Language Book Centre - Frequently Asked Questions

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

A: We do not list every available title on our web site.
However, if you give us as much detail as you can, we'll research it and get back to you as soon as possible.
(usually within 24 hours!)

Within Australia

International

Q: What items are in your database?

A: We only list those items that:
Are currently in stock;
Are currently on order with any of our many Australian or overseas suppliers;
or
Have been received by us during the past 12 months.

Q: How does the New Arrivals page work?

A: This function enable's you to find those books and other items that have been received by us for the first time.
You can select time periods of 7 days, 14 days, one month, three months, six months or 12 months for any product category listed on the left hand side of this page.
Some titles may be re-issues of old books, or the paperback edition of a hardback that has been around for a while, or simply a book (or edition) that we have never had in store before, (including some fairly esoteric special orders!)

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.
When our availability response is that a title “normally ships within 24 hours” then that title is in stock and the price should be accurate, providing we have sufficient copies in stock to meet your requirements.
When the response is greater than 24 hours, it is possible that the price will have changed when we re-stock.
If the new price is greater than that quoted on our site we will confirm your order with you before charging or sending.

Q: What are your security policies?

A: 

Abbeys 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.

Your payments are processed via an industry standard 128-bit SSL secure connection, ensuring that your payments to Abbey's are safe and secure.
The SSL server is certified by Geotrust.

Q: How do I order a book from your store?

A: On the basket page, click on the Checkout button. Then either enter your login name and password (if you have previously ordered) or enter your name and address details.

Q: I have an Abbey's Card

A: Yes. All your web purchases will be sold against your name and count towards your rewards. We will be making changes to the site so that you can keep your Abbey’s Card number within your customer record and it will be sent to us each time with your orders. In the meantime we will be extra vigilant to ensure we record the sale against your name.

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 last step of the order process, select your preferred option. Either send us the order (with a cheque) by post or pick it up in the store and pay by cash or EFTPOS.

Q: Is the book I am ordering available now?

A: Your search will indicate availability for each title.

“Normally ships within 24 hours” indicates that 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 within 24 hours. 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.

“Normally ships within XX days” indicates that the book is not in stock. The number of days to “ship date” depends on whether the book is on order, where it is coming from and the average lead time from that supplier. If we believe we cannot achieve this commitment, we will notify you.

E-mail us books@abbeys.com.au for more information.

Q: How do Title/Keywords and Author Searches work?

A: This search finds items with a Title or Author that matches any word/s, or the first part of any word/s, that you enter.
"America note" will find American Notes, as will "note America". "dicken" will find Dickens, but "ickens" will not.

The more words you enter, the narrower the search. If unsure whether the title is America Notes or American Notes, only enter "America Notes".

Q: I need more information about Author Searches

A: Author Searches (not case sensitive)

Author names can be input in whatever order you like, but do not enter full stops or commas.

eg

You would not find Patrick White titles if you entered:

You may get some unusual responses, because the Author field often contains information about the author that is searched by your query.

eg. A search for p d james will give you all the P D James titles but also a book by Fredric Jameson (Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, Duke University, North Carolina, USA). eg.

If you know the category in which the book belongs, you can use the Advanced Search to narrow the search.

In the Author field, insert p d james
From the dropdown category box, select Fiction.
Almost all the titles not written by crime writer P D James will be eliminated.

Q: How to do an Advanced Search?

A: Author-the same as the search function.
Title/Keywords (All Terms)-the same as the search function. Every word, or stem of a word, that you enter must be found for the title to be displayed. eg "America Note" will only find titles with both those words in them; it would find American Notes as well as Noteworthy Americans.

Title/Keywords (Any Terms) finds titles with any of the word/s, or stems of word/s, that you enter. eg"America" finds any title with that word in it. If you enter "America" and "Note", you will get titles with either of those words in it, so this search may produce a large number of responses.

Title/Keywords (Phrase) finds the phrase anywhere within a title. However, the order in which the words are entered is paramount. "Bound Feet and Western Dress" could be found easily if you just entered "Feet and Western".
This search is also useful for one-word titles, especially if the word is short, since you narrow the search to only those titles that have the word entered as a stand-alone word. eg A Phrase search for the Spanish text "Ya" finds only 12 titles, whereas the All Terms search finds almost 100.

If you wish you can include information in as many of the advanced search fields as you wish to narrow the search.

Q: What about Punctuation?

A: In general leave it out but see notes on apostrophes and hyphens.

Q: What about apostrophes?

A: When you believe a word in a title should have an apostrophe you will get the best results by not entering the apostrophe or the letters in the word following the apostrophe.
eg.

Q: What about Hyphens?

A: If unsure about a hyphen in a Title, 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.

Author names must have the hyphen, although you could use the first part of the hyphenated name (without the hyphen), together with the christian name or initials.