I recently purchased a book from More Than Words (MTW) on eBay. The book arrived as scheduled and was in excellent condition. I had not heard of MTW before and thought that perhaps I would make a donation to them. I wanted to learn more about the organization, so I looked for reviews and came across the extremely negative 2015 review from "General Member of the Public" on the Great Non-Profits website. I do not think that review is reliable. eBay rates its sellers. According to eBay, in the last 12 months, MTW has received 70,632 positive ratings, 216 neutral ratings, and 177 negative ratings. In other words, 99.7 percent of purchasers had positive experiences.
More Than Words claims that it spins straw into gold by selling used, discarded books at its retail stores and on Ebay.com. However, its business model is actually based upon deceiving the online buyers.
More Than Words describes books on Ebay.com as being in good condition when they are actually damaged, discarded books from public libraries. Ebay.com defines "good condition" as "A book that has been read but is in good condition. Very minimal damage to the cover including scuff marks, but no holes or tears. The dust jacket for hard covers may not be included. Binding has minimal wear. The majority of pages are undamaged with minimal creasing or tearing, minimal pencil underlining of text, no highlighting of text, no writing in margins. No missing pages".
More Than Words also frequently fails to shipped books and CDs purchased on Ebay.com.
This is a sampling of 77 negative reviews posted on Ebay.com in the last 12 months:
terrible shipping i mean really bad
Did not get the book . Please help
I was sent the wrong book!
Sold item that was not available
Item was received with nothing but marks in the book, NOT AS DESCRIBED
Only one of the volumes came, and it's ex-library (not noted in description).
Item received was not quality listed.
Spine had a chunk missing. Had an inscription written in pen. Not disclosed
Crappy condition, bent up and with food stains.
Not new, library copy. Misrepresented.
Bad experience, listed as "good" but received "terrible, stinky, ripped" book
Seller didn't mention this is an old library book! Yuck!
Used library book in terrible condition
Book was supposedly in good condition. It was so beat up the cover fell off.
The book was falling apart and had library stickers on it, horrible condition
Book was not listed as a former library book. Extremely unhappy with this.
Was listed as being in good condition but definitely wasn't. Falling apart.
Not in good condition, almost every page was torn and some pages not attached
Book is NOT in very good cond as listed, cover is bent, stained & has water dmg
Didn't receive the 50th edition as listed. Instead, received a normal poor copy.
This book is written in thru-out!!!-totally distracting - about 1/3 of all pages
Book arrived in near garbage condition not happy definately more then minor wear
Do not buy from this seller
Not the item shown; POOR cond. & damaged-cover&inside; 2 weeks for delivery
The book is not GOOD. Its looks like it used to dipped in the water!
Very bad quality, did not match discription. Badly damaged bearly plays.
1/4 of the cover is missing. My search was for this book/hardback. This isn't.
False description given of the condition of the book. No way it is 'Very Good' !
Condition described as "good"; book in very poor condition w/ water damage.
Very POOR condition, not very good as stated. Pages very warped, book worn.
Book arrived in poor condition, with pages loose. Not as described.
The fact that it is More Than Words’ policy to intentionally defraud customers is evidenced by the fact that it refuses to communicate with its customers and/or refund the purchase price:
Seller refused to refund purchase price after shipping the wrong book.
Never received the book. Sent several emails trying to fix the problem. A waste
Sent me the wrong CD then refused to respond to my request
It's been over a month and the book never arrived. Refuses to respond to me.
Payed for item and never received. Seller unwilling to work on fixing problem!
Seller sent book with writings and scribbles all throughout book, no contact
Horrible! Promptly paid but it never shipped. Resold after I paid. Never again!
Not a trackable number. Where is my book?
Horrible shipping policy. not recommended seller, bad customer service
***AVOID***Condition grossly overstate. Impossible return process***AVOID***
I Never got it
NEVER RECEIVED ITEM
Not as pictured. Condition poor NOT very good. No response to email
10 days and still no book!
Book- NOT -as described...poor condition...stickers-torn binding-scuffed...