Chapters Indigo Reviews 326

Not sure what happened to Indigo, but the company is not what it once was. I’ve been a paying Plum member for over a decade and I’ve spent at least $10k with the company, probably a lot more. I cannot get a real person. The chat feature is poorly calibrated and inefficient. I reached out weeks ago regarding missing, damaged and poorly packaged items (totalling hundreds) and have not heard back.

UPDATE: I did eventually hear back and they made it right. But it took weeks and they had to refund me as the product was not available. If I’d known this would be the case, I would have re-ordered myself as it was in stock when my items came the month before they finally replied.

As a Plum Plus member with Indigo for the past 6 years, I have never experienced such a frustrating and disappointing customer support interaction with any brand. It is truly bewildering how customer support could respond in this manner. I have been a loyal customer, having spent nearly 800 CAD at Indigo. However, after exactly 40 days of making my purchases, I discovered that all the items I had bought were now on a 70% discount. As a regular Indigo shopper, this came as a shock to me.

I reached out to customer support and provided evidence, including dates and prices, to support my case. However, the customer support representative, named Latesha, responded with an auto-generated email, simply stating, "Sorry for the inconvenience. We cannot price adjust or return items as it has been more than 30 days." This response left me utterly disappointed and frustrated.

I must ask, why did the prices suddenly drop by 70%? This is the first time I have experienced such a significant price reduction, and it left me feeling cheated as a loyal customer. The lack of a meaningful response and the reliance on automated emails is disheartening. Indigo, this is a shame, and I will make it a point to ensure that none of my friends or family continue to shop with your brand. It appears that, after the cyber attack, your systems and customer support have suffered, and you are losing customers day by day.
This is not the way a brand should value its customers. Indigo's customer satisfaction seems to be at an all-time low. Shame on you, Indigo.

Don’t understand, I get an email within 2 days from the two purchases that’s says items are ‘ ON ITS WAY!’ The tracking number the email provided doesn’t exist on the courier website. My account on Indigo says items not shipped! Did you just fabricated the order and kept my funds? That’s criminal. The automated HELP desk doesn’t help at all.
This happened in Nov 2022, your explanation was cyber attack, my order was never filled after a month of waiting. What is their excuse now??? It has been over a week of no response to problem, all I get is the run around!

Because their agents are busy. Every 5 minutes i have to keep telling bot that I am here and don’t throw me out of queue.

This is the second day now that Ive tried to order books from indigo online. And twice theyve told me: "Sorry, we are unable to retrieve the fulfillment details for your cart at this time." Why?
Ten years ago, same thing! Seriously, DO THEY WANT MY MONEY??

Indigo’s service was so bad it has inspired me to make my first ever negative review of a company. Items, despite being listed “in stock”, are seriously delayed in shipping. Communication with the company is near impossible (waited 40 minutes on hold to speak to a human) as their chat line was unproductive. When doing a “pick up in store”, I was not notified when my item was available and by chance I phoned the store, who said they were shipping it back because I hadn’t picked up. One obstacle/disappointment after another with this company.

I’ve had no problems with receiving items and returns at Indigo and chose them to support a Canadian business. But now I’ve decided to take my business to Amazon as their new website is HORRIBLE. My wish list had about 30 items on it and when they changed their website I lost my wish list. Then they sent me a list of items that had been on my list but many items were missing. Can’t find some items and books that were previously on my list Plus I live in Ontario and have set my store as the local one close to me and everytime I open the app it shows a store in Montreal. Also even though I never sign out of the app, I have to log in every time. Never had these problems with the previous website!

The customers service is awful as hell, they don't care at all about the problem and it's so long and frustrating. And once I was charged twice for a book that is expensive what is this???

They love to cancel orders without notifying the buyer. It’s irritating and a waste of time ordering from that site especially as an international customer.

They had the worst leg space and worst seats, even on the new plane they have, they always make us pay extra hidden fees for nothing and are sketchy like ever other low cost airline, fly Air India instead as they have free meals and better seats

I tried to order a book for in store pick up, but eventually gave up. My experience mirrors those of other reviewers here, so I’ll spare you the details. Since I was using a gift card, I dropped into one of their stores to see if I could find something else. The place had the vibe of a store going out of business. The book selection was slim pickings, and more space is now taken up by what looks like stuff left behind by a Bed Bath and Beyond that closed ten years ago.

The staff has as much knowledge of books as I have of nuclear physics, none. They seem embarrassed to sell books. Perfunctory, rude service at online order pickup. The space allotted to books -- the original reason for the company -- is dwindling. Why does Indigo not just give up?

I placed 2 online orders with them in the last month and my experience with both orders was horrendous.

My first order was placed in early June and was for textbooks that I needed for a course starting in July. Their website noted that the items will be shipped within 1-3 weeks - it has been over a month and the books have yet to be shipped. Needless to say I did not get them in time for my course.

My second order was for a pre-order item and I elected to pick up the item in store. Their system notified me that my item was available for pickup but when I got to the store their staff refused to give me the item because it had not been released. Wasted an hour of my life driving to the store and coming back empty handed.

I have been a loyal customer of Chapters/Indigo since the 1990s. Even as the business model shifted to online I often choose them over Amazon to support Canadian business. After this experience I will not buy from them again.

I purchased a victrola turntable for my granddaughter. It did not work and never did work. Indigo would not issue a credit because it had been over 30 days. Indigo said to go to the Distributor. VICTROLA did not respond. Don’t buy from Indigo, and don’t buy a Victrola turntable. You might as well rip your money up.

No customer service in store or on phone. Online ordering has limitations - where do I put my PLUM PLUS discount number? I no longer have a PLUM card & use my phone number in store.Kiosks did not work last week when trying to find a book that was somewhere in store.
When PLUM card expires, I will not be renewing.
Great service in the independent book stores in town.

I've finally had enough of their bad service and felt the need to write this review. Being the only major book store retailer in Canada has made it hard for me to look else where for books but I've have so many bad experiences both with their website and their customer support team. To start off, I would be very careful when checking out to always make sure you are getting any discounts correctly. Most recently during their Buy More Save More sale, my order was charged the completely wrong amount. I was to save 25% off my order when I purchased more than $75. The fine print and sale details did not state anything about items already on sale. When I added a sale item to my cart, it did not subtract 25% off the lowest price. I thought that maybe it would be 25% off the original price. But when I did the calculation it was neither. I reached out to support and they confirmed it should be on the lowest price and they ended up giving me a price adjustment refund. I'm just thinking about everyone who didn't thoroughly check and just cashed out. They never fixed the issue and it was the same throughout the length of the sale.

On to today's issue - it's a hit or miss if pre-order books actually arrive on or before their release date. I've pre-ordered 3 books, one set to ship in June, one for August, and one for September. The book is supposed to release on June 14th, however I see that you're able to order it today and pick it up within 2 hours, yet my pre-order hasn't shipped and probably won't arrive until after June 14th. I wrote into support to see what was happening and received this response:

"I am seeing that one of the pre-order books is suposed to be delivered in August and the other one is in September. Therefore yes you will receive those books when it is time for delivery."

.... Now what about the book in June that I specfically asked about????

I ordered several books back in late March and they were delayed, so I waited for a while for a update and once again, delayed. Ultimately waited several more weeks and delayed again until finally, Cancelled. When I ordered Non-book Items they arrived however when it comes to books, they won't arrive.

I've had successes and misses with online shopping at indigo. I've had items (books, baby items) arrive within the timeline advertised. I've had a book cancelled. I am currently waiting for an order that should have arrived weeks ago. On the day it was supposed to arrive, it was still not shipped and I received a 'order delayed' email and no other communication since (the item was in stock). My suggestion is not to order any time sentitive items if you do choose to order something. I contacted customer serivice (their chat system is painful if you don't exactly fit within one of their categories). They serve you pre-made answers that are irrelevant to your case before reading what you wrote and don't follow up in a timely fashion (I chose email communications rather than live chat).

Pre-ordered several books from them and I often get emails saying, “unfortunately your item is no longer available”… I pre-ordered several months in advance and seems like they don’t prioritize their customers who have already ordered the books online. Then, when things sell out online for my pre-ordered books I have to go in store to find it instead. Ridiculous, since my orders were bought with discount now they make me purchase them when its regular price and sale is over because only then is the book available. Honestly, so tired of this company who can’t even manage their online book order system properly.

Received a $50- gift card as a thank you for a presentation I did a few weeks ago. Im not a big Indigo/Chapters shopper but my grandsons first birthday is this week so when I went online I saw a little trike for toddlers and ordered one with a helmet and a beach towel (promo). Within a few hours I receive an email from indigo saying so sorry one item is no longer available so we are cancelling this item. Of course it was the bike. I called to say I used a gift card and will go and see if there are other bikes but wait!! i dont get the refund (or the gift card) for FIVE business days. What a scam. I'll make sure I let my circle know what a poor experience Ive had. Garbage customer service.