I don’t know how common the experience I had was and is. I would not be surprised, however, if it was and is more common than I and many others would think it is. After all, in the brave new used book world in the brave new digital age of bookselling the number of snake oil pedlars selling used books out there in cyberland has increased exponentially thanks to the internet and it is often aided and abetted by third parties on the internet like Biblio, a supposedly independent site enabling independent booksellers to peddle their wares. It was through Biblio that I bought the book from Common Crow Books.
In this brave new digital used bookselling age it is worth remembering that many of these book selling conmen and conwomen, of course, don’t give a crap about the books they sell. For many of them books are no more than a commodity to be bought and sold. Needless to say, many of these snake oil books sales people, many of whom seem genetically incapable of accurately describing the used books they have for sale, ultimately have the moral consciousness of a blueberry scone when it comes to selling books on the internet.
Despite this new used book selling reality in the brave new digital age I must confess that I did not expect to experience what I experienced from Common Crow Books and from Biblio. After all, Biblio has historically differentiated itself from Amazon, which it almost sees as the beast of the Book of Revelation, and itself, of course, as that which will save us from the beast of prophecy. It turns out, alas, that Biblio is really not that different from Skankizon as I learned when I bought a book through Biblio from Common Crow.
And this brings me back to my tale. As I mentioned I purchased an item from Common Crow Books through Biblio. I purchased it this last weekend. I found the item I wanted, clicked on the purchase button, and voila in a few seconds I had purchased the book at the price and the shipping charges listed by the seller using my credit card.
A few days after this purchase I received an email from Common Crow saying they needed to charge me more money for shipping because the shipping cost had not been accurately calculated. I ignored the message assuming if it was a scam. I rightly assumed that I had already purchased the item at the cost of the book and accompanying shipping charges set by the seller and as a consequence had entered into a contract with that seller. The next day I received yet another missive about the book, this one from Biblio. It said that Common Crow needed more money for shipping. I learned, in other words, that this attempt to rewrite a contract was not a scam but the real deal
Now I don’t want to appear without sympathy or empathy, but I must note that I was rather shocked that a used bookseller who has his own webpage and who appears like someone who has been around the block a few times did not know the approximate shipping cost of the item I purchased and wanted to revise the contract we agreed to when I purchased the book at his or her price and at his or her shipping charges. Frankly and bluntly, my thought was that it is not my fault that the bookseller did not know how much the shipping charges were before we agreed to the contract for a specific item at a specific cost and a specific shipping charge. And I must say that I was shocked that the bookseller wanted to revise the contract after the fact and Biblio was more than willing to let him get away with this, something, by the way, I also experienced once when I bought a book in Amazon Marketplace, but them these booksellers are Biblio’s bottom line bread and butter. By the way, the bookseller on Amazon Marketplace who wanted to renegotiate our contract was from the Maritimes who likely had difficulties grasping the dollar to dollar exchange rate.
Needless to say I cancelled the item and I decided that in the future I will not purchase anything from Common Crow Books or through Biblio. In fact, I asked Biblio to close my account. I may also contact the Attorney General of New York state about the experience I had with both. That is something to reflect on for the future.
Caveat emptor.
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