As an avid reader and a book blogger, I have to admit I was very excited when NoQ approached me for a review in exchange for a 30 dollar voucher to try their service.
When it comes to my books, I’ve pretty much converted over to e-books. I have a US amazon account billing to a US credit card, and thus get full access to the kindle bookstore. I prefer having 100 books or more on me at all times, and after five years, it’s second nature to read on my phone.
The girls, however, use physical books. I tend to buy them in person at Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City, or order them from Amazon (free shipping for orders over 125 USD) or Book Depository (free shipping on all books). Locally, I’ve tried the online book seller Open Trolley, but I found their prices high. So I was interested in seeing how NoQ stacked up.
I took my 30 dollar voucher and headed over the website.
my NoQ box
The first title I searched for was The Pigeon Needs a Bath. When I first searched for it, I couldn’t find it. When I searched again, looking for the author and then his most recent books, I found it, but it was annoying that it didn’t display when I did the title search. I’d rather find something and be told it’s out of stock than not be able to find something because it’s out of stock–because at that point I don’t know if they’re going to stock it at all, or if I should just order it from the US. At the time, Open Trolley was also out of stock. Open trolley price=26.48, Book Depository=19.94 NoQ=17.25 WINNER NoQ
The second book I looked for was The Duckling Gets a Cookie? (This is by the same author as the pigeon books–Mo Willems–and was another title of his that we didn’t yet own) Both Open Troller and NoQ had the book in stock. Hardcover edition–Open Trolley=21.54, Book Depository=19.09, NoQ=18.11 (purchased) WINNER NoQ
Ooooh! Mommy, can we read this first?
Kate DiCamillo is an author whom Elanor enjoyed recently. She has launched a simple chapter book series, so I ordered the first book for Elanor. Mercy Watson to the Rescue– paperback edition Open Trolley=8.60, Book Depository=8.52, NoQ=6.78 WINNER NoQ
Rhiannon has been on an Eric Carle kick of late, so for her I ordered Pancakes, Pancakes! Paperback edition–Open Trolley=10.29, Book Depository=9.63, NoQ=4.51 WINNER NoQ
My total was 31.46, so after my voucher I paid 1.46 sgd for this purchase. I was pleasantly surprised to see that NoQ lets you pay with your paypal account, which is unusual, but was the method I went with.
I placed my order on June 16, and got the notice that my package had arrived in Singapore on June 27 (7 working days, the low end of the 7-14 the notice told me it would take).
I received an email from NoQ on the 27th letting me know that the corner of the Pancakes Pancakes! book had been bent in transit. They offered me a new copy (that would take a bit longer to arrive) or to accept the copy as was sent with a 10% voucher. In my 4 years in Singapore, I’ve been largely underwhelmed by customer service, so I was actually really impressed that they contacted me, offered me the discount, and sent a picture of the “damage” so that I could evaluate what I wanted to do. I took the book and the discount for my next order.
Rhi is completely happy with her “damaged” book. I probably wouldn’t have noticed the slightly bent pages, to be honest.
I received a text from NoQ on June 30th telling me my books were out for delivery that day. I called the number to see if I could arrange a later delivery in the day or to just leave my books at my door, as we weren’t going to be home until after 4. They couldn’t do so, but the delivery window was 2-8 pm, so by luck it didn’t arrive until after we were home.
That night we read new books and everyone was happy.
Pro / Con
Compared to Open Trolley and Book Depository, NoQ is the clear winner in terms of price. *****
*******EDITED TO ADD—A few weeks after I wrote this post, I decided to buy the Secret Kingdom series by Rosie Banks for Elanor. She’s read a few of them and wanted the rest. They are absurdly expensive–15 SGD at Kinokuniya. So I priced them out between NoQ and Book Depository. For a total of 17 books, Book Depository was 15 dollars cheaper than NoQ, even with my discount code.
Delivery time is roughly the same between all three competitors. The only place Open Trolley has (had?) an advantage was that you could pick your books up physically at a store in Plaza Singapura if you didn’t want them delivered, which is a convenience I appreciate. Book Depository will give you free shipping regardless of your order size and charge you more money overall. NoQ extends free delivery in Singapore with a minimum order of 25. The company that makes sense for you will depend on you and your needs at that time. (Edited to add–see my comments about the Secret Kingdom series)
Because I do a lot of shopping in the US with Amazon, I thought it was only fair to do a price comparison, as a 125 dollar order will get me free shipping from them with roughly a 2-3 week delivery window. The two Mo Willems books are cheaper on Amazon (13.42 and 13.78 respectively), and the Eric Carle and Kate DiCamillo books were within pennies of the NoQ price, which surprised me. I honestly expected a bigger gap in price. For hardcovers, I may still benefit from going with Amazon, but for paperbacks, based off my small sample, there’s probably no benefit to going with them unless I already have an order coming together.
Will I shop there again?
Yes, absolutely. The prices are competitive and the customer service impressed me.
Discount alert!
The nice people at NoQ have also passed on a gift to my readers. You guys can get an exclusive 15% discount on all purchases at NoQ Store when you use the code BOSTONIAN at checkout between now and 31 October 2014.
