Unbound Avis 

One star as zero is not an option. Company has gone into administration owing thousands to artists and backers. Have just restarted back up with a new name. DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH THESE VULTURES AT ALL.

Absolute charlatans, robbing money from crowd funding campaigns and authors royalties to set up a digital magazine and buy another business.

They lie and lie again and I would not trust any of the people that work for them. Avoid their new branded version of the same company called Boundless.

I do not recommend this company or Boundless who have taken on their business. Authors remain unpaid and crowd funders have not been refunded for projects that were dropped. Don't trust these people with your money!

This company are a complete disgrace. Leaving hard working and impoverished authors out of pocket for months. Why are you not paying the money owed to your authors? A lot of them are desperately struggling whilst waiting for money that is owed to them. Sick of being fobbed off with lies and broken promises.

Way back in January 2024 I paid some money to unbound to fund towards publishing a book I was interested in. I waited…..and waited…..and waited.
Then a year later in January 2025 I received an email from unbound advising me the book had not reached its funding goals and would no longer be published.
Fair enough I thought, I mean these things happen I suppose. I was advised in the email that the monies that I had paid would be put into an account immediately to go towards funding another book of my choice or I could contact them within 30 days if I would rather them re fund the monies back into my bank account… which I did . I was then advised my money would being be refunded to me after this 30 day period .
It is now the end of February and still nothing …..
I advise anyone to avoid this company totally.

It’s now march 8th and still nothing … no correspondence, no email ….nothing .
My advice to everyone is do not give this company a penny of your money …you will never see it again !!

I crowdfunded a well known author to be told a year later they hadn't started writing the book and then it took ages to be told the book was ready for print. Dispatch has been postponed yet again citing "financial" issues. This was meant to be birthday present for my husband so has a dedication and so on from the author. I don't know where to begin. It would have been cheaper and easier to go to a bookshop when published.

If I could give 0/10 I would!

I ordered 3 books from one author & immediately afterwards realised I’d accidentally ordered 1 as an ebook not a hard copy.

I contacted Unbound & asked for a hard copy to be sent. They sent me an invoice for the difference to be paid & I paid immediately. Then nothing… for months! I couldn’t get through via phone, email, FB messenger. I had to contact the Author who thankfully has a good relationship with his fans on Substack.

Even after he contacted them direct it took months. One day it just turned up! The customer service is none existent & now I hear they’re not paying their Authors.. absolute thieves & cheats who should be shut down.

I submitted an order for a book in mid-November. It took much longer than the estimate to be dispatched, and despite getting Evri tracking, it seems that item never made it out of the warehouse. I got in touch, and a month later a replacement product was dispatched. The same thing happened again - Evri never received the parcel.

In the end, I had to get a refund as apparently the book I ordered is now out of stock... so disappointing.

I do not recommend ordering from here as it is likely that you won't receive the product.

I ordered a copy of a printed book in November and paid express delivery. I can see the order on the account, but have not received email confirmation of the order, or any idea when it will be sent. I followed this up a few days ago and received an email (reason for 2 rather than 1 star) informing me they were having problems with dispatch and would email once it has been sent. No estimate when this might be, apologies, or offer to reduce 'express' postage. Luckily I used PayPal, but would like to know if I need to find another gift in time for Christmas!
I love the idea of supporting authors, but with such bad levels of customer service won't use again.

Ordered a Christmas present mid November thinking I would be comfortably on time. What bothers me is not necessarily the fact that it has not arrived yet, more like the fact that apart from confirming the order on the day I made it, I have not heard anything about the item or the shipment etc.

I have tried to mail the Customer Service a number of times but they seem to be unavailable all the time.

I understand it's a busy period and also that it takes more business days to ship items internationally, but the fact that they don't give me any information is very frustrating.

I only give them 2 stars because I am still hoping they show up and the item will arrive on time. If not, 1 star of course.

EDIT: Dear Unbound team! Thanks for the answer, I have just sent a new mail, it is order #296965

EDIT 2: Dear Unbound team! It has been almost a week and I have not received information if the item has been shipped or not. Please take a look into it.

1 month ago I ordered a signed hardback edition of QUEER AS FOLKLORE by Sacha Coward. It still hasn’t arrived. Despite emailing them multiple times I’ve only had 1 bit of automated communication from them saying they have a delay at their processing unit.

A slight delay of a few days is understandable. But an entire month is ridiculous. I’ve emailed. I’ve contacted via social media and their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. I doubt at this point I’ll even be able to get my money back.

I’ve even been communicating with the author who is horrified that I’m having this experience. Poor guy. He shouldn’t have to be dealing with poor service like this.

Same dismal experience as others here sadly. I paid for a book in advance and four years later they informed me it would no longer be published. I requested a refund. They asked for bank details which I provided but instead they sent the refund to my original that was closed three years ago. That’s my problem to resolve apparently. AVOID

I ordered a book by John Robb, I paid £250 for the highest specification option. The original description included a bespoke, handmade slipcase personalised with your name in foil lettering, 560 page, sewn hardback with ribbon and printed end papers. The website portrayed the product as a very high quality/luxury item - I received a standard copy of the book signed by the author and the number of pages significantly less than promised. The book does not have a slipcase, does not contain a ribbon, nor is it a sown hardback. Unbound has failed to deliver on almost all of the features it promised.

I complained and was basically told that's the end of the matter. They gave me a refund of £20. Effectively, I paid £230 for a signed copy of the standard book. I could've got this at high street book shop for no extra cost.

Do not use this company - the service is appalling and shamelessly over-promises and under-delivers. Disgusting.

A lot of the other reviews here are truly horrible but they do not at all reflect my own experience. I contacted customer support yesterday and had an email back when I woke up this morning. I managed to resolve all my issues with them within the hour with very quick responses. The person I was talking to was also rather friendly and to the point. Overall I am really pleased with how everything has gone.

The book I had pledged money towards was not published. I was therefore offered a refund. Sadly, processing this transaction proved beyond Unbound. After several emails to chase this refund it was eventually sent, but to an incorrect PayPal address. I did send further emails to highlight this matter, but it was never resolved and I eventually gave up.

I pledged for a book two years ago. Now I find that I will never get to read it, because they're only making it available through some ridiculous app called Glassboxx that I've never heard of, which isn't supported by my computer's operating system (Linux) and which won't allow me to read the book on an ereader.
If I'd *not* pledged for the book, and had instead simply waited for it to be released, I could have bought an ebook copy on Kobo for two pounds *less* than I pledged, and actually read the book on my Kobo ereader as I had planned to do. Instead, I have to install some random bit of software I've never heard of to have the "privilege" of reading the book on a tiny phone screen where, at the font size I need, I'd get to read maybe three words at a time.
Not only that, but I didn't receive notification of this from Unbound, but from a random email address from Glassboxx, a company I've never heard of. That email could very easily have been deleted unread or
gone into my spam filter.
What *possible* justification can there be for giving people who paid more money and pledged two years ago a *worse* experience than casual buyers, rather than at the very least an equivalent one?
If they're *going* to do this kind of nonsense, the very least they should do is put in giant 50-point bold italic letters "THIS EBOOK CANNOT BE READ ON EREADERS OR IN THE SOFTWARE YOU USE TO READ ANY OTHER EBOOKS" so they're not going to trick people into parting with their money for rewards they'll never receive.

Absolute scam of a company - paid money for a "soon to be published book " about 18mths ago - Unbound changed their website and my email address is "not valid"
which is very odd since they send 3 marketing emails about up coming books to it EVERY SINGLE DAY - the same email that in the 3 months I have been trying to resolve this I have had 3 responses from their so called customer service - were I an author I would think twice before putting my books out for them to sell

Multiple issues....buying & claiming refunds...the whole experience has done my head in....will use Waterstones next time!!!
DON`T BUY BOOKS FROM THIS COMPANY!
THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY AND THEN YOU HAVE TO FIGHT FOR YOUR ORDER.....

Ordered a few ebooks back in November and been unable to read them on the Glassboxx app. I've sent a couple of messages through the website and nothing. I don't believe they care, they've taken my money and I've got nothing to show for it. Not happy

Supported crowdfunded book in 2022, book published in October 2023. Now 3 months after publishing I've not received the book. Tried to contact support multiple times, but no response at all.