World Of Books

Anyone who buys used books through Amazon---as we do---beware. World Of Books USA is unlike any other of their sellers we’ve bought from.

Usually we get prompt service, and the books, if anything, are in better condition than described. Not this time.

We'd ordered “The Irish Heritage Cookbook” from them. They described it as “in excellent condition….the spine remains undamaged.”

First, we were never notified that the book had been shipped (usual practice when buying through Amazon). The book had not arrived after the last of the estimated delivery dates, and we reached out to the company via Amazons system. To no avail. World of Books, apparently, couldn’t be bothered responding.

A few days after the last estimated delivery date the book finally arrived. Whoever described it as being excellent either doesn’t know the rating criteria, is blind, or just plain stupid. The spine was badly broken, and, in fact, separated from the pages. And the whole book was warped into a severe curve. At best, we’d rate the condition as poor.

We buy a lot of used books through Amazon, and will continue to do so. Until now, we not had a single negative experience. But, we’ll never use World of Books again, and recommend that Foods of the World members shun them.

I've had great luck so far ordering used books from Amazon - only one problem out of many, many orders.

Thanks for posting this, Brook - I will keep this in mind, so as to avoid any troubles!

That's a problem with all net-ordered stuff, Marge. The shipping is as much, or more than, the item.

Seems to me the only ones who've truly benefitted from internet sales is UPS and its clones.

This is why I love having Powell's Books here, self-proclaimed largest independent book seller in the world. If they don't have it, or can't get it, it probably doesn't exist. Their main Portland location has almost 2 acres of book racks. I used to love taking a Saturday and going down then and just browsing through the stacks. 

Just a follow-up to show how bad the service is from these people.

Amazon says, when contacting vendors with a problem, to allow 24 hours for a response. It took them four days to even generate an automatic “we got your message” response. That was followed by an actual reply. After a lot of self-serving blather about how they want to satisfy every customer, the rep said that he’d put a replacement copy of the book on order, which should likely be shipped in 48 hours.

It’s now been two weeks since the book might have been shipped.
Was it? Who knows. Apparently, World of Books cannot be bothered communicating with its customers, even when (perhaps that’s especially when) there is an issue. Nary a word have I heard.

Did the book arrive? Don’t be silly.

So, as of now, it’s no book, no refund (which is what I had requested), no nothing.

Those people should be ashamed!

Well, like I said, Ron, the industry is full of used-book dealers who understand customer service. Obviously, Pastimebooks is one of them. And World of Books is not.

I notice, by the by, that World of Books now has that book listed, with the same description, but at half the price they charged me. So, not only can't they judge a book's condition, they don't seem to understand pricing either.