Why buy from Lake Country Books and More?
Experience
We've been selling books and media online since 2003 on most of the major book selling venues and a lot of smaller ones. This is our full-time business, and we've shipped thousands of items to customers worldwide. We work hard to fully and accurately describe the products we sell, because we feel an obligation to be the "eyes" of our customers, who don't have the benefit of personally examining the items they buy online. Because we try to include any flaws we find, no matter how minor, our customers are often pleasantly surprised that the items they receive from us are in better condition than expected.
Customer Service
We truly appreciate and respect our customers, and do everything we can to make shopping with us a pleasant, easy experience. Have a question about an item on our site? Need a scan of a book cover if one is not shown? Would you like to know if there's a particular track on a CD we have listed? We're just an e-mail away - and we answer most within 24 hours. Once in a while we're out on a buying trip; if that happens you'll get an auto-response letting you know how soon we'll be able to respond.
When you contact us, you're communicating with the people who bought your book, listed it, shelved it, and are going to ship it. You aren't going to get some canned response that doesn't answer your question, or work with a cubicle-bound "customer service" person that's miles away from the warehouse and hasn't a clue what you're asking. If you have an item-specific question, we'll have the item in hand when we respond.
We're happy to handle special requests after the sale. We often ship books as gifts. If you let us know when you place the order, we can make sure there's no packing list included (although our packing slips do not include prices), and can even add a personal greeting from you if you wish to e-mail us a note to include.
What we have listed, we have in stock
If you've bought books or media on other web sites, you might have been disappointed to find the big "mega-seller" has canceled your order, or that it takes unusually long to receive it. Here's an insider bit of information: those sellers that claim they "ship from 5 warehouses nationwide" aren't shipping from their OWN warehouses - they're having items drop-shipped from multiple publishers or distributors. In other words, they have no control over the inventory they're selling. They don't even own it!
Some sellers simply re-list other dealers" inventories that are listed on the web, with a nice markup for themselves. If they receive an order, they hope they can still buy the item from that dealer. If it's been sold, they cancel your order, because they never actually had the item in stock!
At Lake Country Books and More, we don't play those kinds of games. We list what we have, period. Because we sell on multiple venues, on rare occasion the same item will sell on one site and minutes later, on another site, before we have a chance to update our inventory. If that happens, we'll notify you IMMEDIATELY and issue a prompt refund. Out of fairness, we always honor the first completed order we receive. Our web site inventory is updated hourly, so if you see it here, you can feel confident the item is available.
Superior Shipping
We always ship within 2 business days. Usually we ship next day, and if we receive your order before noon Central time, it will often ship the same day. Not only do we get orders in the mail quickly, but our packaging is some of the best in the business. Please see our Shipping Info page for more information.
We send an e-mail with every order to let you know your package is on its way. We include the Delivery Confirmation number issued by the Postal Service, which can often give you some indication of where your item is in the mail stream. While not a full-blown tracking service, with Media Mail items, you'll see when a package has cleared major mail processing centers. If you do NOT receive an e-mail from us, it may be because your spam blocking software or Internet Service Provider has prevented its delivery. Please add sales@lakecountrybooks.com to your address book to ensure you hear from us.
Hassle-Free Returns
We're not happy unless you're happy. US customers have 7 days from the date of receipt to return most items. Please see our Customer Care page for details.
Be Green - Buy Used
Buying used media keeps items out of landfills and keeps publishers from over-printing by limiting the demand for new copies. While we understand you may want a new copy for a gift or special collection, many used books look nearly new, and are great choices for personal use. We encourage customers to recycle the cardboard boxes we use to ship orders in. And the plastic sleeve we place around books for moisture protection is archival - it can be reused to safely store important papers, clippings and other ephemera.
A History of Happy Customers
We've maintained a 100% positive feedback rating on Amazon.com and eBay, as well as the smaller sites we've sold on, throughout our long history of selling through those venues. We look forward to counting you as our next very satisfied customer. Come experience the quality of the Lake Country - you'll be glad you did.
Pull up a chair and relax - there's always a good book to read in the Lake Country.