Motor City Books, no book, no contact, I want a refund
I've recently taken up brewing beer. Being the geek that I am, research was part of the process. Sometimes I wonder if I take up a new hobby for the sake of the hobby or as an excuse to research something in absurd detail.
Anyway, I, like many before me, quickly became a fan of Charles Papazian and "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing." I learned that he'd written a sequel of sorts entitled "The Homebrewer's Companion." Having enjoyed the first book so much, I bought my own copy, I thought I'd order the second book.
I went to Amazon.com and found a used copy for one cent, plus $3.99 Shipping and Handling from Motor City Books. I placed the order on July 6, 2008, and got an estimated delivery window of July 15, 2008 - July 29, 2008. Given the price, I found this reasonable.
The evening of July 29 I sent the following to Motor City books using Amazon.com's "Contact Seller" feature. Amazon.com supposedly includes the order number with the message.
When will the book arrive? Has it even shipped yet?
As I write this on the 31st, I have not yet received a reply. I have, however, left the following feedback on amazon.com:
"Item did not arrive even though I waited for almost a month. I tried to contact the seller for information and received no response. I am filing a reimbursement claim through Amazon.com on this order. I would advise against ordering from this seller."
Since Amazon.com won't let you leave a zero star rating, I had to give them one star out of five.
The point of all this, is to advise others to not order form Motor City Books through Amazon.com. Based on my experience, they don't ship your order, don't respond to efforts to contact them and you're going to end up trying to get a refund.
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33 comments:
I think its a scam, i ordered a book from motor city books through amazon and the same thing has happened. Motor City Books are a bunch of crooks.
I finally received a couple of form letter replies from Motor City Books telling me that the book had allegedly shipped on July 10 and could take longer than 21 days to arrive.
Well, here I am on August 22 and the book never showed up. Amazon has issued me a refund though.
Based upon my experience I'd have to agree that Motor City Books is probably not a legitimate business.
Glad i found your post cause I was about toorder a book from them. Not now! Thanks!
I ordered a book that never arrived and I have not heard from Motor City Books at all. I'll give them till tomorrow to respond to my second query.
I had the same problem with Motor City Books, but on half.com. I did finally received my books, though. I just thougth it was a fluke that it took so long. I'm glad I found this posting, I won't order from them again. I was actually looking for their website to order books directly from them.
I am sorry to see that so many people had issues with that company. I ordered some books on potty training for a penny each thru amazon and although they were a bit slow to come (one day late)- they did and in excellent condition. I hope that will help anyone looking for a bargain who has the time to wait.
"Time to wait" are you kidding? They claimed to have sent the book via media rate in late July of 2008. If they'd really shipped it, don't you think it would have arrived by early October?
Media rate doesn't offer any cancellation options. If the book had actually been mailed it would have arrived by the time you commented.
I am upset with this seller because I ordered a textbook expecting the full edition of it. However I was sent an abridged LCC MATH 107 edition instead. They didn't mention this in their sales listing which would have been helpful. So I had to run out on a minutes notice to buy the correct version for full price because I didn't have time to order it online for cheap or else I would fall too far behind.
I am glad I decided to research first. I was about to order 5 books from Motor City that weren't even going to be sent to me. Thanks for the info!
Well, it is Detroit after all. No merchandise or surprises? That doesn't surprise me in the least.
I am originally from Detroit and so I make an effort to buy from Motorcitybooks whenever I can. I have never had a negative experience with them and I am surprised to hear that so many customers have.
I live in Michigan and whenever I order a book off Amazon I try to order it through Motor City Books - not only have I NEVER had a problem, I have suggested them to friends who have been satisfied as well. I will continue to order from Motor City Books whenever possible.
Can anyone who had POSITIVE experiences with Motor City books give any specifics? So far it looks like they may ship locally but rip off anyone else who orders from them.
I ordered with a ship date at the end of April and it is mid-May (after 15 business days). I will wait for the "up to 21 days for media" to see if it arrives. Based on this I would only recommend using them if you understand it takes several days to process and receive a ship date then count the 21 days from the ship date.
Good luck receiving the book. Media rate doesn't have the option of recalling an in-shipment order. If they'd actually shipped the book I ordered, it would have arrived eventually, but it never did. It's about 10 months since the order was placed, well beyond the 21 day limit, even if you take into account a few MONTHS of processing before they ship it.
Wow, I love Motor City Books! I live in Texas and have never had a problem with them!
They are HUGE on Amazon.com! Their feedback is awesome too! They only have 2% negative feedback so you're probably just hearing the most vocal of the 2%. For the 10 negative comments posted on this blog, there are 500 Happy customers.
Here's a link to their feedback:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/seller/at-a-glance.html?ie=UTF8&marketplaceSeller=1&seller=A1QJ4UH6FW3UH1
And no, I don't work for them. I've been purchasing from them for about 9 months now. They ALWAYS have the best prices on Amazon.
I live in washington state and have ordered from them as well. if i ever have a question, on shipping status or wanting to cancel an order, i always get helpful and polite customer service. did you ever think the POST OFFICE has lost your order?? i do recommend motorcity books because of the POSITIVE feedback...don't let one persons bad experience ruin your own.
MOTOR CITY BOOKS ROCKS MY SOCKS... I AGREE TO THE PERSON ABOVE. MAYBE ITS THE POST OFFICE THAT SUCKS EH EH? i LOVE M.C.B. would order from them ANYDAY!!
I just ordered from them because I live in the Detroit area and I always try to buy from the seller who is closest to Detroit. Usually this ends up being sellers in Ohio or Illinois but I was excited to see my book show up under Motor City Books. Hopefully everything works out okay. I will post again when I receive the book.
I ordered a text book through amazon.com, motor city books was the third party. I paid extra to have the book within 2 day, however received an email 2 days later saying the book had been shipped, however it is the wrong book title and I am unable to get an response from motor city books, and customer service at amazon was not helpful at all.
I would suggest paying the extra few dollars to order elsewhere!
i live in metro detroit if anyone has an address to motor city books i'll just go pick it up instead of having it shipped.
got confirmation from MCB that books would ship in 4-14 business days. a month later the books have still not arrived. there's no tracking number, no phone number to call. books never take this long in the mail.
I ordered an X-wing book from Motor City Books through Amazon.com. Today I received The Princess Bride--from a different company I hadn't ordered from. Too weird. I don't think I'd order from either company, though I'm more likely to believe that Motor City Books is the problem. After all, I ordered from them so that means they should assume responsibility.
Update... they apologized for the mistake and said they are sending the item I ordered, and can keep the mistaken item.
Motor City Books has become the first place I look for used books online. I've found that they have a great selection and some of the lowest prices.
I first found the company using abebooks.com and have been so impressed with their service that I often go directly to their website now.
I've ordered from them 4-5 times for a total of around 30 books and have always got exactly what I ordered in about two weeks. Shipping seems to take a little while, but always within in the timeframe described on their website.
I just received my latest order a few days ago and unfortunately some of the pages of one of the books were very loose and starting falling out as soon as I began reading it.
I contacted their customer service department about the problem and they responded to me the next business day to give me a few different options on how to resolve the problem. They ended up sending me another copy of the book whose pages were falling out and let me select another book at no additional cost.
Based on how quickly they responded to and resolved my issue, how they went above and beyond to fix it and how happy I am with their company overall, I'd recommend them to anyone looking to purchase used books online.
I really rarely write reviews, but I think exceptionally good or exceptionally poor service deserves to be recognized either way.
I bought a cookbook, and it arrived in good time. But the postman left it outside, and the dog chewed it up. I contacted Motor City Books through Amazon, and they sent me another book, even though it wasn't their fault. Needless to say, I was impressed. They definitely got 5 stars from me.
Wow, I am surprised people have complaints with Motor city Books. I have ordered MANY books from them for over a year and have NO PROBLEMS. I live in the South and the USPS have no issues giving me the books quickly.
I ordered three books from Motor City Books through ABe.com. The order through ABe was correct but when Motor City books confirmed my order it was wrong. I wrote 3 emails and called twice (no answer at Customer Service) to give them a "heads up" before they shipped. I received no response. Sure enough 3 days later they sent an email that my books had shipped and again the order was wrong. I tried to contact them again and of course no response except the automated email stating they received my email. I will NEVER order from Motor City Books again. I am waiting for my books but I am pretty sure if the order does arrive it will not be correct.
I ordered a brand new book from Motor City Books late on a Thursday. The book was delivered to me the following Tuesday. I always look for them on Amazon.It cracked me up how Chris bashed the City of Detroit because of a late book delivery. I bet Chris has never been to Detroit.
I ordered a book from motor city books. I got a confirmation email the next day stating that the book has been shipped. It's been over a week and a half since I ordered the book. I'm located in Ontario so I understand it may take a bit longer to arrive; however, I am getting concerned because when I try to trace my order on Amazon it doesn't show that I ordered anything. It just says "No orders or transactions"
I've ordered from third party in the past. My book was shipped from England and arrived within a week.
I'm not sure what to think about Motor City Book. My credit card has been charged, I hope my book arrives soon, I need it for class.
Thanks to this post and all the comments, I won't be ordering from Motor City Books!
I placed an order with MotorCityBooks today 02/04/10, at about 1pm...the order was confirmed...
after I got home from work at 10 pm,,I has a notice from Amazon.com that my order with MotorCityBooks had been canceled, and my CC NOT Charged...
Did amazon finally dump them?
Thanks for the post. I live in Detroit area also, and was looking for the address. Here is what I found:
http://www.detroit.com/motor-city-book-drive-b24516342
NOW OPEN EVERY SATURDAY AND SUNDAY - EVERYTHING IS $1
18135 E. Nine Mile Road
Eastpointe, MI 48021
Motor City Book Drive is a family owned social and environmentally responsible business located in Eastpointe, MI.
btw: They are not close by, I'll be buying from another seller.
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