The Book Depository declining quality

DukeOfTheSharp

Since the amazon partnership, discounts have become sparse, and now it seems they've been increasing the RRP with the same percentage discounts - which mean nothing, since the prices have increased regardless. The removal of the cheaper .co.uk site to the more expensive .com site hasn't helped. I've also had my orders cancelled after I was emailed about re-stocks, only to discover that the price of the book had increased in the interim of about 2 days.

I've been tracking prices on my wishlist, and they always seem to increase the baseline RRP, at this point as much as 3-4 euro, with a dismal 'discount' price. On top of that, any paperback I order no longer comes in cardboard packaging, this has happened to often that I've gotten minor refunds and even replacements. To try and resolve this, I tried ordering in bulk, but they don't package anything but hardbacks in the cardboard. And the final thing I've noticed is the change in dispatch and delivery times - Irish dispatches can take up to 7 days (it used to be 3-4) and delivery after that makes it at least a week and a half to two weeks just to get the book. Has anyone else noticed this? And would anyone have any alternatives for decent online book retailers? At this point it feels like I'm paying for delivery with poor discounts, poor packaging and extra hassle.

Sam Mac

I've always found them excellent to deal with. Much cheaper than any book shops over here, and the free delivery on everything is great. Anything I've ordered has dispatched within 3 days and arrives in about 3-4 days usually.

DukeOfTheSharp

Sorry for the delay, it seems to be a random thing, I've had multiple occasions where I've had to call them up about damaged orders, in the last 5, exactly 3 have been in bad shape with some form of damage and the other two were hardbacks in the more heavy-duty packaging. I've been issued partial refunds and a full replacement, but I'm noticing that the prices aren't what they used to be, and that the emails about dispatch, from the last order, took about a week to be sent. Maybe that was during the pre-Christmas rush, but there seems to be something going on. On top of that, Amazon prices have become much cheaper, even through conversion, compared to them, so much so that I'm ordering off of amazon just for piece of mind.

Patty O Furniture

DukeOfTheSharp wrote: »

Sorry for the delay, it seems to be a random thing, I've had multiple occasions where I've had to call them up about damaged orders, in the last 5, exactly 3 have been in bad shape with some form of damage and the other two were hardbacks in the more heavy-duty packaging. I've been issued partial refunds and a full replacement, but I'm noticing that the prices aren't what they used to be, and that the emails about dispatch, from the last order, took about a week to be sent. Maybe that was during the pre-Christmas rush, but there seems to be something going on. On top of that, Amazon prices have become much cheaper, even through conversion, compared to them, so much so that I'm ordering off of amazon just for piece of mind.

I noticed a program over Christmas on CNN on AmazonUS, that it would start off with a partnership & then after a while, Amazon would then undercut them, the reason given, was that they could, from ex engineers who shared a few startling stories from Amazon & their time there.

Shocking on what they got upto :eek: