Barnes and Noble: beware EuroBooks and authorized sellers

B & N uses an authorized seller called "EuroBooks." At the point of sale, the B & N site falsely states that EuroBooks ships from Elk Grove Village, Illinois. It actually shipped my order from the UK through Germany. Placed order Dec. 10, arrived January 7, 4 weeks.

B & N also states that EuroBooks ships in 1-2 business days. It took at least 5 business days before my order was shipped.

I would never have ordered from this seller if I had been given truthful information about where from and when my book would be shipped.

EuroBooks is actually Paperbackshop, which is Books2Anywhere.com. See the very poor rating for Paperbackshop as a seller on Amazon, mostly based on slow shipping.

Moreover, though B & N asks for feedback on authorized sellers after each such sale, the feedback never appears. I was told over two weeks ago that it is being "collected" and will appear sometime in the future. No feedback on any seller has ever appeared on the site as far as I can tell. The site falsely states that feedback will appear in 24 hours.

I suggest avoiding B & N's used and out of print operation until they provide true information and good feedback on their sellers. Go to Amazon to see how it should be.

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I sure wish I had done my research before I used this seller. I purchased a book two weeks ago and haven't even received a tracking number. When I try to email the seller to inquire, I receive a mail delivery failure notice. At this point I don't know if I'll ever receive the book.

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Wow!!! is all I can say..I am glad to have done a bit of research before making my book purchase..I usually purchase my books on Amazon, but trying to save a few bucks, I thought I would attempt to bargain purchase. To my dismay I was surprised at the feedback. As many of you have done, I was going to make a purchase from paperback in Elk Grove village. I wanted it shipped to a neighboring suburb so I was convinced that the shpg time would be shorter since shipping I thought was local..Once I went to the Village website to see if the business was listed as operating out of the village I figured something was fraudulent. That is when I ran across this complaint site, and lo and behold it confirmed my suspicions. I guess it's back to amazon or the actual bookstore for me..

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I'm running into the very same problems and wish I had known about them beforehand. As a result, I will never do business with Barnes and Noble again. I was going to save a couple dollars over the sellers at Amazon. However, I have never had a problem with any of the Amazon online sellers with decent ratings. I guess I've learned my lesson!

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Slow shipping is the LEAST of their problems! I ordered a book for under $20, plus $4 shipping and received an email that it SHIPPED on 2/10/10. After TWO WEEKS, I began emailing B&N, who said it can take up to 14 business days, yadda yadda, and I should contact the seller, EURO BOOKS, which I did, 3 times, but never got a response.

Finally, after FIVE WEEKS I contacted B&N "Customer Service," told them I did NOT want to cancel the order, I just wanted to make sure it was still en route.

THEN, I received an email that my order was cancelled, money refunded. Period.

I sent an email to Euro Books (barnesandnoble AT BOOKS2ANYWHERE.COM)and, of course, received NO RESPONSE. Ditto, nothing from BARNES & NOBLE.

THEN, when I tried to order from other sites, I realized the prices for this book had tripled since I had ordered and PAID for it SIX WEEKS AGO!

Clearly, this is NOT your daddy's Barnes and Noble. I remember when they were a reputable company. THOSE WERE THE DAYS.

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Wish we had read this prior to ordering our daughter's textbook on December 31st. We finally received the book on January 25th. Like some of the others here, we were surprised to find that the book had shipped via Belgium rather than from the Illinois location as expected.

We went through Alibris and the website did not inform us that the company has a poor shipping history. In fact, the ratings were great. We only realized after the fact that the public does not actually do the ratings. Since you can't complain until 30 days after ordering and ratings are based on complaints, the high ratings may be inflated for many companies.

We did receive an email response to our complaint directly to Eurobooks. The email stated our book was shipped on January 8th. The website clearly listed our book as shipped on January 4th. When asked in email if they typically mark items as shipped four days prior to actually shipping them, the customer service representative ignored the question. They did say they would give a refund if we had to purchase the textbook elsewhere but we would have to ship back at our expense. After what I read here, I was quite surprised to even receive a response from customer service. The representative who responded to us was actually quite pleasant although very vague.

So, lesson learned. No more books from Alibris because of their unclear policies, history of complaints, and bogus ratings system and no more books from Eurobooks unless we have a month to waste waiting.

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Thank you, for the information, unfortunatly I ordered a book from Eurobooks. However, I wouldn't suggest avoiding B&N's used and out of print operation, more often I've had a good experiance. I've order almost all of my text books from the used section for the last four years and only two or three books shipped longer than stated. On the other hand, everytime I've ordered books from Amazon new or used, they all taking two weeks or more to arrive. I would suggest using caution with a few, like A-1, I always look at the seller before I buy.

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I wish I had read these comments before placing my order. I ordered my son's textbooks on 12/18/2009 and they still have not arrived. I have sent numerous emails, but received no response.

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Thanks for the heads up, I almost ordered last minute xmas presents from paperbackshop because it appears they are only a few hours from where I want them shipped. Would've screwed the pooch on this one! Thanks again!

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Thanks for this complaint, I almost ordered a book today from paperback books in Elk Grove IL, but after reading these complaints I am not going to. Thanks again for posting this it is great to get this info!

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They sent me the wrong thing, and it is so much trouble to return to UK and hearing your feedback, I think I'll just donate it to the library and reorder from Amazon.

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Here, here. Ordered a book from Paper"crap"Shop, Elk Grove Village, IL. and have yet get a tracking number but the status shows that the book shipped. The received high ratings on Albris.com yet I have to wait 30 days for Albris does something about their shady seller.

Not a good look on either parties. First time ordering and will NEVER ORDER AGAIN.

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Hello,

I Wish this information was given to me before I ordered. I ordered 2 reference books for work and it appears, I will have to wait a very long time before I receive my order. I want order again !!!

Thank you for letting use know.

Ms. Just Waiting

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Thanks for the tip. I ordered a book from "paperbackshop.com" and it said it was being ships from IL. Apparently not and now its going on 3 weeks. This is ridiculous. I feel your frustration.

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I am an authorized seller on B&N (an honest one!). I just wanted to say that prior to about 12/2008, the feedback was accessible on the BN site; then it disappeared. I can still see my own feedback using a saved bookmark:

http://portal.barnesandnoble.com/profile/view.asp?stage=profilebuyerviewslrprofile&sel=BNAXXXXXXX

(where XXXXXXX is apparently my BN seller acct number).

But it is not visible from the normal site. I have no idea why; I've been wondering.