Complaint Review: Pro Quo Books 'International Books' On Amazon.com

I have bought from Amazon and many of their marketplace sellers on a regular basis for several years. I have had a couple of items not show up. All I did was call Amazon and they got me either an immediate refund or replaced the item the very next day.

It's that simple. I have had one really bad experience where I was harassed when a seller did not like the feedback I gave them but I called Amazon and they took care of it immediately.

Always call Amazon right away if you have a problem. They are great about getting you your money back.

I shop at my local Ukazoo Books and I love them, they are a great business and their stores are run well and the staff is great. I trust them.

If they told you to go through Amazon for the refund then you should have called Amazon.

I've had the USPS lose things on several occasions. I've even had UPS deliver things to the wrong place.  That's not Amazon's fault or the seller.

These problems are rare. You also need to look at the ratings for the third party sellers. I never buy from anyone with less than a 98% positive rating so I rarely have problems.

I wish you better luck in the future.

25 November 2011

This note is in response to Daniel's negative experience with International Books related in Subject Case #307964 dated February 1, 2008. I had already signed up for a $200 plus investment with International Books (via Amazon) for a rare one of a kind book when I ran across Daniel's "tale of woe" regarding his $6 investment experience with the same company.

I prepared mentally for the worst case scenario, planning on how I might recoup my investment by withholding credit card payment, calling the dealer, calling Amazon ,etc. But then a miracle happened, the book showed up in better condition than expected and within the promised span of delivery dates.

So in an imperfect world sometimes things go wrong but then again many times they go right. Not every failed transaction is due to fraud and abuse. Sometimes it's just old fashioned human (or computer) error.

My wife was right. I just needed the faith of a "mustard seed". I hope this note helps calm the waters in this particular case.

Well, I've had emails the past few days about some activity on this thread I posted a while back. It has been about a year since I spent money on a book that I still have not received (any day now). I have also not received a refund from Pro Quo Books/International Books/BWI Books/AbeBooks. I have come across a few reviews of this company that coincidentally match very well with my original problem (i.e. - not shipping book/blaming Post Office/not issuing refund).

Just google "Pro Quo Books". It's that simple to find some of the horror stories about this company. Notice, they are overwhelmingly negative.

In particular, Ripoff Report and Baltimore City Search will tell the story.

I say to B Miller from Tucson: You provided no feedback on Pro Quo Books whatsoever, but instead, took an aggressive and provocative shot at someone you have never had any contact with. I simply shared my experience and made a few assumptions using my incredibly sharp intellect. You sir (or moody woman), started your comments with an insult and therefore, lost credibility with me. I hope you will do your due diligence in the future and at least run a search of the company's name. Perhaps you will then be able to contribute something of value. But then again I paid a company money to get nothing in return so what do I know? I must be crazy to think that a company would refund money or even respond to several emails/voice mails to clear up something like this. Thankfully at least I know they have done this many times so I don't feel as bad.

You sir are a moron.  Read the rules of the site.  Amazon does allow up to 21 days for delivery for Marketplace sellers, Amazon DOES handle the refunds, and it is more than reasonable to suggest that there is a possibility that the book has been lost by USPS.

If this is the same company as Ukazoo, I'm sorry to hear of your trouble. I've been a patron of Ukazoo for a couple of years now - since they opened their Towson store, and I haven't had any bad experiences. It's actually quite a cool set up. It's like a giant used book store, and you can find some really cool stuff there. They really aren't a shady operation, so I'm sorry to hear the guy from Mass. had a bad experience. I've never bought from them online or through amazon, but in store it's quite fine. They have friendly staff, and it's actually quite a good deal to go in there and find a book that you probably wanted but you'll just buy it used. I hope they're actually doing ok, because they're kind of near a Barnes and Noble right up the street - and I must confess I do patronize B&N. But I don't want to see Ukazoo fail. It's definitely a great concept and I will continue to use them - and I encourage others to do the same. Hopefully what happened through amazon is just an isolated incident.

To all and sundry:

     I ordered a book from Internal Books via Amazon.com on November 11, 2009.  I received the book on November 21, in good condition, and well within the deadline of December 4th.  So whatever troubles they may or may not have had in the past, my experience with the company was quite satisfactory.

     It does not seem to be the policy of International Books to send an email when they ship the book, and that did freak me out a little.  Yet it still came.

Remember that their default shipper is United State Postal Service.

Daniel:

I can understand your frustration at your parcel being either delayed or gone missing. It happens with my business as well. All I can ask you to do is, in the future, don't be too quick to paint any business as a 'rip-off'.

Amazon can't guarantee delivery dates because, even as big as they are, they don't own the US Postal Service. Once a parcel leaves my warehouse (or Pro Quo's office), we lose control over it. If you pay for a trackable service (more expensive that Media Mail or Fourth Class Parcel rates) then you can watch the parcel crawl across the country, but the shipper can't influence a d**n thing!

What happened to the mail that was on board the US Airways jet that landed on the Hudson River? Do you honestly think that the USPS will contact the addressees and shippers of those containers of parcels that now would be waterlogged? Not a chance, so customers will be waiting for delivery of a parcel that will never come.

The same is true if a truck is involved in a highway crash, or even more devesating, a fire.

Just because the Internet has been a haven for less-than-scrupulous sellers, it's better to see that when a problem occurs, it's how they solve the problem.

The Japanese have a saying, "fix the problem not the blaem...then no one gets blamed".

If the Amazon procedure is to wait for 21 days or 21 business days, then you should be willing to wait at least that long. Once that time period has come and gone, and the parcel has still neither been delivered nor returned to the seller, THEN you should contact the seller, saying that the parcel hasn't shown up and that you would like a refund. Then see what both Pro Quo and Amazon does.

To give you an idea of the vaigaries of dealing with post offices, I shipped two identical parcels from Toronto (where I am) to Los Angeles. Each box contained two copies of the same book, destined for a bookstore in LA. They were shipped the SAME DAY. They went out of my warehouse in the SAME BAG.

They arrived in Los Angeles 15 DAYS APART! Neither had been opened by US Customs, it's just the unpredictability of the USPS.

If you ordered the book on 10 JAN 09, then you shouldn't even begin to worry until 31 JAN 09, and that's more than a week from now, so your concerns about the honesty of the seller is far too reactionary and way too soon!

Just calm down, sit back and let the mule train continue trudging its way to you.

Al Navis
ALMAR & CO. - Booksellers,
Thornhill, Ontario.

Well, after dealing with Pro Quo/International/Ukazoo Books ( I wonder why so many different names...) I had no choice but to find another vendor for my book. This time I bought directly from Amazon.com instead of one of their sketchy third party companies. I ordered the book and it was in my hands the next day. I didn't even pay for overnight shipping and the best part was: they actually shipped my book! They didn't take my money and blame the Post Office.

First off, I would like to apologize to Daniel for the difficulty he had working with our company.

In regards to major points raised in this Ripoff Report:

1. Media mail can take up to 21 days, thus it doesn't seem unreasonable (from our perspective) to request that customer wait 21 days before we refund their order. Furthermore, the 21 day wait period before order is refunded is Amazon.com's policy.

2. We recently moved offices, from 2000 square feet of office space to 6000 square feet of office space. At the same time we switched from a traditional phone system to a internet based call center solution, and thus could not transfer our number. Old number should now be automatically forwarded.

3. As Amazon.com handles collecting payment for orders, they also handle refunding buyer's credit card. Again, this is simply a case of how the interaction between Amazon.com, third-party sellers on Amazon.com, and customers of Amazon.com works.

4. Sometimes the post office loses mail. I guess it is a common customer misconception that they don't, but as a seller who ships off 3600 packages a day through the USPS I can assure you that they do.

5. Customer has been refunded, and was informed of this by us, and Amazon as well.

Again, I am sorry that Daniel had a less then ideal experience with our company. We strive to work with all of our customers to resolve any problems which may arise in an expedient and professional manner.