Amazon.com owns AbeBooks - they are a subsidiary company. AbeBooks then acts as a kind of half.ebay.com for book sellers. THE PROBLEM HERE is that AbeBooks.com does not back up customers, they simply allow their sellers to do as they wish.
If you have any problem with a seller, AbeBooks "customer service" will simply give you "sweet talk" and pretend to care. In actuality THEY WILL DO NOTHING TO CORRECT THE PROBLEM. Nor do they seem to be very discriminate about who they allow to sell through their site, or even REPRIMAND them in any way if they conduct business poorly.
Simply, if you buy a book through AbeBooks you are just BLINDLY BUYING THROUGH A VEIL and you have no real idea of who the actual seller is. AbeBooks is the front, and their suppliers come from across the globe. PROBLEM: AbeBooks.com doesn't care what goes on behind the scenes, and if there is a problem they will not do anything more for you to rectify the situation other than simply passing a message on to the actual seller (which may or may not be a legitimate business in a country that you were/weren't aware you were doing business with).
BEWARE of abebooks.com and the sellers that they represent; and additionally question why Amazon.com would allow their reputation to be tarnished by this company that they own. Essentially then, question the integrity of Amazon.com!
These are the owners (who should all be ashamed) and their partners (who should be even more ashamed): Gail Wills, Darryl Vezina, William Yu (Director), Mariette Bedard, Jeryl Metz, Yung Choi, Sarah Stein, Courtenay Steele, Don Rosick, Charles Purro, Rick Pura (co-founder), Wilfred Eder, Jean Schmetz, John Tribone, Brent James, Jerome Joseph, James Wilson, Joseph Franc, Michael Villancourt, William Thornhill, Dougals Westerberg, Janet Novick, Barry Novick, Brian Hooley, Sue Connors, Judy Hamza, Thomas Nicol, Lilo Eder