The Co-op

Co-op book store – Literally THE WORST way to buy text books. They are TERRIBLE with time, delivery and contact/support. DO NOT USE THEM!!! They need to close their doors, they are not viable as a business in ANY WAY that is legitimate. They do not deliver on time AND I PAID FOR EXPRESS.. Show details

Terrible – I ordered and paid for my text book and when I did not arrive by the due date I rang the Co Op and was told it was out of stock and it would take 5 weeks to source new stock. Good customer service would have been to inform me of the problem. I was asked if I wanted a refund after I complained but I noticed my membership fee was retained. Avoid this place.

Shocking service – Ordered my textbook online 3 weeks ago, labeled as in stock and ready to ship. Rang 3 days ago for an update and have only just heard back that it won't be in for at least another week. When paying such exorbitant fees for textbooks I expect better service, and certainly better communication. Save yourself the trouble and order elsewhere online, my other textbook from Booktopia arrived in 3 business days.

Online order and collect in store was excellent – So for my university books this year I have decided to once again try to order online . I ordered online and selected click and collect. I was worried that the processing time would be over the one day as I have had a horrible experience with shipping (they didn't inform me the book was out of stock the minute I bought it and still charged me --… Read more

only returned the funds unwillingly when I asked for it). But the click and collect was great and saved time.

"Making the Grade" – This textbook is easy to read and is a must for academic writing units. I will be using this text as a reference book while working on assessments. Definitely stays on my bookshelf!

Coop bookshop was uncontactable but finally all emails were answered – I wrote the below review based on past experience and fear based on reading all the many bad reviews. While it seems that the Coop bookshop deliberately do not take phone calls, they do answer emails. After little more than 24 hours each of my emails was answered and while it took a few goes to fix my account, everything was fixed and a refund has… Read more

been received for the member discount not processed on my order. The book was delivered from Victoria to Sydney via Australia Post 3 days after being ordered. It is frustrating not being able to talk to someone especially when the website says call this number for help. That aside, the service was good and I have changed the rating accordingly.

Previous review: Sent an email to link my online account to my membership number (the link enables discounts). No reply. After 24 hours I phoned the number on the website. Got a recorded message saying they had high call numbers and that I should send an email, then the call was terminated. From reading other reviews this is a stock standard recording that has been there for at least a month. It seems that it is impossible to contact anyone. 5 years ago I changed addresses (people do that) and I asked (by email) for a new membership card (the old card had my address on it from 10 years ago). I got an email confirming I would receive a new card; followed by an email asking "how did we do?". The card did not arrive so and replying that they had completely failed. I did not get a reply. 6 months later I tried again by email. Exactly the same thing happened. The Co-op appears to be an incompetent organisation and only prospers because it essentially has a captive audience on university campuses.

Adversarial management stand over staff members, culture of poor pay, – Bullying in the workplace is rife in this organisation, divisive culture from the top down that sees the student ownership base as the enemy rather than the employer. Close it down and wrest control back to the students and not the opportunists as it was initially intended.

Really Slow and Unreliable!!! – Bought my textbook with the website saying it is in stock and would take only 3-5 days to arrive. After waiting more than a week and hearing nothing I contacted them and their response was quite vague and didn’t really provide me with information that I didn’t already have. Still didn’t even get a shipping confirmation but the textbook finally arrived and when I opened the packaging it was damaged. They really should package books more carefully.

This store should be closed down – Ordered my text book on the 17/07/2019 express knowing I would be starting the next week. Finally found out on Monday that it is on backlog even though the site stated it was in stock coming from Joondalup. I was told it wouldn't arrive till week 5. There are no online copays in the library as I live a long way from the university (on of the reasons I chose to study online) I am now probably going to have t9 withdraw from this unit. Show details

NO LONGER DISCOUNTING FOR MEMBERS – Went to place an order today. My member discount was not applied. So I called. The members discount is no longer available for new textbooks. Only for second hand books.

Terrible customer service – I ordered my university books on the 16.06.2019. I called today as the semester starts next week (22.07.2019) and I still haven't received my books. The lady I spoke to said that one of my orders was placed with a supplier that doesn't have it in stock and she would now transfer my order to a supplier that does. So here I am waiting for my text… Read more

book and if I hadn't of called I would've still be waiting, none the wiser. Why are orders placed with suppliers that don't have stock in the first place? Then my second order is still out of stock (has been for a month) and will take approximately another 2 to 3 weeks to arrive. Come on Co-Op get a system that works or find suppliers that provide! Students shouldn't have to be waiting a month in to their semesters for text books. Let's hope my local library has the books and I don't get sick from stress because I fall behind.

Ripping People Off! – This organisation advertises merchandise online for a discounted rate. Once you pay the $25 joining fee to validate the discount, they say the merchandise is "out of stock" yet the joining fee is "non-refundable. This is unethical and staff and students are losing their money. Contact numbers and email addresses are incorrect. BEWARE!

I have never had service this bad at any other online store – Bought a Jelly Ball Lamp for my son for Christmas-wires were not soldered on in base and lamp did not work. Phoned the Co-op after two months of not receiving the replacement promised. Second one took two weeks to arrive-this one was also faulty. Was asked to return second lamp so I could get a refund. Spent $8.30 sending each lamp back-$16.60 in… Read more

total. Money refunded was $19.99, so I'm out of pocket for the two lots of postage totaling $16.60. Won't be purchasing from The Co-op again!

Most stressful online shopping experience ever – Ordered my textbooks from them. The order number never show up on the digital receipt (and they always asked for the order number when you contact them for help!). They need 24 hours for an order to show up on their database and then send a confirmation email to the customer with the order number! (which is ridiculously slow as these two things… Read more

should be automatically sent after order placement). Even if you just place an order minutes ago, you can't cancel/ alter it yourself without having to request to them via either the queuing-forever live chat or a pop-up window in which you write your request and hit send and god know where your message will go to. This site is the dinosaur of e-commerce. Most stressful online shopping experience ever. I ended up cancel all my orders and switch to booktopia, much better customer experience there. They also have a bookshop in my university, two times I went there the staffs were stressful and cranky.

Terrible – Ordered 3 books. Received 2. Wrong invoice. Tried to call. The lady don’t even know what she is doing and can’t help and asked me to call Magill campus to fond out. She doesn’t even have a phone number for me. No help!

Don't even bother to deal with this company! – I was planning to sell my old textbooks as I don't need them anymore. Then, I remember how Co-Op advertises "selling your textbooks and get money from your unwanted textbooks". So I checked all the ISBNs in the Buyback Search and found out that they accept to buyback 6 of my textbooks. As it says on the website, "Head into your closest Co-op… Read more

store for a payday." Today, I went to the University of Melbourne Store in Carlton with SIX TEXTBOOKS.

One of the staffs started scanning the book one-by-one and she said, "I'm sorry, but we don't accept any of these textbooks."

I said, "But I've checked your website and it's accepted in the website."

She replied, "Yeah I know, but we don't run the website. It doesn't matter what the website says then. Sorry."

Are you kidding me? I just spent one hour of my time carrying 6 heavy textbooks and you don't even accept any of it??? Their "Sell Your Textbooks" advertisement is misleading and false. What a fraud!

Buy back policy – I have over $600 worth of textbooks that were purchased from the co-op bookstore just a few months ago. They ask you to type in a code on the back of the textbook. I then get a message that they wont buy these back, tried them all and got the same response. They will never get another cent out of me..

Takes membership money for lifetime membership, abandons University of Queensland store unannounced – They had a store at the university of Queensland. Several students paid for lifetime memberships and they just left suddenly. This is unethical and untrustworthy. It is labelled as a co-op but seems purposefully designed to not let members know many details about the AGM or to participate actively in it

Avoid ordering through The Co-op – I am beyond annoyed at the Co op store. I ordered a construction law textbook 5 weeks ago, they only called me last week to notify me that it was unavailable and that they would have to refund it to me. At the time of ordering it wasn’t out of stock so I don’t understand why or how this could happen. If I had known earlier I would have used my… Read more

money to buy the textbook elsewhere. In addition to this my candle came in and was damaged. Now I have to go through the process of returning it. I regret ever buying anything from here.

Shocking Ordering System – So I ordered some linear algebra lecture notes two days ago, by paying for it at the store. I go to the co-op today, and apparently, I was meant to receive a text confirming the order. So here I am, still waiting for the text two days later, so I can collect my lecture notes, which I desperately need for the subject. It would have been much… Read more

quicker to just wait until they were back in stock (i.e. today), and just buy it normally. Absolutely incompetent company. DON'T order from them.

Lucky if you get a textbook during the semester – Every time I've made an order I've had to wait until the end of semester to get my order. Doesn't matter if you pick up or order online.

Be warned. Do NOT buy from this company!!! – I ordered a text book online from this company. After two weeks they emailed me to inform me the book was back-ordered and suggested that I could cancel the order as one of the options, which I decided to do since I needed it quickly as a required reference for a subject I was studying. Then came the nightmare, two months later another… Read more

representative from the same company sent me an email and told me that the book had been shipped out. Numerous emails later... the book came. For the months following I had been trying to return the book to get my money refunded, but the company simply ignored my emails. So I am simply putting it here for those of you who may be considering to buy from this company.. be warned!

Took money instantly, order lost in their system, took 3 weeks to arrive – Ordered and paid immediately on a Sunday night, did not hear anything for a whole week. Phoned them the following Monday and they could not find my order, apparently a glitch had the order sitting in system waiting to be approved. Lady could not approve, had to call back in afternoon. Called back and another lady also could not approve, had to… Read more

wait an hour for a phone call back from manager.

Spoke to manager Monday afternoon who advised it was posted NOW and should be delivered to you Thursday.

Hear nothing again until I get a shipping notification on the THURSDAY to say that my parcel is on its way!! from literally the other side of the country, when there are stores within 10km from me.

Now having to request an extension on my assignment despite ordering the book over 2 weeks ago!!!!

Hopeless service- books and refunds can take months – would not recommend at all, books can take months to arrive, some never arrive at all and refunds can take months or never at all..

Absolutely hopeless! Would not recommend at all! – The co-op is absolutely hopeless! Ordered Microsoft office for my Mac. One week later no email to say shipped and no package. Sent an email to say that they will check on it and that it will be on it’s was soon. Turns out it was never in stock. 3 weeks later, we are still waiting for the refund, after numerous phone calls and emails, we are still… Read more

trying to get our refund back. Quite happy to take your money but not so happy to give the money back even tho the product was not in stock! Would not recommend to anyone!

Do not ever buy from this place – The Co-op is 100% hopeless and I do not recommend buying your uni books with them. I put in an order received one book 3 weeks later one book 5 weeks later and one never came at all, when enquired I was told even though it was listed as in stock they did not have it and did not know how long it would be until they could get it. I was offered a… Read more

refund to which I agreed, it was from this point forward that they ignored my emails and refused to pay the refund until over 2 months later and a lot more emails and calls. The customer service was just horrendous, this whole thing left me without the books I needed form my course and was a giant waste of time. Utterly hopeless I am amazed that they are still somehow able to operate.

Said it was in stock, spoiler alert: It wasn't – I ordered a book online with express shipping last week, and online it said it was in stock. Fast forward to today, still haven't received my book and went online to check the order. It said it was still "processing". I made a call to the co-op store only for them to say that they had cancelled my order two days ago. Without letting me know… Read more

neither via email or phone. I needed this book by Sunday for an important assignment! Hence, the express shipping and placing an order a week and a half in advance! Now I'm bookless AND without money because the refund still hasn't gone through. Disgusting service and I will never buy from here again if I can avoid it.

They have no idea the problems this has caused for my assignment as now I don't have to book to complete it, I have never written a bad review about anything in my life but this is seriously just bad service.

Shocking slow and confused service – Had a problem with needing to merge online member number with store number when store closed-website says contact us-email not answered after over a week so tried phone-line (down first few days)- tried a store (not able to help)- tried later phone on hold so long phone went flat-sent another email-eventually i bought the book without member… Read more

discount because was saying instore and time was passing, need the book-subsequent received email have merged accounts. 2.5weeks later still no book and new online member number doesn't show the order. Sent another email-no answer-on hold on phone told book is on back order! They will source it from another store and send it. I won't hold my breath! The semester is disappearing!

Previously have been charged for delivery when have had to go into a store to pick it up because they made an error and was not refunded the delivery fee because the store staff could not do it-really bad no apology no effort to rectify, painful to deal with time consuming, this is not how to run a business.

Extremely poor service – Two orders were placed (and paid for in full in advance) with the Co Op - each of them containing a request for two identical textbooks (both of which were in stock and still are). When dispatched, only one textbook was received in each order and we have been trying to resolve for over a month with no luck to have the other two books posted out.… Read more

The outlet in question is Macquarie Park. The store does not answer calls nor does it seem to reply to email messages. Also waiting on a refund (for over a month) from a third cancelled order. The Co Op customer service team also are not proactive in following up complaints or helpful in resolving problems. Will not be purchasing any books from co op again, nor will I be recommending them to anyone else.