Seller Slight of Hand on Amazon, AbeBooks, Biblio, and Alibris

I prefer to purchase my books on eBay, simply because I have fewer problems.  To be fair, most purchases made from the other sites go fine, but the strict seller standards imposed by those sites often cause sellers to use deceptive practices.

I ordered some books from several sellers on June 14 on Amazon and Biblio.  All but one purchase arrived quickly.  One seller on Biblio did not make contact for one week.  They sent a message, telling me that the books had been shipped.  I received a shipping notice from Biblio.  I checked the tracking number and saw that it had been cancelled after it was generated.  Hmm....

The seller waited the maximum number of days that they could wait without risking having Biblio cancel the transaction.  This told me that the seller was using a delay tactic.  They waited as long as they could, then they created a shipping label.  By having a tracking number entered, they fulfilled the on-time shipping requirement.  They then cancelled the label.

Most likely, the seller didn't have one of the books on hand and needed to purchase it from another seller.  I was annoyed, because I would have purchased from someone else if I had known this would happen.

As the days passed, I kept waiting to see if the tracking number would update to a valid one or whether the books would show up.  I decided that July 5 was the earliest I could expect the books to arrive if the seller had to purchase from someone else first.  My plan was to contact the seller on July 5 after my mail had arrived.

I then decided to delay a little longer, because I felt like the books were going to show up within a few days.  Finally, they arrived today.

The shipping label showed that it was created on June 20, so at first glance, it appeared that the post office screwed up.  But I knew that was not likely what had happened.  

I entered the tracking number into USPS.com.  The label was created on June 20, but the package was not accepted at the seller's local post office until July 3.  Ah, so I was right.  The seller played the delay game so that they could purchase the needed book from someone else.

Sites like Biblio require sellers to maintain a rather high fulfillment rate, and furthermore, the books must be mailed promptly.  Sellers cannot avoid any mistakes, so they use delay tactics to hide when they are unable to ship on time.  This has happened to me a number of times before.

At least this seller followed through. 

I will say that the condition of each book does match the seller's written description.  Perhaps something else is going on here.  However, this seller states that they ship each day, and that is most certainly not what happened in this case.  Even if I did receive the exact books as offered, something odd went down.  The seller shouldn't have waited until July 3 to hand off the package to USPS.

In one past case, I purchased the only book available online from a certain seller.  That book didn't arrive.  When I finally asked, the seller cancelled the transaction.  I think that seller didn't have the book but couldn't buy one from someone else.  They were probably hoping I'd never notice that I didn't receive it.

Buying from the various bookselling sites can be problematic.  eBay gets a lot of criticism, but I have far more confidence in my eBay purchases.  eBay sellers usually photograph the actual item that is for sale and ship promptly.  They don't play games like some sellers on other sites.