I ordered an expensive book from Alibris that was supposed signed by astronaut Alan Shepard, one of the co-authors. However, the signature in the book is NOT real and has almost zero characteristics of Shepard's documented signatures.
In fact, the fake Alan Shepard signature is so far off from the normal, that there is no way that an informed person could look at it and believe that it is genuine.By the way, a simple Google search for "Alan Shepard signature" brings up several examples of Shepard's real signature. There are actually dozens of Internet locations showing legitimate signatures, including several websites well known to collectors. So there is really no excuse that the seller should have attempted to pass that book off as a signed copy, when it is so easy to find out what a real signature looks like.
So, obviously, I have to return the book and get my money back. However, despite the fact that a careless (or dishonest) Alibris seller caused this problem and not me, Alibris thinks I should be stuck with the shipping charges.
Evidently, Alibris' policy is that one of their sellers can, for example, either send the wrong book or a completely misdescribed book or package the book so badly it is destroyed in transit or, as in this case, attempt to defraud me with a phony signed book, but the buyer is automatically stuck for the shipping charges. I.E., any Alibris seller can totally screw-up an order or cheat a customer, but it is the buyer's responsibility to pay for shipping to correct problems caused by the seller. And if you fail to follow their return policy to the letter, you don't even get a refund on the merchandise!
One more thing... I attempted to call Alibris customer support, and after a half dozen automated prompts to get me to the right department, a prerecorded message told me to leave information (name, phone #, Alibris order #, etc., etc.) and someone would call back. As soon as I started talking, I was cut off, and a recording asked if my message was correct; I pressed the button indicating it was not, since I had been unable to leave any message. I then had to listen again to the same long intro about leaving messages, and as I again started to leave a message, I said "Hello" and was immediately cut off again. Their automated-only phone message system is a disaster!
The measure of a good company is how it handles problems; of the several Alibris orders that I have made, this is the first time I have run into a situation requiring a solution. Due to their rip-off policies, Alibris customer support has failed miserably!
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