: Book depository has kept my money from May 16 to present.

I don´t want to be given a voucher because I do not wish to by another book in the nearby future and I think I should have my money back without paying extra charges for it

I bought an eBook in PDF format from http://www.bookdepository.com/Rails-Antipatterns-Chad-Pytel/9780132654432 . After my purchase, I was not able to download a PDF file, only an XML file with a .acsm extension. The file I downloaded is a scant 1, 461 characters, and cannot reasonably be called "a 300+ page eBook". After the purchase, I was notified that I would need Adobe Digital Editions software to download and read my "PDF".

I specifically bought a PDF because I wanted an open, portable file format. I attempted to get a refund through The Book Depository's customer service channels, but I was notified that since I "already downloaded the item", they would not issue a refund.

I've opened a dispute with Paypal in an attempt to get my money back.

The Book Depository is guilty of a bait-and-switch. They sold me something other than what I thought I was buying, and refused to help me afterwards.

I ORDERED 4 BOOKS ON DECEMBER 3, 2010 THEY SENT ME CONFORMATIONAND TRACKING NUMBER THE STATUS SAYS SENT AS OF 6TH, 8TH AND 9TH OF DECEMBER. I RECIEVED 1 OF THE 4 BUT NO OTHERS HAVE COME. I EMAILED THEY RESPONDED BACK ONCE STATING THEY WILL B THERE SHORTLY BY ROYAL MAIL BUT THER IS A DELAY BECAUSE OF HIGHER SECURITY THRU MAIL. STILL TO THIS DAY DEC 29, 2010 NO OTHER BOOKS AND THEY WONT ANSWER EMAILS BACK AT ALL. I WANT MY MONEY BACK PLEASE!

i ordered 25 books, around 12 dec for xmas costing over 250 pounds and have not received one book, the took my money before they had even dispatched the books, and now the refuse to refund until they have investigated the matter, it seems they 250 pounds worth of books were posted out without and sort of tracking[seems very odd for such a large sum].