When a customer orders one of your listings, the order will appear within your AbeBooks account and you will receive a notification email. In order to deliver the best possible customer service, both AbeBooks and the customer expect the order to be processed as quickly as possible.
To maximize customer satisfaction, AbeBooks expects our sellers to process and ship all orders within 48 hours of receipt. Credit Card orders not processed after 96 hours will automatically cancel and will count as unfulfilled orders in the Completion Rate calculation. Such cancelled orders cannot be reinstated, and have not been paid for. The item should not be shipped and if still available, should be re-listed for sale.
Any seller direct orders (e.g. PayPal, money order, check) not processed after 96 hours will automatically confirm. Buyers are notified of auto-confirmed orders and will expect the book to be shipped. It is your responsibility to reject/cancel any seller direct order you do not intend to ship.
**If you will be unavailable to process your orders for longer than 48 hours, you can temporarily remove your items from being for sale by putting your inventory on ‘Vacation’.
We recommend logging into your AbeBooks account at least once a day to check for new orders, rather than relying solely on email.
› Learn more about API and other order processing options for large volume sellers
Access the order by any of the following three methods:
Once you’ve found the order in your account:
For credit card orders, your options are:
If the buyer’s credit card is declined, you will be notified on the next screen and the order status will update to “Credit Card Rejected.” If you receive such a message, the order is cancelled and the book should not be shipped. We will automatically re-list the book for sale.
If the credit card processes successfully, you will receive a Success! message and have access to [View Shipping Manifest]. Click this link to retrieve the buyer’s shipping address. You can print the manifest to use as a shipping label or include inside the package as a packing slip.
You can now ship the book.
For seller direct orders (e.g. PayPal, check, money order, etc.), your options are:
Once you’ve received payment by the chosen method, please ship the book.
Important Notes about Shipping:
Sellers are required to ship items using a method intended to deliver the book in the time-frame quoted to the buyer.
Responsibility for undelivered items lies with the seller, therefore we recommend shipping with a carrier that provides signature confirmation whenever it’s available for the buyer’s country. In the event of a dispute, only signature confirmation will protect the seller against claims of non-delivery. You can add tracking in your account to any current order by following these instructions.
The seller is responsible for the condition of the item until it is delivered to the buyer. We highly recommend that sellers package orders securely to avoid damage.
Purchasing insurance protects you, the seller, in the event that an item is lost or damaged in transit and the buyer is subsequently refunded. As such, the cost of insurance should not be passed on to the buyer.