Book People, the
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Book People, the
Member Name: MorganaDQ
Product:
Book People, the
Date: 12/02/01, updated on 12/02/01 (137 review reads)
Rating:
Advantages: Cheap books, excellent service, they keep their promises
Disadvantages: None
I was first introduced to The Book People a few years ago while working at a school. I walked into the staff room to be faced with a table full of books and catalogues for them. I had a good root through them and flicked through the catalogue, to see extremely inexpensive books, a lot of which were bestsellers. Then I saw the promises of 'no obligation to buy after the initial introduction offer'.
It's no wonder I was sceptical, because I'd never seen it before. I'd already been a member of another book club a couple of years previous to this, and had no end of problems with them. But, I talked to a few of my work colleagues and they assured me that it was all legit.
I didn't go for the introductory offer, but instead ordered my choice from the collection at the school (because the school would get the points from my order - I'll explain in a moment). Much quicker than I expected, my goods arrived at the school. I was nothing but impressed with the standard of goods. Because of the big reductions I expected them to be slightly sub-standard (who wouldn't?), but was pleasantly surprised.
A little later I recieved my first catalogue through the post. Needless to say, it didn't take me long to place my next order. The catalogue is sent once every two to three months and there's no hard sell.
I was astounded again to see the huge reductions. How many times have you seen promises of up to 50% reductions from goods yet not found any evidence of the offer in your follow-up catalogues? Imagine paying just £3.99 for a book which, in the shop, would cost £12.99! These are exactly the types of offers to be found. And they're not one-off either. The whole catalogue is filled with them.
The range of books is excellent too - half of the catalogue is taken up with childrens and adolescents books, followed by sports, entertainment, classic authors and poets (e.g., Oscar Wilde, R
obert Burns), reference, gardening, home-decorating, self-help, cookery (including the best names - Delia Smith, Jamie Oliver, Madhur Jaffrey), plus novels to satisfy any taste. Some are single books, others can be bought as collections. Some are hardback, some are softback. There's usually a page dedicated to packs of greetings cards, calenders, etc., too.
It doesn't end there either. I mentioned points earlier. When you buy your books, for every full pound you spend you recieve one point, so for example, a book which costs you £5.99 would earn you 5 points. All points are carried over to the following orders. Once you've collected 50, 75, 100 or 200 points you can choose 2, 3, 4 or 8 free books respectively. The range of titles you can recieve is limited in each issue of the catalogue, but the choice is just as varied in topics as the rest of the catalogue.
Now you may be thinking that postage is going to recoup their losses on the books. Not at all. The price you pay for postage and packing is no different to any other mail order club I've come across. Standard delivery is just £2.95 unless you request next-day delivery which is £4.95, and that's for the whole order, not per book. There's even an option for OAP delivery which is just £1.50 (prices correct at time of writing op).
They promise delivery within seven days, but I've always recieved mine within five. You do need to send payment with your order, unlike most other companies, but I don't find this a problem. If you phone your order in you can instantly find out if they're in stock, but if you mail your order and something isn't available you quickly get a refund. They also have a website... www.thebookpeople.co.uk which is easy to navigate. Their order line is separate from their customer enquiries which means that the waiting times are reduced, and their staff are nothing but polite and helpful in my experience. Their n
umber for customer enquiries is 0870 6077780, should you suddenly have the desire to ring them after reading this ;)
When all is said and done, this is an excellent book club which keeps its promises. I would happily recommend them to anyone, and often have.
Happy reading :)
It's no wonder I was sceptical, because I'd never seen it before. I'd already been a member of another book club a couple of years previous to this, and had no end of problems with them. But, I talked to a few of my work colleagues and they assured me that it was all legit.
I didn't go for the introductory offer, but instead ordered my choice from the collection at the school (because the school would get the points from my order - I'll explain in a moment). Much quicker than I expected, my goods arrived at the school. I was nothing but impressed with the standard of goods. Because of the big reductions I expected them to be slightly sub-standard (who wouldn't?), but was pleasantly surprised.
A little later I recieved my first catalogue through the post. Needless to say, it didn't take me long to place my next order. The catalogue is sent once every two to three months and there's no hard sell.
I was astounded again to see the huge reductions. How many times have you seen promises of up to 50% reductions from goods yet not found any evidence of the offer in your follow-up catalogues? Imagine paying just £3.99 for a book which, in the shop, would cost £12.99! These are exactly the types of offers to be found. And they're not one-off either. The whole catalogue is filled with them.
The range of books is excellent too - half of the catalogue is taken up with childrens and adolescents books, followed by sports, entertainment, classic authors and poets (e.g., Oscar Wilde, R
obert Burns), reference, gardening, home-decorating, self-help, cookery (including the best names - Delia Smith, Jamie Oliver, Madhur Jaffrey), plus novels to satisfy any taste. Some are single books, others can be bought as collections. Some are hardback, some are softback. There's usually a page dedicated to packs of greetings cards, calenders, etc., too.
It doesn't end there either. I mentioned points earlier. When you buy your books, for every full pound you spend you recieve one point, so for example, a book which costs you £5.99 would earn you 5 points. All points are carried over to the following orders. Once you've collected 50, 75, 100 or 200 points you can choose 2, 3, 4 or 8 free books respectively. The range of titles you can recieve is limited in each issue of the catalogue, but the choice is just as varied in topics as the rest of the catalogue.
Now you may be thinking that postage is going to recoup their losses on the books. Not at all. The price you pay for postage and packing is no different to any other mail order club I've come across. Standard delivery is just £2.95 unless you request next-day delivery which is £4.95, and that's for the whole order, not per book. There's even an option for OAP delivery which is just £1.50 (prices correct at time of writing op).
They promise delivery within seven days, but I've always recieved mine within five. You do need to send payment with your order, unlike most other companies, but I don't find this a problem. If you phone your order in you can instantly find out if they're in stock, but if you mail your order and something isn't available you quickly get a refund. They also have a website... www.thebookpeople.co.uk which is easy to navigate. Their order line is separate from their customer enquiries which means that the waiting times are reduced, and their staff are nothing but polite and helpful in my experience. Their n
umber for customer enquiries is 0870 6077780, should you suddenly have the desire to ring them after reading this ;)
When all is said and done, this is an excellent book club which keeps its promises. I would happily recommend them to anyone, and often have.
Happy reading :)
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