Order Canceled!

It never fails. I'll find a good deal - an old book selling for say $10 or
$20 on ABE (others are selling for up to $200), then order the book, then I
get a notice that the order has been processed.

A few days later I get a notice that the order has been canceled!

The seller claims that the book has been sold.

This has happened to me about 6 times. And always with a book which is
underpriced.

Anyone else have this happen?

on Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:26:23 -0700, Billy Bob stated:

It never fails. I'll find a good deal - an old book selling for say $10 or
$20 on ABE (others are selling for up to $200), then order the book, then I
get a notice that the order has been processed.

A few days later I get a notice that the order has been canceled!

The seller claims that the book has been sold.

This has happened to me about 6 times. And always with a book which is
underpriced.

Anyone else have this happen?

Sure. Someone else beat you to it.
As I understand it, the order processing is within ABE's
system, and if the bookseller has sold the book, ABE doesn't
get updated instantly. The real bargains are, of course,
the ones that will sell the fastest and be most likely to
come up "canceled".


-Allison

Billy Bob wrote:
It never fails. I'll find a good deal - an old book selling for say $10 or
$20 on ABE (others are selling for up to $200), then order the book, then I
get a notice that the order has been processed.

A few days later I get a notice that the order has been canceled!

The seller claims that the book has been sold.

This has happened to me about 6 times. And always with a book which is
underpriced.

Anyone else have this happen?

All the time. Once the average bookseller gets wind of the fact that
they may have undersold a book by more than $5, honour goes out of the
window, and they'll dump you for anyone prepared to offer more.

ABE sellers SHOULD honour the first sale (the book then gets
automatically deleted from stock). That's why it's often worth
following up your purchase with a personal phone call; at least, you'll
find out instantly if the book is actually available. But some get
green-eyed and solicit higher offers, some just multiple list their
books with many different agencies (which I find hugely annoying).

These are the rules I'd like to see all dealers follow:

1) Honour the book sale at the listed price to the first customer
2) Only list each book through one internet agency
3) Don't list books on the internet and have them on your shop
bookshelves at the same time

It isn't rocket science, it's a simple good customer serice. You even
get dealers now who have stock on shelves in the bookshop, which they
also list through various internet agencies, and then again list via
Ebay. It's a ridiculous state of affairs.

That's what I thought was happening.

Perhaps "dealers without honor" should be removed from the ABE system?

I wonder if they keep track of dealers who cancel a lot of orders? Either
way it is bad for ABE. (Not keeping track of in-store sales and deleting
them - or canceling underpriced orders.)


"Shelf Space" wrote in message

All the time. Once the average bookseller gets wind of the fact that
they may have undersold a book by more than $5, honour goes out of the
window, and they'll dump you for anyone prepared to offer more.

ABE sellers SHOULD honour the first sale (the book then gets
automatically deleted from stock). That's why it's often worth
following up your purchase with a personal phone call; at least, you'll
find out instantly if the book is actually available. But some get
green-eyed and solicit higher offers, some just multiple list their
books with many different agencies (which I find hugely annoying).

These are the rules I'd like to see all dealers follow:

1) Honour the book sale at the listed price to the first customer
2) Only list each book through one internet agency
3) Don't list books on the internet and have them on your shop
bookshelves at the same time

It isn't rocket science, it's a simple good customer serice. You even
get dealers now who have stock on shelves in the bookshop, which they
also list through various internet agencies, and then again list via
Ebay. It's a ridiculous state of affairs.

Billy Bob wrote:
That's what I thought was happening.

Perhaps "dealers without honor" should be removed from the ABE system?

I wonder if they keep track of dealers who cancel a lot of orders? Either
way it is bad for ABE. (Not keeping track of in-store sales and deleting
them - or canceling underpriced orders.)

Both Amazon and Alibris have a rating system for dealers regarding their
reliability.
Many ABE dealers also list on Alibris, so in some cases you can look for
the same book
from the same dealer on Alibris and see how good they are at fulfilling
orders. If a dealer
cancel orders with frequency, their reliability rating drops.

Thank you.

In the future if I have a choice, I'll go with Alibris.



"Some Guy" wrote in message

Both Amazon and Alibris have a rating system for dealers regarding their
reliability.
Many ABE dealers also list on Alibris, so in some cases you can look for
the same book
from the same dealer on Alibris and see how good they are at fulfilling
orders. If a dealer
cancel orders with frequency, their reliability rating drops.

It's happened to me way too many times, and ONLY on books that I'm trying to
snap up because they're both on my want list and appear to be underpriced.
I always write to the seller to ask 'Why', and the answer is generally that
the book couldn't be found. Odd to lose track of a freshly-listed book,
isn't it? I suspect that when he gets several immediate orders he does his
homework and pulls the offer.

I've decided to begin making note of the seller and checking his inventory
in a month or two to see if the book has been 'found' and listed at a much
higher price.

Perhaps we should begin posting the names of all sellers who do this?

Chris

Billy Bob wrote:
Thank you.

In the future if I have a choice, I'll go with Alibris.



"Some Guy" wrote in message

Both Amazon and Alibris have a rating system for dealers regarding their
reliability.
Many ABE dealers also list on Alibris, so in some cases you can look for
the same book
from the same dealer on Alibris and see how good they are at fulfilling
orders. If a dealer
cancel orders with frequency, their reliability rating drops.




Or just use the Alibris system to find the reliabilty and then order
from ABE, where
a dealer lists on both.

Chris Charles wrote:
It's happened to me way too many times, and ONLY on books that I'm trying to
snap up because they're both on my want list and appear to be underpriced.
I always write to the seller to ask 'Why', and the answer is generally that
the book couldn't be found. Odd to lose track of a freshly-listed book,
isn't it? I suspect that when he gets several immediate orders he does his
homework and pulls the offer.

I've decided to begin making note of the seller and checking his inventory
in a month or two to see if the book has been 'found' and listed at a much
higher price.

Perhaps we should begin posting the names of all sellers who do this?

Chris

While there are certainly some unscrupulous sellers out there, do
realize that sometimes
a listing error isn't the dealer's fault, it's the service. Alibris,
for example, used to puke if you
tried to do more than 1 upload a day, with the result that sometimes
deletions did not get
through (or additions for that matter). They've been better of late,
but I still do have the occasional
problem with all three services where we list books (ABE, Alibris, and
Amazon).

But can't you see how wrong it is (from a customer service perspective)
to list the same book through three different agencies?

It's like walking into a bookshop and saying:

'I'd like that book in the window please, the one on display marked for
=A350'.

Bookseller: 'Sorry sir, you'll have to wait while I phone my two other
bookshops to see if anyone else has reserved it. You see, we only have
the one copy and we keep moving it around. Give me your telephone
number and I'll phone you in a couple of days.'

'So what happens if you have received other enquiries?'

'Oh, we'll just withdraw it from sale because it has clearly not been
priced highly enough, and we'll quietly re-list it at double the price
in a week's time.'

'Hey, thanks, that's great customer service!'

I much prefered the old days of paper catalogues and real bricks &
mortar bookshops. It used to be that those with specialist knowledge
triumphed, whether they be book collector or dealer, whereas now the
mainstream internet bookdealer sits in the middle of the stream with
his vile trawling net, snaring everything that washes past, big or
small.