ThriftBooks

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

Contacts & Payment

• Official website: https://www.thriftbooks.com/
• Customer service email: [email protected]
• Customer Service 1-888-979-1404: 1-888-979-1404
• Privacy questions toll free 1-888-979-1408: 1-888-979-1408
• Online Returns Center (order number and email): https://returns.narvar.com/thriftbooks/returns
• BBB-listed phone (253) 275-2241: (253) 275-2241

Locations

ThriftBooks orders, shipping, returns, cancellations and refunds: what the company's own pages say (checked October 11, 2026)

This page is about the ThriftBooks used and new book retailer at thriftbooks.com, which its Terms of Use (last updated September 24, 2026) say is operated by Thrift Books Global LLC. The routes below come from the company's Terms and its Help Center as they stood on October 11, 2026. Quotations are the company's words; they are not our assessment of how any single order was handled.

Order has not arrived. The Help Center says delivery is “1 to 2 days order processing + transit time,” and lists U.S. Standard Shipping at 4-10 business days for used items, Express at 1-6 business days and Expedited at 2-3 business days. The Shipping Costs page lists the same ranges and adds that delivery to Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and Puerto Rico “can take up to 45 days.” A multi-item order “may ship in separate packages from different locations,” each with its own tracking number, viewable under My Account; the track-my-order article adds that for a “Guest” checkout the customer “will be unable to track your orders through the ThriftBooks website” but still receives emailed tracking information once the order ships. If tracking says “Delivered” but the package is missing, the Help Center says to verify the address in My Account, check the mailbox or porch, allow 24 hours, and if it has been over 24 hours from the 'Delivered' status to contact the company. The Terms (section 13) add that a refund for a shipping delay is processed, in the company's “sole discretion,” “only if such order does not arrive at your shipping address within 20 days of your order for US domestic orders and within 45 days for international orders,” and section 15 says risk of loss passes to the customer when the order is delivered to the shipping carrier.

Damaged, incorrect or incomplete item. The Help Center says to use the Online Returns Center (returns.narvar.com/thriftbooks/returns) with the order number and account email, select the item and reason (photos are optional), and receive a prepaid return label by email. The Terms (section 13) separately say “no return is authorized without the customer first obtaining a return authorization number by contacting ThriftBooks Customer Service at [email protected],” and the Help Center article on what qualifies for a return lists “Prior authorization obtained from Customer Service” among its conditions; the portal and the Terms describe the authorization step differently and both are quoted. The portal's own instruction reads: “please be sure to use this label and wait for authorization before shipping, as returns sent without approval cannot be processed.” It says eligible items may be returned within 30 days from the delivery date, and that after the item is received “refunds are typically issued within 48 hours and appear on your original payment method within 2–5 business days, depending on your bank.” The Terms (section 13) say that if a customer ships items without advance written authorization the company may dispose of them “however we deem appropriate” with no refund or exchange.

What the company says is not eligible. Terms section 13 lists items “purchased for $11.00 or less,” requests after the 30-day window and items “no longer desired by the customer after purchase.” For Collectible Books marked with a teal “jewel,” it says it does not accept returns, honor exchanges or provide refunds “as a result of the condition” or a dispute about volume or edition. Media items (vinyl records, DVDs, video games) “can only be accepted in unopened and original condition.” The Help Center article on what qualifies for a return (dated October 1, 2026) tells customers with items under $11 or over $75 to contact Customer Service, while its list of non-qualifying returns repeats “Items purchased for $11.00 or less”; the two pages are quoted side by side and we do not say which governs a particular order. The Terms also say that where a refund is agreed the company “will provide you with a store credit” unless it agrees to refund the original payment method or the law requires it, and, in the Terms' words, “Except as otherwise required by law, store credit will expire 365 days from receipt.” Section 13 also says “Delivery fees, taxes, and handling fees previously paid by you are all non-refundable” and reserves “a restocking fee, handling fee, and return shipping fee for any return, refund, or exchange that is not the result of our error.”

Cancelling an order. The Help Center says to open My Account, find the order and click “Request Cancelation”; if the button is not there “your order has probably already started the shipping process,” and “once an order enters our fulfillment center, we can't stop it from shipping.” On refunds after a cancellation the article says “if you've already been charged, we'll process your refund within a few business days.” For orders with new books, “once NEW items are marked as 'Processing' by our vendor, we are unable to cancel the item(s) and a return may be required.” The Terms say the company is “unable to accommodate purchase cancellations and address changes after an item has shipped.”

Package returned to sender. The Help Center says a “small restocking fee” of “$2.00 per item, if applicable” may be charged, and that processing can take “up to 14 days.” The article says “We'll refund your order total minus the restocking fee once we receive the returned package,” and its only listed no-fee case is: “Postal service errors: If there's no functional post office in your area (rare), we'll issue a full refund with no restocking fee.”

Account suspension or deactivation. The Terms say in section 6 that the company reserves “the right to cancel a User Account at any time for any reason in our sole discretion.” Section 9 says it may “limit, suspend, terminate, modify, or delete your Account or access to the Services” for actual or suspected improper use, “with or without notice to you,” and that a customer may cancel their own account by emailing [email protected] or through Account preferences. Section 13 adds: “if you request refunds at a rate in excess of a normal retail customer rate, as determined by us in our sole discretion, we may take steps to limit your activity, up to and including suspending or terminating your Account.” BBB reviews on its profile include customers writing that their accounts were deactivated; those are customer statements, not BBB findings, and the Terms give no appeal procedure that we read.

Contacting the company. Email [email protected]; the Contact page says “We typically respond within 6 hours” and offers live chat through Kustomer. The Terms and Privacy Policy list 1-888-979-1404 (Customer Service, given for SMS notification questions) and 1-888-979-1408 (toll free, Privacy Policy contact section).

If the company does not resolve it. The Washington Attorney General runs an informal complaint service for “consumers with complaints about businesses located in Washington state” and says that if a business refuses to respond or to make an adjustment “we cannot compel them to do so.” The FTC's ReportFraud site says “We can't resolve your individual report” but uses reports to investigate. BBB lists the company as accredited (accreditation date in the BBB page data: April 22, 2025), and complaints can be filed on its BBB profile. A Maryland Department of Labor WARN entry dated August 31, 2026 (described under company background) is a public-record fact only; this page does not link it to the status of any order. You can also ask your payment-card issuer about its dispute process. Before any court filing, note that the Terms contain an arbitration agreement, summarized in the litigation section below.

Who operates ThriftBooks and what the company says about itself

Operator. The Terms of Use and Privacy Policy (both last updated September 24, 2026) name Thrift Books Global LLC as the provider of services at thriftbooks.com and related sites, and the site footer says the ThriftBooks name and logo are “registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC.” The company's mail address in the Privacy Policy is 18300 Cascade Ave S #150, Tukwila, WA 98188. An OpenCorporates mirror of the Washington registry (not the primary registry) lists THRIFT BOOKS GLOBAL, LLC as an active foreign limited liability company at that address, with a Delaware home-company record. In a 2025 federal docket the company's Rule 7.1 disclosure identified “Thrift Books Holdings” as its corporate parent; we did not find a fuller ownership description.

What the company says. Its “Our Story” page says ThriftBooks “began in 2003 with a pickup truck, a storage unit, and one listing on Amazon,” describes itself as “the world's largest online independent used bookseller,” and says its books come from libraries, donations, its BuyBack program and resale partnerships. It says every book is hand-graded before it ships, with condition ratings from Like New to Acceptable, and that it offers free standard shipping on qualifying orders over $15. These are company statements.

Programs. ReadingRewards is the company's free loyalty program (500 points equal a free book; points per dollar and the free-book value depend on the tier). The BuyBack program lets customers sell books to the company. Two company pages give the offer window differently and are quoted side by side: the Help Center says an offer “is valid for 7 business days” and, if the label is not scanned within that time, “will be automatically canceled and cannot be reinstated”; the BuyBack Terms and Conditions (last updated September 24, 2026) say the price “is valid for seven (7) calendar days from the date you receive the price quote.” On rejected items the Help Center says additional or non-qualifying books “will be recycled. We're unable to return these items,” and that books with ISBNs that do not match the quote “will not be paid out and may be marked as "MISSING"”; the BuyBack Terms say excluded items “will not be returned” and that payment is by PayPal or ThriftBooks store credit at the participant's selection.

Public-record notice, Maryland. The Maryland Department of Labor's WARN notice log (labor.maryland.gov/employment/warn.shtml, read October 11, 2026) has a row with notice date 08/31/2026, company “ThriftBooks Global, LLC,” location 4734 Trident Court, Building A, Baltimore, MD 21227 (Baltimore County), 136 total employees, effective date 10/31/2026 and type “Plant Closure” (NAICS code 459510). The list spells the name without a space, while the company's Terms say “Thrift Books Global LLC”; we did not find a ThriftBooks page that mentions the Baltimore address, and the entry does not say what the closure means for order processing, so we draw no conclusion about shipping or fulfillment. The News page on the company's site lists 2026 items about a library-services program, a book donation and reading challenges and nothing dated after June 24, 2026; it listed no recall, breach or regulator action on October 11, 2026.

Complaint and review record as displayed on October 11, 2026

Figures below are as displayed on October 11, 2026, come from different sources and are not added together or compared with each other.

BBB. BBB's profile for Thrift Books Global, LLC, Seattle, WA shows “BBB Accredited Business” with an A+ rating, “108 total complaints in the last 3 years,” “45 complaints filed in the last 12 months,” and, on the Reviews tab, 1.21 out of 5 stars from an average of 39 customer reviews (BBB says reviews are not part of the letter grade). BBB's page data gives accreditation on April 22, 2025, a BBB file opened April 14, 2005, a business start of September 17, 2003 and incorporation of July 25, 2003. Reviews displayed on the profile include customers writing about account deactivation and about a BuyBack payout; these are customer statements as published by BBB, not BBB findings.

Trustpilot. The Trustpilot page for www.thriftbooks.com displays a TrustScore of 4.7 from 2,965,056 reviews, with 88 percent 5-star and 3 percent 1-star ratings. It is a claimed profile marked “Paid Trustpilot subscription,” the company invites customers to review, and Trustpilot says it replied to 99 percent of negative reviews. Trustpilot states that it does not fact-check reviews. The company's own Our Story page cites a Trustpilot rating and review count and BBB accreditation; the live figures above are the ones we read on October 11, 2026.

Our archive. As of October 11, 2026 our archive had no published complaint posts that name ThriftBooks, so this page shows no archive complaint themes.

Court records naming Thrift Books Global, LLC

On October 11, 2026 we searched Justia Dockets by party name “Thrift Books” (10 federal cases listed) and opened the CourtListener docket pages for the two cases below, and for the first case the complaint text. A docket entry is an allegation or a procedural step, not a finding of liability.

Shamsi and Johnston v. Thrift Books Global, LLC (N.D. Cal., No. 3:25-cv-01388, filed February 10, 2025). The complaint was styled a class action on behalf of California residents who used thriftbooks.com. It alleged that the company allowed Meta (Facebook) and Pinterest to intercept communications about users' book searches and purchases and disclosed that information with personal identifiers without consent, in violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act and the California Constitution. The docket shows an amended complaint on May 12, 2025 and a notice of voluntary dismissal on May 22, 2025; CourtListener lists the case as terminated on May 23, 2025. We did not open the dismissal notice, so we do not say whether it was with or without prejudice or whether any settlement existed.

Cengage Learning, Inc. et al. v. Thrift Books Global LLC (D. Md., No. 1:20-cv-01924, filed June 26, 2020). Four educational publishers (McGraw Hill, Cengage, Pearson, Elsevier) filed a copyright complaint; Justia lists the type as Intellectual Property, Copyright. The docket shows a court order on October 27, 2020 directing the plaintiffs to serve the defendant by November 13, 2020 or show cause why the claims should not be dismissed, and CourtListener lists the case as terminated on December 3, 2020. The Federal Judicial Center's Integrated Database tab on CourtListener codes the disposition as “Settled” (procedural progress “Order entered”); the settlement terms were not available in the records we read.

Other dockets. Justia's party search listed these further entries, which we did not open and do not characterize beyond Justia's own labels: an employment race-discrimination case under 42 U.S.C. section 1981 filed December 23, 2025 (W.D. Wash.); a 2019 civil-rights employment case filed in D. Md.; two Americans with Disabilities Act suits filed in 2019 (S.D.N.Y. and W.D. Pa.) naming Thrift Books Global, LLC, plus a consolidated W.D. Pa. ADA case whose listed defendants do not include the company; a 2018 contract case brought by Northstar Recycling Company, Inc. (W.D. Wash.); a 2018 patent case brought by Landmark Technology, LLC against Thrift Books Global, LLC and Thrift Books LLC (W.D. Wash.); and a 2008 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act suit filed by Thrift Books LLC as plaintiff (W.D. Wash.).

Regulators. An FTC Cases and Proceedings search for the single word “ThriftBooks” returned “No results found for these filters” on October 11, 2026; a two-word query returned an unfiltered list, so we do not rely on it. We did not complete a search of the Washington Attorney General's or other state enforcement databases, so this page does not say whether a state action exists.

Arbitration terms. The Terms (section 22) require disputes to be resolved by AAA arbitration under its “Commercial Arbitration Rules and the Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes,” held in Washington or, at the customer's choice, by telephone or written submissions, on an individual basis with a class action waiver and a jury waiver, after a 60-day informal period beginning with an email to the company. The company says it “will reimburse those fees for claims totaling less than $7,500 unless the arbitrator determines the claims are frivolous.” The Terms allow claims “in small claims court in the State of Washington, or any United States county where you live or work,” and provide that if twenty-five or more individuals with the same or coordinated counsel raise similar claims, twelve bellwether arbitrations and a global mediation come first. The arbitration letter goes to the company's registered agent, INCORP SERVICES, INC., 4505 Pacific Hwy E, Ste C-2, Fife, WA 98424. We did not find an opt-out clause in the Terms text we read.

Is ThriftBooks Legitimate?

The website thriftbooks.com names its operator in its own legal pages (Thrift Books Global LLC, with a Tukwila, Washington mailing address), lists customer-service email and phone numbers and publishes shipping, return and privacy terms. BBB lists Thrift Books Global, LLC as an accredited business with an A+ letter grade and a file opened on April 14, 2005, and an OpenCorporates mirror of the Washington registry lists it as an active foreign limited liability company. Federal dockets show it as a defendant in a 2025 privacy class action that ended with a voluntary dismissal and in a 2020 publishers' copyright case that the Federal Judicial Center database codes as settled; Justia lists further cases we did not open. BBB (1.21 out of 5 from 39 reviews) and Trustpilot (4.7 from 2,965,056 reviews) display very different review figures; they are separate platforms and we do not combine them. The return and refund terms quoted above are the company's own.

Court & Public Records

Company Relationships

• Owned by: Thrift Books Holdings

Frequently Asked Questions