bookfinder.com automatically basketing enquiries

emily1234

MAJOR BOOKFINDING SITE IS AUTOMATICALLY ADDING BOOKS TO A BUYER'S ABEBOOKS SHOPPING BASKET. - THINK LIKE COMPARE THE MARKET DOT COM TAKING YOU TO A CREDIT CARD PAYMENT PAGE AS SOON AS YOU CLICK ON AN INSURER'S LOGO...... (EVERYONE WOULD BE COMPLAINING LIKE MAD!)


I've been using bookfinder to look for books of late.

HOWEVER:

The last day or so if I click on the price of a book listed on bookfinder that the seller is displaying for sale via ABE then I am taken straight to my ABE shopping basket with the book inserted in the basket.

This is not correct - you should be taken to the book page so that you can decide if you want to proceed with the purchase.

Neither bookfinder or ABE should be taking that decision for me.

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Thank you for contacting AbeBooks.

I would firstly like to thank you for using AbeBooks since July 2008. We are most grateful for the purchases you have made.

I am sorry to hear that you are not happy with current facilities provided by Bookfinder.com. However, you will need to contact Bookfinder.com directly regarding the online service and facilities they provide as they can provide you with more information. I have provided their contact form link below for your convenience:


Should you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us again and we will be happy to help.

Best Regards,


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I've done that - obviously.

The problem for me is - and basically it means I stop using bookfinder - is that you could click on a book to look at, decide it's not the book for you - BUT fail to remove the book from the basket.


Then later on (perhaps weeks later) you order another book (or several) in a hurry and fail to realise that the book is still in your basket - hey presto you get a book you never wanted.


Now as far as I was aware ABE/Amazon OWN bookfinder. One of "your" companies is by-passing the step that allows buyers to decide if they want to buy the book. There are several reasons why they would not want to buy the book.


1) the fuller description provided by ABE/Amazon makes them realise the book is no good.


2) the seller's reputation is rubbish


3) the seller's shipping costs are sky-high


4) It is the wrong edition/version/author/title (or any number of other things).


What you are saying is that if a buyer goes into a shop to browse round and show the slightest interest in a product that the salesperson has them at the till before they can say "Jack Robinson" and are rooting in the customers purse/wallet for their credit card.


You are taking away the buyer's option to shop round and do their homework.


THIS IS WRONG.


And... I can confidently predict that you'll shrug your shoulders and do nothing about it because that's what people are like these days.

RadoJo

I have just tried with Amazon, Play.com, BOL.de, Biblio.com and neither defaults to adding the item to the basket, it just takes you to the product page, which suggests to me that Abe books (the only merchant I could find that uses the system you describe despite a fairly liberal clicking policy on my part) have specified the way in which they drive traffic to the site rather than this being standard for all bookfinder purchases. This would make sense if they are the owners of the bookfinder site as you are effectively already on the site and the link above the price says 'Buy this book from Abe books'.

To be honest, if you find it annoying then not using the site is the only option you have - I'm not convinced that many people would 'accidentally' buy a book in the way you describe (wouldn't you check the total before entering your card details?). There's nothing to stop you from researching a book on Amazon or elsewhere before placing an order, and given that bookfinder seems to be a comparison site more than anything else, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that people searching on there are already fairly committed to buy.

I don't quite understand your final comment - did you intend to insult those reading your post or have I completely misread it?