Business Profile
Book Publishers
IngramSparkThis business is NOT BBB Accredited.
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Reviews
This profile includes reviews for IngramSpark's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see
Customer Review Ratings
1.15/5 stars
Average of 46 Customer Reviews
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Review fromMary E
Date: 08/31/2024
1 starIngram Spark has the worst customer service ever. I have written their customer service text after text, and it's clear that no one human is reading what I write. Every singe time I just get boilerplate that doesn't address my issue, but that clearly is being triggered by a few "key words."
I enabled distribution of my book and then uploaded a revision. Enabling distribution too early was my mistake. But after almost a week, the revision still doesn't show on the site. I can't change or look at the book's metadata or anything else--I just get a "pending" message. This is apparently because IS received five orders for the book (the existence of which I'm skeptical about), and their policy is to print all orders before accepting any revisions. (How does that make sense? Then the people who ordered the book get an incorrect copy.)
The five orders may or may not really exist--they only show up on our dashboard, not anywhere else. But can I get a person at Ingram to look into our account and let me know what's going on? Nope. We are up against a book launch date that originally seemed far in the future--but it looks as if we are going to have no books for it.
We have used Ingram for many years, but, after this book--if it ever gets printed--I will be shopping for a new print company.IngramSpark
Date: 09/03/2024
I am unable to find any inquires from *** *********. Support will contact directly.Review fromJoseph S
Date: 08/18/2024
5 starsIngram Sparks is great. They will publish your book on 40,000 + platforms ******, ******, Etc. People writing bad reviews don't upload their manuscripts and artwork correctly like they should, so don't blame Ingram Sparks. They provide great customer service, tools, information, pricing, and overall book publishing capabilities. They are second to none. Just make sure you have your artwork and manuscript formatted correctly of which they clearly show on their website how to do it or hire some. They provide Great telephone email text or live chat support. Do what I say and you will find out how great they are in assisting you in publishing your book throughout the whole universe. Thanks Ingram Sparks for the great assistance tools and services. Keep up the great work.Review fromWhitney V
Date: 06/27/2024
1 starI finally got a reply to my email requesting help but it did NOT help. This shows that customer service did not fully read and properly reply to my stated problem. I said in my original email to IngramSpark: I can’t change my old email address because that email address does NOT exist anymore, therefore I can’t receive and verify the verification email in order to change the email address to my new email. I see that all the reviews here and elsewhere are almost uniformly negative... it is easy to see why!IngramSpark
Date: 06/28/2024
Support is already working with *** ******** to verify her account. We are resolving her accessibility issue.Review fromWhitney V
Date: 06/24/2024
1 star800 number? NO. Other phone number? NO. Can you call customer service? NO. Call you can help center? NO. Did I get a reply to my email from their help center? NO. **** DO THEY CARE?IngramSpark
Date: 06/26/2024
Thanks for sending this.
I see support has responded to both of ********* emails. We will contact her again directly to resolve her concerns.
Thanks.Whitney V
Date: 07/02/2024
I uploaded two new books on 6/24/24. I got a message that the books would be processed within 3-5 days. SEVEN days later, the books have NOT been processed and there have been NO emails or notifications as to why the books are LATE. I have a book launch on 7/6/24, and it is IMPOSSIBLE to have a book launch event when there are NO BOOKS available.Whitney V
Date: 07/05/2024
It seems that IngramSpark can NOT do anything right. Very sad and super frustrating! I received two e-proofs for my books a WEEK LATE. There are MANY pages missing with no two-page spreads, which puts it out of order. This makes it impossible to approve, let alone publish. I will have a book launch on Saturday with NO BOOKS.Review fromCarlotta B
Date: 06/10/2024
1 starThey had a summer sale to ship 1 to 25 books for $0.99. I made two 25 book orders on May 29th. One had a tracking number and showed up last week. The other had no tracking number and never showed up. Here is the response I got.
While this method often provides a tracking number, it is not always updated correctly. Because tracking for this shipment method is unreliable, it is considered untrackable and also uninsurable, leaving the publisher liable for and assuming all risks of damage and loss.
When placing an order, the publisher selects their shipping method. When Basic Shipping is selected, the box below populates, and the publisher must tick their agreement that Lightning Source is not responsible for lost and/or damaged shipments.
If they do not agree, they can revise their shipping option.
We understand any frustration that may result from receiving an order damaged in shipment or not receiving a package. However, because this order was submitted with the Basic Shipping method and agreed to the verbiage above, this claim is not eligible for replacement or credit.
Please know we value you as a customer and appreciate you and your business. When submitting orders in the future, we strongly recommend using a shipping method that offers trackability and insurance, such as *** Ground, 2-Day, or Overnight.
Your sincere advocate,
Zak
Sr. Client Support Coordinator
It is unacceptable to take someone's $119.75 and not give a refund or replace the product because they selected the basic shipping sale that your company offered. I am an indie book author and do not have money to give away. Send me my books are send me my money back.IngramSpark
Date: 06/11/2024
Greetings,
We have contacted *** ***** directly to support her with her order issue.
Thank you.Review fromAbigail B
Date: 06/10/2024
1 starI'd leave 0 stars if I could. What a terrible company. I've had my book enabled for distribution for months now. Can any booksellers find it to list in their catalogs? No. Apparently my book just doesn't appear on Ingram's wholesale catalog. There is not way on my end to fix this or understand what's happening. I have been emailing with customer support for months now and my book STILL isn't there. I'm almost definitely talking to robots at this point. Every time I ask a question, I just get something clearly copy and pasted from some FAQ list that doesn't even address my issue. I'd take my book off completely if I could even get help with that. Terrible experience from start to finish. Would NOT recommend any author working with them.IngramSpark
Date: 06/11/2024
Greetings,
Support is already in the process of getting this error resolved. Support is contacting her again.
Thanks.Review fromLouis V
Date: 05/19/2024
1 starAbsolute worst customer service that I have ever experienced as a small business owner. I have never received an order on time or even close.
Every time that I have contacted customer support; which is every time that I have placed an order within the last two year; I receive the same generic response (usually 2 business days later). When I push for a resolution , the request is kicked up to a senior customer service representative. This senior customer service representative usually responds two or three days after that and almost always has nothing to add. Usually suggest contacting quality services. By the time that you hear back from quality services your order has finally arrived, usually damaged and several weeks late.
To any future potential business owners, customers, and artists, I would tell you from experience, if there is any other alternative to Ingram Spark you will be better served choosing the alternative.
Lastly, Ingram will eventually reply to these negative reviews and tell you that customer service is working to resolve. This is not true. I have six or seven issues including responsiveness, late delivery, damaged product, and printing and delivery overcharges, and I have only ever had one issue resoled. That was when they sent me a completely wrong book order.IngramSpark
Date: 05/20/2024
Support is contacting this customer directly to assist with a resolution.Review fromErik T
Date: 05/09/2024
1 starThey have the world’s most slow and insulting customer service department. Ask one person a question and they might get your issue resolved in a month. Ask a LAZY employee the same question and they’ll say “we’ll send it up to someone more important” which means your issue will never go to anyone ever.
To make things worse, their system is reliant on AI, which doesn’t understand any case-by-case scenarios. They have no flexibility when you’re publishing; so if you neglect to check all the boxes the way THEY want you to (without human rationality to discern a reasonable explanation for your particular situation), they’ll subject you to their abysmal customer service purgatory.
This is the fourth time I’ve had to deal with them. Clearly I’m very patient and tolerant, but even I have my limits. I know exactly what they do and how they do it, which is why (when sending in my most recent complaint) I joked to my friend that they’d email me in a half a week with a useless response, and to nobody’s surprise, I was on the money with what their response would be.IngramSpark
Date: 05/20/2024
Support has contacted *** **** directly to resolve.Review fromCecilia B
Date: 02/07/2024
1 starIngramSpark is a joke. Their customer service doesn't exist. I've reached out to them numerous times about an issue I was/am having and no one has any idea how to fix it, I get useless information OR I get silence. I tried the online chat and they were far less than helpful. They told me to do things I had already tried and then needed to "investigate further" which meant I got no further response. I tried a phone call, sat on the line for twenty minutes and NO ONE got on the line. I tried to delete the account all together, there's no way to do that except them "sending a ticket to the appropriate people". It's ridiculous and frustrating and I just want to be done with this company at this point.
The issue could have been resolved pretty easily but no one seems to care about the clients/customers enough to do anything.IngramSpark
Date: 02/09/2024
Hello, our support team has contacted *** ****** and is resolving directly with her.
Thanks.IngramSpark
Date: 05/10/2024
Support will contact *** **** directly.
Thanks.Review fromLee H
Date: 02/01/2024
1 starAfter being the gold standard for so long, this company has taken a turn into being absolutely horrible almost to the point of being a scam company. I placed an order for almost $2,000 worth of inventory. It took this order a MONTH to get to us, and when it finally arrived, the books were completely defective. The books were misaligned and crooked to the point where we had to cancel an event because the books were unsellable. We tried to call, but there is literally NO phone answering service. Every phone call to the company leads to a voice message that says, "All answers are on the website," *click*. There's not even an option to press a button! So we submitted a ticket requesting a refund, and...crickets. Nothing, not even a confirmation email stating that the ticket was received. Am I going to get my $2,000 back? Is anyone even going to read the ticket? At this point, I'm not holding my breath. Between the absolutely plummeting print quality and the LITERALLY non-existent customer service, if you're a publisher looking to get your book out there, look elsewhere. There's not even a mechanism on the site to disable distribution once it's enabled! So this book that they have all misaligned and crooked is out there now for all the world to purchase, with nothing on the site to give the publisher the option of taking it off the market until the issue is resolved. Lightning Source is an absolute joke. Legal action is on the table for us.IngramSpark
Date: 02/01/2024
We will contact the customer directly and work t resolve issues.
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