Powell’s Books | The World’s Largest Independent Bookstore
Based on authentic user experiences
stephen
6737 reviews
N/A
1 year ago
at one point the site used to be really
at one point the site used to be really good - great friendly customer service excellent quality items reasonable prices what came next within the last year or so at least should i speculate whether this has been a blatant attempt to maintain maximum profits during covid standards COMPLETELY dropped items in such poor condition they would not even make a charity store being sent severely water damaged books at times books looking like a dog has eaten them books with loose pages binding books with significant creasing etc to make matters worse these books have usually been listed in their standard condition which appears to be akin to good or very good while they SHOULD VE been correctly listed as less than standard a condition the site claims to have refunds have been reluctantly grudgingly given in cases like this - seemingly with no genuine understanding of the inconvenience of then needing to source these same books elsewhere - which can be made infinitely harder if a rare book in fact customer service staff usually higher staff members such as ashley their customer care MANAGER attempt to remain tactful while coldly polite - without actual empathy understanding humanity - only profit motive wouldn t it be thought that a GENUINE HONEST ETHICAL business of ANY kind not only own up to their own slipped standards poor customer service but also adhere to THEIR guarantee listed prominently on their site no instead i had a newer order cancelled ALL blame put on me for the increase in refunded items not ONCE addressing the MASSIVE worrying drop in quality of items laughably i was told it s become clear that we re unable to meet your condition needs Due to this and the fact that such a high rate of refunds has become cost-prohibitive for us we re unable to continue shipping orders to you BIG problem is they don t even meet THEIR OWN condition standards - not specifically MINE here s their general condition that they claim to have follow Standard What does Standard condition mean at Powell s Books in good or better condition free of writing or other markings in the text with the possible exception of a previous owner s name in the front The great majority of the books in our stock fall into this category In short when a book is listed as Standard you can expect it to be a high quality copy All our new used and out-of-print books are in good reading condition guaranteed We recognize that ordering used books on the Web sight unseen requires trust If you ve ever tried to sell us your old books you know firsthand how tough our standards are haha - we wish By enforcing strict quality guidelines we can guarantee that every book we sell new or used is a good reading copy A LOT of FALSE FRAUDULENT DISHONEST claims made on their website - insult to injury one of the worst is We re nothing without our customers Powell s would not be the destination it is now without its loyal customers - CLEARLY COMPLETELY FALSE unless you re a customer who is fine with near throw-away give-away items amongst ones that DO fit their meaningless standards based on the proud history of this store displayed on the website personally i d say the store s founder s would be rolling in their graves to see just how their family business is being conducted AND how their loyal customers are treated STAY WELL AWAY
Doug ter Horst
6737 reviews
N/A
1 year ago
COMMUNIST CENSORSHIPbook store claiming to support free
A book store claiming to support free speech banning a book that it doesn t agree with Can t make this up
Brian Brennan
6737 reviews
N/A
1 year ago
Powell s Books have joined the fascists
Powell s Books have joined the fascist regime in trying to suppress dissent against the corporate oligarchy They censor books critical of the authoritarianism oppressing all Americans Don t give them your money
Elson Bar i
6737 reviews
N/A
1 year ago
0 stars this company should be shut
0 stars this company should be shut down I sold a lot of books and they steal and don t pay all the lie saying justifications for the books they decide to don t pay and they pay cheaper than the other book companies i sold thousand of books and i got paid very poorly Not helpful and very bad customer service to dont mention their crap website Shame on you Ashely saying literally on ce we evaluate your books we cant go back to pay you the new book that we didn t pay because we decided to do so I mean really
G P Kiefer
6737 reviews
N/A
1 year ago
RIP OFF Book Buyback - DO NOT SELL YOUR USED BOOKS TO POWELLS
This review is in relation to the used book buyback program and does not reflect on any physical location As a graduate student I amassed numerous books over the years which I no longer required Selling them was a prime means to attain extra cash as well as provide a MUCH cheaper alternative for other students or those who require certain texts for various courses I am sorry to say I decided to sell any books to Powell s I was quoted a specific amount online prior to shipment and return and had to wait several weeks only to receive almost half of the amount promised This amounts to a rip off All of the books I submitted were used but in adequate condition and in similar condition to other online buyback book programs which I recently used I sold books to TextbookRushTextbooks comsellbackyourBook comTextbook Maniac and receive the EXACT quoted amount for all orders In fact I sold several orders to Textbook Rush and received the exact amount quoted and payment was received almost immediately Powells delayed payment even after 10 days The order was received by UPS on 04 07 and even after 10 days I received ZERO response I had to email on two occasions before finally recieving payment which was reduced by almost half the quoted amount Do yourself a favor - AVOID Powells for reselling used books You will get ripped off compared to all the other buyback programs available and listed online Not one of the other vendors ripped me off on the quoted amount and paid me immediately through PayPal Powells delays and uses some felonious unaccountable and non-transparent means of accessing a book s value Seems like the principal criteria is to save Powell s money irrespective of the book s actual condition Sell to TextbookRush and get paid exactly what was quoted and on time This review in regards to Order Confirmation number 11493617
Midwestern Shopper
6737 reviews
N/A
1 year ago
Powell s Bookstore is the worst
Powell s Bookstore is the absolute worst online business you can imagine They take your money and fail to send you books They do not reply to emails The link they provided to follow my order was a bad link The web site will not let me log into their Web Site or change my password They have convinced me to go back to Amazon which is very sad
Tom Kepler
6737 reviews
N/A
1 year ago
I sell A LOT of books I mean
I sell A LOT of books I mean literally TONS of books Until about 8 months ago Powell s was great to work with Then something changed and now their website is pure crap and they re not doing a thing about it Input books to sell accept the offer and the site times out Re-input the same books and now the site will only take about 2 3 of them accept anyways just to salvage your time and the site times out Re-input for the third time same reason as before and ANOTHER 1 3 is rejected and it times out Until Powell s gets out of the stone ages and upgrades fixes their site I m not working with them I d advise anybody not to waste their time here
Joey Laframboise
6737 reviews
N/A
1 year ago
Not great for Canadians
My order shipped on july 16 and did not received yet wrote them a message and told me to wait another two months They did not want to give me a refund i would of sent the books back when i got them i live in canada Just a bit disappointing
anjalie
6737 reviews
N/A
1 year ago
The website would not accept my email
The website would not accept my email password or giftcard number All in all a totally bad experience i do not want to have again I will never use Powell s City of Books again Take my gift card and do whatever it is you do with them to make them unusable All my friends will hear about this horrible service
Mark
6737 reviews
N/A
1 year ago
Terrible business practices
Terrible business practices I recognize that in order to make money selling used books you need to get them for a decent price However this place is a gold mine It s not just that they pay insultingly low prices for your books it s that they re rude to you while they re doing it They truly act like they re doing you a favor and forget that without you selling back your books they would be out of business What s worse is that they have aggressively put every other mom-and-pop bookstore in the area out of business Portland used to have a thriving used bookstore presence but Powell s has driven their competition completely out of existence And they ripped off their customers with a contemptuous eye-roll while doing it There are alternatives albeit mostly online Thanks in part to the business practices of companies like Powell s I get that there is a thrill in hunting through thousands of books in order to find a diamond in the rough but for ethical reasons I will be going elsewhere in the future Don t waste your time
