Seller standards

You take pride in your business's reputation, as do we at ObiBooks. For this reason, it is important that buyers trust in both this website and all of the sellers who list books for sale here.

To earn that trust, we have put into place a simple set of minimum service standards that all sellers must meet. Adherence to these standards is a condition of your membership in ObiBooks; see the Member Agreement for more details.

Sellers must deliver items as-advertised.

The items you ship must be exactly as described in their listings. No one wants to pay for a brand new book only to find that it's used, or for a hardcover only to receive a paperback. Misrepresentation exposes you to liability, harms your reputation, and will bring bad karma upon you. Always be honest!

Sellers must respond to buyer questions in a timely manner.

Sellers are required to respond to user questions within 48 hours.

Sellers must not charge unreasonable after-sale fees.

This is subject to the sole discretion of ObiBooks, and includes (but is not limited to) the following:

• Your shipping, packaging, and handling amounts must reflect their true cost.
• Shipping amounts should be at or very slightly above your cost from the carrier
• Packaging materials should be priced the same as what the customer would pay for them at a local office supply or mailing supplies store
• "Handling" charges should be stated clearly in the listing and never exceed the shipping cost.
• ObiBooks looks especially dimly on the practice of selling books at an obvious loss and then charging inflated shipping and handling fees to make the transaction profitable. We will close listings where we see this happening.
• Sellers may not charge a fee to recover credit card merchant fees; this is illegal in many juridictions and strictly prohibited on ObiBooks.

Sellers must deliver items in a timely manner.

• Once payment has been received, the seller may take no more than two business days to hand the item off to the delivery carrier.
• Shipping time quotes should come directly from the carrier's rate card or website.
• ObiBooks allows a reasonable grace period beyond a given shipping time quote before responding to buyer complaints of non-shipment. After this grace period the item is deemed not shipped unless the seller provides a tracking number or other proof of shipment to the buyer.
  • 2 days grace for time-guaranteed express shipments to any destination.
  • 7 days grace for domestic surface or air shipments.
  • 14 days grace for international air mail shipments.
  • 21 days grace for international surface mail shipments.
• Listings should include estimated shipping times.
• If a seller gives a shipping time quote, the seller is resposible for honouring that quote regardless of the cost or the amount recovered from the buyer.

Sellers must use professional communication and decorum.

We shouldn't even need to explain what this means.

• Sellers are solely responsible for the professionalism of their conduct and communication with buyers.
• In the event of a dispute, sellers must remain focused on amicable resolution at all times.

Sellers must meet these standards consistently.

We have a three strikes policy, with old strikes eventually expiring. On the third un-expired strike, a seller's account may be suspended or closed.