Half Price Books Avis 93

Oh my goodness, what a rip off organization!

First they practically want you to donate your books (by the ridiculous deal they offer!)

Second they are inconsistent in their practice. Two years ago I was super motivated to get rid of books because I was moving. They offered $25 for 35 great books over 35, then they asked me if I wanted them to recycle the other 40 books! I said yes.

Third, after offering the scam $25 for some 30 awesome books (some of which I purchased from them), I wanted to take back over 25 books they didn't choose. They said the $25 was for the whole deal!!!
What? You will give me $25 then keep the rejected books as well? YES. 😯
I told them no deal. I will go give them away instead. I packed up my boxes and left.

Fourth, customer service sucks when you start asking questions or challenging their business practice. They grew inpatient with tight faces and telling me to take my books back if I didn't accept their deal. Indeed so.

Wow, I guess you have to be desperately in need of some cash to let them dupe you.

Give in 6 Jjk books and some bible books and said they will give me 12.86 for all of them that’s enough to buy one Jjk book😡

Next time you're thinking about taking a load of books to HPB that you've spent time culling from your collection, maybe a life-long collection, packing up, hauling to the store then waiting for however long it takes them to look through your DONATION (to their inventory, because that's essentially what it is), remember that you are supplying their inventory and they are paying you practically NOTHING for your DONATION. I will NEVER darken their doors again. They really should be ashamed of themselves. Bad form, HPB, bad form.

UPDATE: They got back to me instantly after I messaged them on Facebook, saying my complaint email went to their spam box. They apologized profusely and mailed a gift card that was worth over 25% more than my purchased item. Issue resolved!

*** ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW

I emailed HPB's customer care on Tues., Apr. 14 at 7:11 PM Central about the following experience and have yet to receive a response despite following up on May 11 asking if my first email ever went through.

I ordered interstate delivery of a used copy of the board game Battle Sheep from one store to another. This game was in pristine condition, but they put insanely strong, circular tape on all 4 sides of the game lid to the box; when the cashier and I peeled them off, they tore off parts of the box art/paper with them despite our careful attempts. This hurts its value if I were to eventually give away the product in the far future. It cannot be resold nor even gifted.

This game was in MINT condition and their shipping tape destroyed the box. The cashier himself agreed with me that their shipping tape is too strong. I took multiple pictures of the damage and warned them about the tape they're using for delivery and they never responded. I just tried also reaching out to them on FB and will update this review if they ever reply.

I ordered a used book on Amazon from this seller and they canceled my order. The book was described as very good and the price was good as well compared to other seller. I suspect they canceled my order because they wanted to price it much higher like the other sellers. I remember bad sellers and will never do business with HPB again.

Should be overpriced crap not half price books worst resale vendor i have had the misfortune to purchase from. ordered an old game to play with my nephew came late and wouldnt play at all completly disapointing and if your selling books sell them anywhere else the give you nothing then turn around and sell it for twice what its worth

Half Price Books @ Fremont, CA are thieves and exploiters, who treat their workers terribly and offer terrible buy back deals and then reselling at inflated prices. It's better to go to the Catholic thrift shop or, better yet, everyday and seasonal library book sales.

They used to return any of the books you offered to sell if they were going to pay you zero for them. That was good. Now if you bring in books they say they only offer a bulk price. These are books, not pork bellies. People bring them in to sell them, not give them away. There are libraries closer to everyone for that. They used to put the books they weren't paying anything for in a pile and I would pick the ones I wanted to keep, and often times there were many I said I don't want, and as I said, that was good. All was right with the world. It seems to me that taking books and not paying anything for them is stealing, and that's what this new fangled so called bulk pricing does. I don't know about y'all, but if I go there it's to sell books, maybe to buy books, but certainly not to get my books stolen. Just my opinion.

But... if they are going to do that they should be upfront about it. They aren't. They wait until you spend a couple of hours waiting for their processing and then tell you. That's not right. But I suppose you can't expect thieves to be honest. Again, just my opinion.

I definitely will not be doing business with them anymore, and this is coming from a thirty year customer. And that my friends is not an opinion. That's a fact.

I recently visited Half Price Books intending to sell 14 books. Before going, I researched the used selling prices for 10 of those same titles at this store. The total resale value listed by the store for those 10 books alone was approximately $347.
I was therefore shocked when I was offered just $5 for all 14 books combined.
I understand that resale businesses need to make a profit, and I did not expect to receive the listed resale price. However, an offer this low feels unreasonable and lacks transparency. It gives the impression that customers are not being offered fair value for their items.
I would strongly encourage others to carefully consider their options and do their research before selling books here.

SCAM ARTISTS. Purchased many books through their website. Several books were horribly damaged and unreadable and several books were the wrong books entirely. The return policy seems legit, but when you attempt a return you realize there is NO return process at all and the customer has to pay for returns. Even after you ship a return, there is no response. You have to end up calling them and their response is "There's no one in the warehouse to receive your return and/or we didn't receive your return." This is a total SCAM! I ended up speaking to a "manager" who was beyond arrogant and condescending and basically blamed the customer for returning items and claimed there was no return sent. I had to open a dispute on these SCAMMERS! Never again! Avoid these SCAM ARTISTS. They are only out to steal your money!

I had over 55 DVDs, mostly new and still in the wrappings along with 35 music CDs, all in excellent condition and another bag of books which were in pristine condition and new as well. It was shocking to see that they allotted about 25 cents for each item when they turn around and make a 3,100% uplift! It was sickening and wrong to take advantage of people.

I ordered two books from HBP online; one was delivered and the other returned as undeliverable. They refunded pennies on the order, saying that's their policy. They never answered any questions. Stealing from customers is part of their business model.

Went to the Webster store to sell a Nautical collection, Leadership books and miscellaneous. Probably 100 books. When I got their offer of $9.10 I thought it was some kind of joke. I was right, the joke was on me. Don't bother going here unless you just want to donate.

At Humble TX store I found used books priced as high as new, trade-in offers that were pennies, and ordinary titles 'mislabeled' as 'collectible.' Half Price Books has lost its value. I can't recommend buying or selling here anymore.

Wish I could give them negative stars! Sent the wrong book, then took forever to accept return. I paid for return and have tracking that it was delivered to them and they still wont give refund. Not response from inquiries. It is HPB-Red in TX. DO NOT BUY FROM any HPB stores!!! Ridiculous!

I ordered a book online through Half Price Books and I never received it. It was marked as delivered by USPS, so they said they can't refund it for me. I went to USPS asking for help, and they said they can investigate what happened to the package but the refund would have to be provided by HPB. HPB is telling me they can't give me my money back even though the package was never delivered to me. Don't order from them, they will take your money regardless of whether you received their product or not.

I shipped a book as a gift but the book was not received. I contacted HPB and they said that since USPS delivered the book and gave me a tracking number that was the end of their responsibility. USPS says I can't file a claim with them because the book was shipped with no insurance. I don't think HPB cares at all about their customers. I won't ever buy from them again.

HPB lists books as hardcover and then ships paperback books. This has happened to me multiple times, because after a few years pass, I forget who the dishonest seller was. They systematically misrepresent the books and I have to pay the postage for the return!!!

Don't buy from them! They sent me damaged DVDs...acted like their product was of quality value. The DVDs were scratched to hell and the case was all broken up. They sent the DVDs in a damn plastic back for shipping. I would give them negative stars if I could, what a joke! They wanted me to return it like yeah waste my time and gas money, are you going to refund me for that?!

Brought 20+ books to half price books & they would only give me $1.18 . Will burn them for now on.