Q: What if the book I am looking for is not listed?

A:  We list over 3 million books on our website. However there are many more books in print in the English language. If there is a title you cannot find on our site , please contact us, giving as much detail as you can, and we'll research it and get back to you as soon as possible. 

Q: What items are in your database?

A: We list a wide range of titles in English, with almost every book available in Australia and most that are in print internationally.

Q: How do I find new and forthcoming books?

A: We have filters down the left-hand side of the page that enable you to Narrow Your Search. If you are browsing a category, or have searched on some keywords, you can select Forthcoming from the By Publication Date filter – then only those forthcoming titles from your results will be shown. Similarly, you can select Last Month to show only those published in the last month.

Q: How accurate are the prices on your website?

A: Every effort is made to keep prices current, however the prices quoted are subject to change.

Books that are “In Stock and Ready to Ship” are on our shelves in York Street, Sydney and the price should be accurate, providing we have sufficient copies in stock to meet your requirements.

When the book is “Available from our Supplier”, it is possible that the price will have changed when we order it for you. We regularly update these prices, however they are subject to change.

If the new price is greater than that quoted on our site, we will confirm your order with you before charging or sending.

Q: Will my online purchases earn me loyalty rewards?

A: We do have a loyalty  program - see About Us. Books sold online against your name count towards your rewards. Please advise your Abbey’s card number when making your first online order. Subsequent orders will be made against the same customer record, so your purchases will automatically qualify for rewards.

Q: What are your security policies?

A: Abbey’s takes the issue of customer security very seriously.

Any information you give us is treated with the utmost care and is not disclosed to third parties for any reason. All customer information is considered confidential and will never be sold, rented or shared.

We are PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) Compliant. This is a strict security standard that the card schemes (Visa & MasterCard) have introduced globally to ensure personal information is properly protected. Our payment gateway, through SecurePay, holds the highest level of PCI DSS accreditation.

See our Privacy and Security page.

Q: How do I order a book online?

A: For the item you want, just click on Add to Basket. On the top right-hand corner, your basket will drop down to show you the contents. You can proceed to the checkout page immediately, or continue shopping. Once ready, you can select the checkout button either in the basket, or just below the banner. You will be asked to login as an existing customer, register with our site, or you can just proceed to purchase without registering.

Q: What if I don't have a credit card?

A: You can place orders through our store even if you don't have a credit card. In the order process, select ‘Send Cheque or Money Order’, or ‘Pay in Store’. Then you need to either send us the order with a cheque or money order by post, or pay in the store by cash or EFTPOS. Items will not be sent until your payment is received.

Q: Is the book I am ordering available now?

A: Your search will indicate availability.

In stock and ready to ship - the book was in stock when the site was last refreshed (daily). If the book is no longer available when your order is received, we will advise you accordingly. If at that time we have been unable to confirm with our supplier when it will become available, we will advise you as soon as we find out.

Available from our supplier - the book is not in stock in our store. We will order it immediately for you and notify you of its expected arrival date. If we discover the item is no longer available, we will notify you and suggest a possible replacement edition.

For more information, email us at orders@abbeys.com.au.

Q: How does your Search work?

A: Our search has Google-like functionality. You can enter a word or words from the title, author, a keyword you think may be found in the subtitle, or you can enter the isbn, or any combination of the above. The more information you include, the closer your results will be to finding a correct match. See the search tips link next to the Search box.

Q: How does Advanced Search work?

A: Advanced Search – see link next to the Search box. You can search within specific fields: title, author, description, ISBN or imprint. You can also select a publication date range, category, price range and format (along with the other terms) to give you more specific results. Include information for as many of the Advanced Search fields as you wish for the best results.

Advanced Search - category search
Just begin typing and subject categories will be suggested - select the one you wish. Please note the book will need to be in the specific category for this to return a result, eg. if searching for Rangers Apprentice novels, using Rangers as a Title word and selecting Fiction & Literature will not give you the desired outcome as these are in the category General fiction (Children's&YA).

Q: What about Punctuation?

A: In general, the site strips out punctuation, so be aware that this may change the results - see the note on hyphens.

Q: What about Hyphens?

A: Hyphens will be stripped out - the two words will simply be put together, which will affect your results.

If unsure about a hyphen in a Title or Author, leave a space where the hyphen should be. This will find the two separate words, regardless of whether the hyphen is in the database. If unsuccessful, delete the space and search for one word.

eg. Moby-Dick returns the same results as Mobydick, whereas Moby Dick returns completely different results.