Books That Matter Anmeldelser 

Scam company. Quick to take money but won’t send the items. The few boxes that arrived months ago were damaged or contained out of date food. AVOID

After paying £120 upfront for a book subscription and enjoying the service for a few months, it was announced this would be cancelled and refunded.
Like most of these other reviews, I've contacted them dozens of times via Instagram and email and had no response.
Truly awful service which I hate to say considering the idea behind the company is great.

Similarly to many of the people here I have bought a subscription as a gift for my sister's 30th. She has chased them several times and they have charged me the money but never sent any reply to her emails or sent any books.

I started using Books That Matter in 2020 and was always so happy with the service but then August the 14th 2023 I ordered books and a mystery tote from them and its been 15 weeks and nothing.

I have e-mailed roughly 7 times and had 1 reply to begin with saying they will be shipped in around 3 weeks but since then no reply at all to my messages. They were quick enough to take my money but now they haven’t even got the decency to reply to my e-mails when they aren’t delivering the product.

I am so disappointed because I was so supportive of this company and this is how they treat their loyal customers.

They have since rebranded (Aphra Book Club) and by the looks of the comments here alienated a lot of their previous customers by doing the same thing. Taking the money and delivering nothing.

I paid for an order I’ve never received after trying to update my address before the order was sent. Hermes sent me back to them. No customer service or poor response. Rebranded to alpha book club as seems multiple people have had bad experiences.

Order never arrived and they've stopped replying to emails.

I never received what I had ordered and the customer service is basically non existent. I still haven’t heard back - it‘s been 6 Months. My comments on their lnstagram where I let them know that I‘m still awaiting 4 Packages get deleted everytime I post them.

I have placed two orders and both times the products have failed to arrive.
Avoid this company if you like receiving the products you have ordered.
They are very poor at communicating with you if you email with a problem, I am still waiting for a refund for an order I placed in August.

Similarly to a good few other reviewers I ordered a Mystery Tote Bag way back in August. Heard nothing so emailed in September to try and get an ETA on it and was told they’d received a high volume of orders and to keep an eye on Instagram for news on shipping. We’re now in October so emailed again for an update only to be told now that all stock of mystery bags had been shipped and they didn’t have any left. I was instead offered one of their October boxes in replacement and credit to my account to use on any future orders. (Note there was no offer to refund). I accepted this but have not heard back yet so who knows if I’ll actually receive any of this. It’s quite frankly shocking business practice, and incredibly poor communication. It should not be the job of customers to have to email a company to find out that their item on order is out of stock and will not be arriving. They should have contacted all customers impacted and automatically given refunds. Instead they’ve been deleting comments on socials, opening a brick and morter store and burying their heads in the sand. Definitely don’t recommend ordering anything from them.

P.S. Books that Matter are now rebranded as Aphra Book Club (assuming this is a way to try and avoid the bad press)

I’ll update this review if I actually do end up receiving a box or further communication.

Very poor experience. I ordered some books and a mystery tote bag. I waited and waited and nothing arrived. I chased it up only to be told that they could not fulfil my order. I was offered a different product and credit to my account both of which have never materialised. I have sent multiple emails and Instagram messages which have all been ignored. It is really hurtful that they are then posting on their social media about sending out October boxes and opening a book shop but I am left in limbo over my order. I was trying to support a female led small business and ironically I never would have had all this stress if I had just ordered my books from Amazon! I would not recommend this company, I would actually actively encourage you to avoid them.

Dear Molly, Please reply to our phone calls and emails about the overdue balance that you owe us. The overdue invoices are very old and you have stopped communicating with us. We are putting your balance out for legal collection next week, and all legal costs will be passed on to you - Kind Regards, James Dawkins

Exact same as Emma B below in regards to Mystery Tote Bags. Offered a Sept and Oct box but nothing even 9 days after being told they would be sent straight away. This is after ordering mid-August. They do a great job on their socials of appearing competent but sadly mine, and many others experience, tells a different story. I would avoid ordering online from them, but maybe visit their Book Shop they've opened as there won't be delivery problems in person :)

Books that Matter are now Aphra book club (maybe this is why they've rebranded!)

Review will be updated if I receive products and/or go through my credit card for a refund.

DO NOT SIGN UP! If I could give zero I would. Two payments taken in June and still nothing received. I had to go to my bank to get the money back, which was then disputed and returned to the seller.
I then received an email asking me to re subscribe. So over £40 taken and nothing received. I understand small businesses may taken a little longer for things to be sent, which is why I waited till September to put the claim in. I wish I had read the reviews before signing up!

Used to love these boxes and enjoyed lots of them during lockdown, when they really cheered me up. Now they're re-branding as Aphra ? Books, and the whole company seems to be falling apart. They had a sale recently, and I ordered 2 lots of random books and tote bags from their surplus stock, 4 weeks later nothing, emails ignored, finally get a message from 'Molly' who tells me that they ran out of stock, sorry, how about the September box instead? I said no, I just want a refund then please, NOW, since I have waited 4 weeks for NOTHING. Back to ignoring me because I won't do what she wants and I had to open a dispute with Paypal. I still haven't got my money back but she'll find if you ignore Paypal they find against you and they'll just take the money. So at least there's that. I won't be ordering anything from them again as I suspect they may be in trouble and I will never see my money or any books again. Shame.

Signed up to this in December 2022, paid for a year upfront, I think I have received 1 book on time in that period, there were months where they didn’t arrive and I’ve honestly now lost track if I have received everything I was meant to. I have had to get in touch with them constantly to chase missing orders and honestly I am so bored of it. After months of the books not arriving they offered me either 20% off their bookshop or 10% refund, I chose the 10% because this company isn’t getting any more of my money ever again. I have been chasing this refund for 2 months now and I’m just ignored by their customer service team. Ignoring customers and not delivering the service is making me feel so powerless.

I bought this subscription as a treat, and it has been so disappointing, I can’t wait for it to be over so I never have to deal with this company again. For a company set up on the idea of books that matter, they treat their customers appallingly, I’ve never had such poor service from anything before.

They’ve had a rebrand recently to Aprah books in what I assume is an attempt to distance themselves from the appalling reputation.

AVOID!

Dreadful company - I have a 12 month subscription which i am 10 months into. Have only received 6 months of books. Keep being told they are I. There way . Note they have changed there name to Aprha book club.
Don’t hand over your money.

I used to be a fan of this company but now I am the complete opposite. All of the 1 star ratings are true.
It's week 7 since I placed my order with a promise of a 3-4 week shipping when I placed it. I have been in touch with customer service and they are USELESS. They do not give an estimated time for arrival and said that my order HASN'T EVEN BEEN PACKED. They delete any instagram comments that ask where their order is and any negative comments (which are completely justified tbh). It would be so much better if there were transparent but they've taken my money and run off with it. Please please do not give your money to this place.

I WILL NEVER ORDER FROM THIS PLACE AGAIN.

Do not buy.

They take your money and never send your order or respond to your emails.

They've recently rebranded and I'm guessing this is why.

I would give 0 stars if I could.

DO NOT USE!!!
I ordered a tote and mystery books on the 14th August.
With a 3-4 week turnaround estimate on them.

I still haven't received the items I purchased and the team at Aphra are now removing any comments on Instagram that is asking about where their items are.

They are not willing to be transparent, and I have now seen from another purchaser that they came back to them advising they had over committed to orders. They have not put this on their website or emailed anyone that had ordered. I also feel that they would have know this before we got to almost week 7.

I have now gone through Paypal for a refund as I am over the whole situation to be honest.

Terrible experience with BooksThatMatter (or Aphra books now they’ve conveniently changed their name …. To separate themselves with all the hundreds of bad reviews I assume) they have taken 2 months of subscription money and not sent me a thing. Ignoring multiple emails and messages on social media. They’re deleting any comment I leave in their Instagram posts - which by the way is so so disrespectful they carrying on posting “funny TikTok’s” whilst they clearly owe lots of young women money. Disgusting way for a company to run especially during a cost of living crisis. I advised anyone else in the same boat to report them to trading standards as I have.