ABE’s Bookseller Rating Misleads Buyers
If you use ABE (Advanced Book Exchange) to search for and buy rare books, you may have noticed that when details are displayed for the book and seller, a “Bookseller Rating” appears with one to five stars.
To all appearances and with reasonable assumption, the bookseller is being rated based upon how fine and reputable they are, the quality of the books they offer, and their knowledge and professionalism. You see a bookseller with a one star rating and figure, “Whoa, buyer beware. This dealer is strictly bottom of the barrel.”
Buyer beware indeed! Because ABE’s Bookseller Rating has absolutely nothing - let me emphasize nothing - to do with the quality of the booksellers and their books.
We recently received a note from our friend Stuart Manley of Barter Books in the U.K. He was in a mood of high dudgeon.
“I see that ABE are saying that you are a one star bookseller!
“Yet I see from your website that you and your colleagues are of the highest standing within the antiquarian book trade.
“Therefore I am hoping to find you more than a little angry.
“ABE have set the ground rules - THEY set the criteria (fulfilment) and chose to call it something else - an overall rating. Anyone from the outside world looking at ‘Bookseller Rating’ would assume it meant the overall quality of the bookseller - the quality of stock, the expertise, the quality and honesty of descriptions and the quality of service. Therefore a five star bookseller is better than a three star bookseller and so on. We both know the many reasons why ABE have chosen fulfilment as the criteria and ‘Bookseller Rating’ as the purposely misleading title - and they are all selfish to ABE, rather than for the good of their customers. Or for you.
“Well, I am angry too.
“For a number of years now (i.e. from when ABE started going bad) we have given our customers information on which listing sites charge commission, how much and how to avoid it. We do it via a give-away leaflet in the bookshop, via a ‘tail’ on the emails we send out and via an information page within our website.
“In response to ABE’s ‘Bookseller Rating’, we have introduced a ‘Booklisting Site Rating’.
“Note that it mimics exactly the ABE ‘Bookseller Rating’!”
Well, bravo Stuart! (And thanks for the kind words about us). Check out his Booklisting Site Rating.
Why has ABE awarded David Brass Rare Books one star? Simply put, we do not fulfill many orders through ABE. Hell, because so many of our books are high-end rare books we don’t GET many orders through ABE! And the main reason that we do not fulfill very many of the few books ordered through them has to do with their inflexible, near arbitrary Shipping Matrix, which sets minimums and maximums that booksellers can charge for shipping, whether through the U.S.P.S. or private carrier (FedEx, UPL, DHL, etc). This is bothersome but manageable for domestic shipments, But with international shipments?
As often as not, the ABE order we receive is from an overseas buyer. The ABE shipping allowances rarely cover our actual cost to ship across borders. For instance, we recently had an order for our copy of photographer Helmut Newton’s SUMO, at the time of its publication, the largest, heaviest book ever issued. With the display/reading stand that accompanies it as well as packing materials, it weighed out at 90lbs. ABE’s quote for shipping was $14.50!! Our actual cost? (We do not charge an override for shipping and handling). U.S.P.S., approx. $250. UPS and FedEx quotes were over $300. We ultimately used a private carrier that would charge $200.
ABE routinely allows booksellers to alert the buyer that extra charges will be necessary and to state the difference. The buyer has the option of accepting or rejecting that necessary increase.
We were lucky this time: The buyer, knowing the book and that ABE’s shipping quote of $14.50 was from Mars, accepted the increase in shipping fees. Alas, many do not. ABE allows the bookseller to go ahead and fulfill the order at the original quoted shipping rate but all too often the difference is too dramatic for us to absorb. We reject the order and get penalized by ABE’s Bookseller Rating.
Stuart’s 100% correct. To be fair, accurate, and transparent with buyers, ABE should rename its rating system for what it truly is, a Fulfillment Rate. It isn’t enough that ABE provides a rollover to define its Bookseller Rating, the name should tell it like it is upfront, without anyone having to open a pop-up box. As is, it’s patently misleading to the ABE buyer and grossly unfair to booksellers who use ABE as one of their marketing tools.
Yet another reason to boo ABE. Yes, it’s the largest third-party book marketer but it is far from the best.
In the grand tradition of American Bandstand, we give ABE a One, Dick: It has a lousy beat and you can’t dance to it.
Comment by Shaun Jamieson
Hi,
I wanted to comment on this posting. Have you noticed that if you click the bookseller rating associated with any seller on our site, that it clearly displays how this rating is determined? We’ve found that some sellers interpret the meaning of the term ‘Bookseller Rating’ as referring specifically to how reputable a seller is, while in fact our rating is simply an indication of how likely you are to get the book. Buyers don’t order books to get refunds, they order books to get the book. As a result we wanted to highlight sellers that did a better job of ensuring the buyer gets the book.
Please also note that our ‘Bookseller Rating’ is based on ‘completion’ not on ‘fulfillment’. Often times sellers are confused about the difference in meaning between these two terms.
I’d be happy to discuss this or any other topic at greater length with you or anyone else if you are interested.
Regards,
Shaun Jamieson
Manager, Sales & Account Management
[e]sjamieson@abebooks.com
www.abebooks.com
Comment by steve
Thank you, Shaun, for your input. My response is too long to include within this space, and so I’ve devoted a separate post at http://www.davidbrassrarebooks.com/?p=73 to address your message. Kind regards, Steve Gertz/David Brass Rare Books
Comment by DJ
Hi. I am at a loss to understand your anger. It is of course quite obvious that no company can ethically rate another in a situation such as this based on what business the second company does with others rather than directly with them. It is equally obvious that ABE has set shipping rates to protect customers from overcharging, an unfortunately not uncommon practice. To state that the site’s service of providing customers with accurate information on how well participant companies act within customer expectations via known established guidelines is a disservice to its customers is illogical. It appears from what you have stated that you habitually refuse to fulfill orders from customers who contact you partly because of their expectations that your shipping charges will be reasonable, and that you are angry because the site quite rightly makes that high rate of refusal known to those who order from participant companies. If it is truly so difficult for you to abide by site guidelines, it does not make sense that you remain a participant. Perhaps the answer is to advertise your wares elsewhere in areas that this is not a problem for you; it is surely not to vilify ABE for doing its job fairhandly and ethically.
Comment by steve
Hello, Dj.
Thanks for stopping by and expressing your thoughts.
I am, however, a bit confused as I don’t believe that there is an angry word to be found in the piece. Frustration, perhaps, annoyance too but this was not an intemperate posting.
Nor do I understand where you gleaned that we habitually refuse to fulfill orders. Quite the contrary. We only reject an order through ABE if the buyer refuses to accept a necessary increase in postage to the actual cost.
It appears, DJ, that what you consider obvious is not so obvious and what seems illogical is not so if the underlying premise remains sound.
I think you’re way off on this. May I suggest that you read the piece again, carefully?