Comments on: Stop dreaming, publishers! The Book Depository is a long, long shot against Amazon

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:00:31 +0000

US Buyers be aware!

I bought a book from this seller “the_book_depository” through amazon market place; they advertised that the book was going to be shipped from Delaware, I live less than an hour away from Delware, that’s the reason why I ordered the book from them. It said also that it will ship in the next 2 days. Well after contacting the seller twice I found out that the book was shipped 5 days later, BUT FROM GLOUCESTER ENGLAND! and also the estimated delivery was almost a MONTH! Unless you don’t care about waiting for a month for your book, and if you dont care to do business with a liar, don’t buy from this people.

By: Stelios

Stelios — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 07:55:37 +0000

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!

By: Lola

Lola — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:32:47 +0000

If you see many positive reviews on Book Depository, it’s because they have staff to write them. Don’t trust those reviews.

By: Phil

Phil — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 07:28:50 +0000

The book depository is a godsend. I have ordered a few books (9) as is stands, some where i lived in the uk and now as i am in New Zealand (where books are REALLY expensive), i have since ordered more…service has been quite frankly awesome (managed somehow to get what should have been a NZ bound book sent to my UK address-my fault-and within a day of bringing this to their attention, got confirmation that it would be sent to my NZ address)…..
Do i check on amazon? Yes, but generally unless its much cheaper i wont even look at how much it costs to get it sent here to NZ….on the cost to the business, i imagine that there is ALOT of margin on quite a few books and since when has the costs of p&p from business ever been close to what it would cost an individual to send….always been a rip-off….and given that businesses like Amazon must get really good rates given the business they do….even more so…
Anyway long story short….i would heartily recommend them…currently enjoying my latest purchase that cost 20 pounds via book depository but would have cost (at least) double that in NZ!!!!

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:28:12 +0000

Similar story to Susanna’s – looking for a book on Amazon – found it in DE! Before xmas and needed for an early Jan b-day. No problem with USPS shipment from DE to PA. 4 wks after the purchase no book and no communication from either Amazon or the seller The Book Depository. Total displeasure. I will avoid and I will advise others to do so!

By: Susanna

Susanna — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:45:56 +0000

I tried the Book Depository this year. Their advertising was fraudulent. The book I ordered was said to be in the US in both Delaware and California and shipping was by UPS. When I got to checkout, all of a sudden the shipping was US mail. It was December 6, so I figured,ok, I’ll have it by Xmas if it is being mailed from Delaware. Here I am on December 22, and not a sign of it. Come to find out it was shipped from the UK! So it is probably sitting at Heathrow along with all the people who can’t get out. I had emailed them and asked where it was being shipped from and they were evasive until I persisted, and finally told me. If they had been honest from the beginning, I could have ordered from an outlet in the US, and had the present for Xmas. I will never buy from them again. Honest book outlets tell you up from where it is being shipped from, especially at Xmas. I cannot believe they are an Amazon bookseller!

By: dale carnegie

dale carnegie — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 17:13:40 +0000

The book depository started as an amazon marketplace seller, they since have been redirecting all the amazon traffic to their site by playing this “Free Shipping” trick.

By: Jay Henry

Jay Henry — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:55:22 +0000

Kelly- if you’re getting books that look like “good photocopies” they are probably being produced through Ingram’s UK print-on-demand facility (Lightning Source). Books are scanned, digitally stored, and reproduced on demand. If that’s the case, it would surprise me if the books were actually coming from the UK, because the same facilities exist here in the US and shipping into the US from the UK takes time and money…free shipping cannot last long, it’s just too expensive to accomplish.

Of course, the irony here is that Ingram is probably the single largest distributor of Amazon books…no difference in the back end, just where you place the order.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:44:26 +0000

I’ve been searching the net for info on the book depository and it’s mostly been positive except for a few comments on here. I’ve ordered about 8 books (from memory) from the book depository over the last year, and at least half of them on closer examination look like good photocopies. Is that possible? Even the covers look like colour photocopies with slightly lower quality than the same book from the library. Is it possible the book depository is photocopying and printing books for cheaper?

By: Carole

Carole — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:30:58 +0000

Frank, I wish I had read your post before I ordered. I am getting a very bad feeling and I keep getting the run around from The Book Depository. Now they are telling me their “shipment” was damamged so they are waiting on another order to dispatch my order. All the while, they have taken my money but no service. I would have rather paid for shipping with Amazon…at least I would have gotten my purchase.

By: Frank Mullen

Frank Mullen — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:53:22 +0000

I ordered one book from the Book Depository and it was a nightmare. It was a book by a popular American author and the advert said it would be shipped from Delaware, USA. It arrived late from the UK and was in German. They’ll take it back if I pay the freight and have their original bill of lading (thrown out before I discovered only the book cover was in English). These dweebs will never touch Amazon but it cost me $20 to find out they are crooks. Avoid these con men.

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:00:18 +0000

They’re in a dangerous business. Shipping to some of those destinations costs more than the profit they’re making on the book. This is OK as long as they get a mix of orders, and larger orders; but if everyone in the UK buys from Amazon and everyone on Ascension Island buys from The Book Depository, one book at a time…

I’ve put a link to them on the Snow Cow site, and I’ll see if any orders come through that way. And if they do, whether they pay us for the books!

By: Mike Perry

Mike Perry — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:15:29 +0000

Those with websites that include affiliate links to Amazon books might want to also sign up as a Book Depository affiliate. It pays a bit more, 5% rather than 4%. Even more important:

* It ships to some 90 countries via Royal Post priority mail. (Yes, people on Ascension Island can now order your books and get free shipping.) That makes it less hassle than patching together on your webpage a series of links to Amazon stores in a mere seven countries.

* The Book Depository pays affiliates on all sales. Signing up to get payments from Amazon stores outside the U.S. was so complicated, I gave up in despair. I’m so tired of giving Amazon a free ride on those links, I may just drop them and refer those outside the U.S. to The Book Depository.

* Their web pages are far less cluttered and confusing than Amazon’s.

Also The Book Depository seems to draw from the same book sources as Amazon as well as others. Some Adobe PDF books of mine that Amazon yanked several years ago when they bought BookSurge are displayed at The Book Depository. Given time, perhaps they will prove a more reliable and flexible source of ebooks than Amazon.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:54:54 +0000

Hey David. I don’t think anyone seriously believes that The Book Depository is going to suddenly topple Amazon At least not in the foreseeable future. But I think we should all be happy that an award-winning independent bookseller is growing. How often have we been able to say that in the last year (longer even)? And of course, a few years ago, nobody thought that a small online retailer in Seattle would be in the position it is now did they?

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:56:15 +0000

Liviu. Thanks for your impressions of The Book Depository, which are consistent with my impressions based on a tour of the site. David