frequently asked questions

The Book Exchange is all about offering avid readers nationwide a price-friendly way of discovering, reading, buying and recycling fiction books.

All you have to do is create an account on the website, send us your book and so long as it meets our trade-in standards, we will credit your account with £1 to redeem against all or part of your next purchase on the site.

The books you send us will one day be treasured by another book-lover so we ask that all the books you trade-in are of good quality – if you wouldn’t read it yourself please don’t send it to us.  All books are checked by a member of The Book Exchange team before credit is added to your account and need to meet the following criteria:

–  A good reading copy, clean with no underlining, notes or highlighting
–  No rips, tears or repairs
–  Spine may show some wear but all pages must be intact
–  There may be limited text on the inside covers (i.e. your name) but no annotations in the main body of the book
–  If it has a dust jacket this should be present.

We are interested in recent and classic fiction and biographies and although we love second-hand we are not antiquarian dealers, anything out of the ordinary may be accepted but will only be worth £1 credit to your account.

We do not accept non-fiction text-books or encyclopaedias, folio prints, art books, Readers Digest, Mills & Boon or promotional copies of books i.e. those that state ‘Not for Resale’.

Unfortunately we are not able to return books that do not meet our trade-in standards, these books are passed on to charity on your behalf.  I’m afraid that no credit will be added to your account for books that do not meet the criteria so please make sure you only send us books that are of good readable quality. 

Your credit never expires, it is completely flexible and you can keep it in your account for as long or as short as you like.

Unfortunately this is not something we can accommodate at the moment. Currently if you are logged in to your account and have credit accrued all your credit will be used to pay for the item, you can’t specify how much credit to use per book purchase. However if you don't have enough credit on your account, you will just need to use your credit or debit cards or paypal to pay the balance or if you would prefer to keep your credit stored for something else simply specify this at checkout. We are always developing new ways of working though so if this is something you would be interested in please let us know

We try to ensure that all products are sold as described, of satisfactory quality and fit for the purpose described. If you find that a product is faulty, incorrectly described or unfit for purpose you can request a refund, repair, replacement or claim compensation. If this happens to you please check our returns policy for next steps but in a nut-shell please let us know what the problem is by emailing us at info@thebookexchange.co.uk and provide some proof of purchase, either a receipt, credit card bill or bank statement within 30 days of the product being received. We will then endeavour to refund or replace the product for cash or credit up-to to the value of the item when purchased.

We understand that from time to time you may wish to return a product to us. We have created a 7 day returns policy to enable you to return products to us in appropriate circumstances. If this happens to you please check our returns policy but in brief please return the product within 7 days following the date of delivery to you making sure the returned product is unused, in its original (unopened) packaging and otherwise in a condition enabling us to resell the product. We will then refund you the original cost of the product minus the delivery charges.

You can become a member of The Book Exchange community from any page on the website by clicking ‘My Account’ in the top right of the page. Follow the simple steps, adding your contact information and a password as you go. Once you are a member you will be able to send us your used and pre-loved books for credit, as well as leave comments, reviews and recommendations for other readers and have an even easier checkout process for all your future purchases.

You can also become a member here

The Book Exchange Ltd recognises that your privacy is incredibly important and that it is your right to control your personal information. The Book Exchange will never sell, rent or disclose any of your personal information, to any third party without your consent. Please check our privacy policy for all details relating to how The Book Exchange handles the personal information that you provide to us.

All our customers are incredibly valued members of our community and we would be sad to see you go. However you are free to cancel your membership at any time, simply email accounts@thebookexchange.co.uk and we will organise your cancellation to take effect. Please check our terms and conditions for full details on cancellation.

We pride ourselves on excellent customer care and strive to take all your comments and feedback into consideration to ensure a great customer experience across the website. If you would like to let us know how we are doing please email us via the contact us page. We will review comments regularly and will develop working practices in light of these wherever possible.

If you have a more serious complaint these can be made in writing to us via the comments form, letter or email. We will endeavour to respond to complaints within 7 working days.

We do ship items via airmail to countries within the EU, simply specify your country from the drop down list at the checkout and we will do the rest (please make sure your address is entered correctly). 

Unfortunately we are unable to offer shipping outside the EU at the moment, if this is something you would be interested in please drop us a line by email to info@thebookexchange.co.uk and we will do our best to make this happen in the future.   All our overseas friends can still become members to leave reviews, recommendations and take part in discussions on the blog.

All our pre-loved books cost £2.50 and customers are able to select their preferred postage at the checkout from first, second, recorded, collect+ or airmail delivery.  Postal rates are currently set at:

*Recorded - will be via Royal Mail's Second Class Signed for Service

As such the heavier your package the more costly your postage will be.  Please email us at info@thebookexchange.co.uk if you would like to clarify your postal charge or if you would like to bulk order over 15 books.