bookcloseouts.comReviews of bookcloseouts.com

I received a book that was heavily damaged in one corner (the dust jacket had two 1” tears and was crinkled up, the cover board was scrunched in, and the last 60 pages were folded up). It was a “bargain” book, not a “scratch and dent,” so it wasn’t supposed to have damage. I wanted to return the book for a refund (or exchange it if they were getting more in stock), but Book Outlet only offered a 50% refund since they didn’t think the damage warranted more. They said their books are always going to have additional shelf wear, and that most companies would not take liability for products that arrive damaged. There’s a big difference between normal shelf wear and actual damage, and I don’t know any companies that wouldn’t take full responsibility for not packing their products adequately for shipment. Seems disingenuous for a company to boast about the great condition of their books but then dismiss damage as “shelf wear” you should have expected. They offered a full credit for the book to my Book Outlet account after multiple messages, but by then I was fed up. They have cheap prices, but if they’re sending damaged books that have to be repurchased elsewhere at full price it means spending extra money and dealing with extra hassle.

I have purchased over $350 worth of books recently, and used many of the coupons I've saved from my recent orders. Upon receiving damaged items, I contacted the Book Outlet Customer Service. I was told that they would give me credits for the books that were damaged. Then, I received a message saying that because I had used multiple coupons, this would "need to be looked into". No response from customer service since then, as it appears I am being entirely ignored. While they were investigating my use of multiple coupons, they should've investigated their obvious lying about the condition of books on their site. Denying me a return/refund/credit for items that were NOT AS DESCRIBED is ridiculous. My family visits the Book Outlet retail store at least once a week (has been since it was literally opened), and I make many purchases myself. But my business will be going elsewhere, as will the rest of my family's, and all of my 5 star reviews will be changed to 1 star because this kind of behaviour is juvenile and uncalled for and I won't purchase from a company that can't own up to its own quality errors and instead tries to turn it around on the customer.

It can be a needle in a haystack to find a particular book here - very random selection. I had an unpleasant experience with an order - huge shipping overcharge, one book didn't arrive, and the customer service agent was unpleasant. Really turned me off to future orders.