Frequently Asked Questions

ABOUT LIBRARYWALA

Librarywala ™ is India's First largest online book rental service of its kind. We help you foster your habit of reading.

We offer our members the benefits of Convenience, Collection, Choice & Cost.

  • Convenience – Doorstep delivery and pick up services

  • Collection – Over one Lac books to choose from

  • Choice - Books available in more than five languages

  • Choice - Books available in more than five languages

Librarywala.com started operations on August 1st, 2007 in Mumbai with 8000 unique titles, and slowly started getting members by word of mouth, within the first few months itself we started getting a great response and a huge demand from other cities in the country, we started our services in Bangalore on January 19th, 2008 and consequently in Pune on November 20th, 2008.

Key Achievements:

- Over 35000 retail members.
- Over 1.5 Lac corporate users using our services.
- Librarywala.com has won the Star Entrepreneur award 2009 by Indira international innovation summit.
- Librarywala.com has won the Finalist award among the top 30 finalists in the Tata & Nen startup awards (chosen from a total of 600 companies started in India)
- Librarywala.com has made it to the Limca book of records 2010 for being the First and the biggest online library in India.
- Librarywala.com has been nominated for India 5000 best MSME award for quality excellence 2017.

We have 1 Lac + books that you can choose from, we have books in 7 languages. Our collection of books is well distributed among the following categories which are further divided into sub-categories for easy access of members:

Business & Management Non- fiction Biography Gujarati
Fiction Films History & Current Affairs Tamil
Self-help Children Religion Kannada
Health Sports Marathi Hindi

We carry multiple copies of most titles in our Library, and are constantly upgrading our collection, based on your feedback, your requests, and what's hot and happening in the world of books. We buy more copies of the books depending on the demand for the same by our members. For e.g. we have 120 copies of the book “The Lost Symbol” and around 33 – 40 copies of the books like Shantaram, A thousand splendid suns, The Kite Runner etc.

We offer our members the benefits of Convenience, Collection, Choice & Cost.

  1. You have access to a range of titles rarely seen at your local library. Choose from our wide selection of books - everything from New Releases, Classics, Best Authors, and Best Sellers in various categories & Languages. And, all our books are original releases, so you don't have to deal with shaky prints!
  2. We deliver to your doorstep, and collect the books when you're finished, at absolutely no charge.
  3. There are no late fees. That's right! You can actually keep the book for as long as your account is active.
  4. Our rental plans offer enough flexibility to suit your particular reading needs. The average cost per book read gets as low as Rs 24.91/-
  5. Being a member with Librarywala™ means so much more than just original prints of great books. You get to share your views by reviewing the books you read, make recommendations to your friends, and help decide the popularity of a book by rating it.
    You can express yourselves or follow us on Facebook, Blog or youtube.
  6. Books are also available in English & regional languages like Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil etc and all that under one roof.





ABOUT CHOSING THE APPROPRIATE PLAN & PAYMENTS.

To Join librarywala.com one has to pay the following
One-time charges:
Registration fees: Rs500/-
Refundable deposit: Rs500/-
You can choose from our various subscription plans – Solo, Cubic, Basic, Special Children, and Classic plan depending upon your reading requirements and in accordance to the number of readers in your family.
  1. Solo plan: This plan allows you to borrow and read only 1 book in a month, in case you finish the book within the monthly period then to get another 1 you will need to renew your plan & in case you do not finish the book in a month and want to still read you need to renew the plan so as to keep the book with yourself.
  2. Cubic Plan: This plan allows you to read only 3 books in a month and keep 2 books at a time with yourself, once you finish any one of the books that you have you can request a pickup and delivery for 1 book (the 3rd book for your plan). Please note the books do not get carried forwarded from one month to another so in case you do not complete the 3 books quota in a month then your pending book is not carried forward. (Suitable for a Single Reader in a family)
  3. Basic Plan: This plan allows you to read only 6 books in a month and keep 2 books at a time with yourself, once you finish any one of the books that you have you can request a pickup and delivery for 1 book also. Please note the books do not get carried forwarded from one month to another so in case you do not complete the 6 books quota in a month then your pending book is not carried forward. (Suitable for a Single /two Readers in a family)
  4. Classic Plan: This plan allows you to read only 12 books in a month and keep 3 books at a time with yourself, once you finish any one of the books that you have you can request a pickup and delivery for 1 book also. Please note the books do not get carried forwarded from one month to another so in case you do not complete the 12 books quota in a month then your pending book is not carried forward. (Suitable for family with more than One reader)
  5. Special Children Plan: Considering the importance of inculcating reading habits in children we have a Special Children Plan for Rs199, where you can take 10 books in a month and are allowed to keep maximum of 2 books at a time. In this plan delivery and pick up of 2 books is compulsory and the member has access to only children category of books.
All the above plans are also available for 3, 6 & 12-months duration with some added benefits:

Discounts: When you take a 12 months membership you get certain discounts that are equivalent to the 1 or 2 months subscription charges – hence you pay only for 10 months and get membership for 12 months, in case of 6 months membership you pay for 5 months and get membership for 6 months.

Books carried forward: when you take a 3, 6 or 12 months plans then we credit the total number of books in your account as per the plan chosen by you, you can read them as and when you want. You need to finish the same before the plan expiry date.

For e.g. – if you chose a cubic plan for 6 months then the plan allows you to read 18 books in 6 months – 2 books at a time – now here you can read more than 3 books in a month or read only 1 book without worrying to lose on the pending books.

You need to complete the allocated quota within the plan period – please note that the pending books from this billing cycle will not be transferred to the other when you renew for e.g. in case you have completed only 15 books in six months the pending 3 books will not be transferred.

In case you finish the allocated quota of the books before the plan expiry period then you will need to renew your plan to get more books. For e.g. you have chosen a cubic plan for 12 months then the allocated quota of books is 36 books in a year, in case you finish reading 36 books in 10 months then you will need to renew your plan to get more books. The number of books that are credited in your account are as per the plan chosen by you.

Online – We have a 128-bit SSL secured payment gateway with CC Avenues which allows you to make the payments online via your debit/credit cards and also you have the option of Net banking and online Wallets integrated.

Offline – We have our inhouse logistics in 3 cities, Mumbai, Bangalore & Pune and our delivery person can collect the payments from you against your book deliveries in cash or cheque in the favour of “Dharya information private limited” , he will also give you assigned receipt for the same.

We use 128-bit SSL Secured payment gateway in partnership with CC Avenue. This means that when you opt to pay online, we only connect you to the bank's fully secure payment gateway. Your Card information is held only by the bank and not by Librarywala ™. So, your Card data is safe. Once your payment is made, we receive confirmation from the bank for the same within 24 hours.

Please do wait for the payment gateway to redirect you back to our website once your payments are done, this will help it reflect the same in your account on immediate basis.

YES, you can hold 2 or more accounts with Librarywala, however you will need a separate email id for every account that you create, your email id will work as your user id for your account.

No, We trust our members and that they will pay for what is due to us, you will not be able to order further books until you make your renewal payments and also in case you have books with you from your previous months subscription that you have yet not returned – then your renewal will happen from the billing cycle date only.

In case you do not renew on time and then decide to cancel your membership – if the delay in renewal is beyond 5 days from the date of plan expiry – then we will deduct that month’s subscription from your refundable deposit.

You are billed on a pre-determined billing date depending on the period of your subscription plan, so if you have chosen a monthly membership then you will need to renew every month on the plan expiry date and accordingly for the 3, 6 & 12-months subscription plans.

We will send you an intimation email 5 days prior to your plan expiry date.

Once you log in to your account, on your “My account” page please click on “Billing Activity”, this will enable you to see all the details pertaining to all your subscription and renewal invoices.
Once you log in to your account, on your “My account” page, you will have to scroll down to the “Book History” section where you will be able to see the recent books that you have returned and in case you wish to see the complete history of the books read by you – click on the “View all” option and you will be able to see the details of all the books that you have read and returned.

Once you log in to your account, on your “My account” page, you will find a “Change/Renew Plan” option,
on clicking the same the system will give you two options “Renew Plan” & “Change plan”.

Renew plan – This will allow you to renew you existing plan – you can choose the period of your plan renewal from the drop down of months and then make the payments of the same. In case your renewal is not due then please choose the renew from billing cycle option so as to activate your plan once the current one is expired and in case you want to activate the same from todays date then choose accordingly.

Change plan – This will allow you to change your plan from one plan to another, so you can move from your existing membership plan and choose to upgrade to another plan as per your reading requirements. This plan will automatically be activated from current date.

Visit www.librarywala.com , Click on the Account button on the top right section and then click on “Login” and a small pop up window will open – you will find a “forgot password” tab – please click on the same and enter your email id and click on the forgot password button – we will send you an email with the link to reset your password to a new one.
Why would you do that?, You will have to drop us an email to [email protected] from your registered email id with your membership id and contact details and we will get in touch with you to collect the books that you have and then process your refund amount.
You will receive the complete amount of the Refundable deposit as paid by you once you have returned the books that you have in hand. The amount paid towards plan charges are not refundable.
But of course, We would love to have you back, all you need to do is drop in an email to us at [email protected] with your contact details and we will get in touch with you.



ABOUT THE PROCESS

Once you’ve completed the registration process, please log in using your email id as the user id and the password that you have set at the time of registration, logged in you can browse through our entire collection of books and add several of them to your queue, we recommend you to add and maintain a queue of at lease 10 or more books.

Please visit your queue section and set the priority of the books or directly select the books that you wish us to deliver and click on deliver books, if the books you’ve selected are available the same will be issued to you for delivery and if not then you will need to selected the available ones from your queue. Once you issue the books for delivery, we will deliver the same within the next 3 working days.

The number of books that you can issue and keep at any given point of time with you depends on the subscription plan that you have chosen, for e.g. our Cubic plan will allow you to rent 3 books in a month and keep 2 at a time with yourself where as the classic plan allows you to rent 12 books in a month and keep 3 books with you at a given point of time.

Hence this completely depends on the subscription plan that you choose.

We ship books 9 am to 7 pm, 6 days a week, Monday to Saturday (except public holidays). Please remember that we deliver books as per your plan and within 3 working days from the day that you issue the books.

Books are delivered at your doorstep either by Librarywala™ personnel or by a representative of our logistics partner. In most cases, you will receive books within 3 working days once you have ordered.

We have an in-house logistics team in place for 6 cities and for the rest of India, we have partnered with the best of courier companies to ensure that all books are delivered on time, that is, within 3 to 5 working days.

90% of our deliveries are done within the above-mentioned time, however for some cases the delivery time of the books can vary depending on your location. For more information, please read our Terms of Use section.

Sign in to your account and schedule a pick-up from your “My Account” section, this will also help you order another set of books from your queue. For any help call us at our customer care numbers to place your pick-up request at 022-24175643 - 48.

In all of our subscription plans, you have the flexibility to exchange 1 or more books at a time as per your convenience. Hence the moment you finish either one of the books that you have – please do exchange the same.

We believe in giving you the books that you wish to read rather that the ones that we have, you can request for a book under our “Request a book “ Section – you will find the same at the bottom section of the website or you can click on the requested books section on in your “My account” and then click on the link to request the books that you wish to read.

To avoid duplication or any mistakes we encourage users to request the same via ISBN numbers.

Once you’re done reading the book, you can log into your account and from your “My account” section you can select the books that you wish to return and click on “Raise Pick up Request”, A small pop up with come which will show you the available books from you queue that you can select to be delivered next, you can also select the address at which you want the same to be delivered and click on confirm to place your orders.

No, there's no need. Since you have already scheduled a pick-up, our system tracks the progress of your return until the actual receipt of the books at our end and once we receive the same we will update them from your account.

When we process the books you have returned, we will send you an email confirming receipt, and we will remove them from your account. Please allow at least two working days for us to receive the books you have returned.

You are most welcome to visit our offices at any time that you wish to regardless whether you have to return a book or order a new one.




ABOUT THE WEBSITE

Our new search function will help you search for books, authors, categories and further also tags like mystery or adventure etc. If you select an author from the search drop down then it will take you to that author page which will also show you the list of books of that author that we have. If you just type the author name and click enter on your keyboard – the system will take you to a page listing the books that the author has written and the list of books in whose name the word appears.

A book queue is like a wish list that you create for the books that you wish to read, creating this will help you choose the books faster the next time when you log in, you can always edit the list by adding and removing the books from your queue. Books are issued to you only from your book queue section and hence add only the books that you wish to read.

Books are shipped to you based on priority and availability. If a book is in great demand, despite having multiple copies, we can have a ‘temporarily-out-on-circulation' situation. Therefore, a longer book queue helps us continuously deliver books of your choice. You are less likely to be faced with a situation, where you are not shipped books due to in-circulation situation.

Managing your queue makes you an in charge of your online book renting experience. Sign In, browse for the book you want and click ‘Add to queue’. The book automatically is added to the bottom of the list in the Queue. If you want to read something else first (set the priority of the books in accordance to the way you want to read them and also keep in mind the availability factor and click on ‘Update priority. If you have changed your mind about a book, click on ‘Remove' button and your queue will be updated.

Log in to your account and click on “Queue” section and then click on “Remove” option given against every book.

Books are shipped automatically once you have added them to your queue or you can choose which ones you want us to ship by updating the priority an clicking on issue books. Remember to constantly update your queue and add as many books as you can, so that there is no stoppage in the cycle of your precious reading! You will receive an email notification, when your book shipment has been processed. (We recommend you having 10 books in the queue)

In case you do not want the books to be automatically be issued to you, please click on the “Settings” option in your “My Account” and then select “No” in the auto deliver book and click on update. Please note that the default setting is Yes for auto delivering the books.

We hope that you will receive the books directly, however in case of deliveries done at your office reception, security or at your house received by someone else, we will drop you an email for the same.




ABOUT COMMON QUESTIONS

Books are shipped in the order of your queue, subject to availability. Your first choice of book may be in very high demand. If a particular title is not available, the next available book in your queue will be sent to you. We are investing in a substantial capital to build our inventory, both for new titles as well as additional copies of existing titles. We will fill book request as soon as title of your choice is available.

Chances are you only have a few books in your queue or you've chosen only those books that are in peak demand. Try adding more books to your queue. To get the most out of your membership and for your own convenience, we strongly recommend that you keep at least ten books in your queue.

The first thing you can do is to verify your shipping details on our website. Sign In, access My Account, and review your shipping address to make sure that the information is complete and correct. If you have verified your shipping address, you could report this problem by calling our Customer Care at 022-24175643 – 48 or drop in an email to us on [email protected]

Please allow sufficient time for the books to reach you (at least one business day). If you are sure you haven't received it and sufficient time has elapsed, please send an email to [email protected] or call our Customer Care at 022-24175643-48

You can call our Customer Care at 022-24175643 – 48 or drop an email at and we will send the correct book as soon as possible or, also if you prefer the next available title in your Queue.

If the book is damaged, please drop us an email at [email protected] or call us our customer care no 022-24175643 - 48 within 24 hours of the receipt of the book. After we've processed the return, you could add the book to your queue again. We would like you to know that Librarywala™ regularly checks the condition of the books to ensure that the books are in readable condition.

All of our books are coded and stamped and hence it would be easy to differentiate the same, however in the case where you have returned one of your personal books by mistake then you can send an email to [email protected] or call our Customer Care at 022-24175643 – 48.

You will have to pay for the book in case you lose or damage it, we will charge you the current market price of the same which obviously will be less than the MRP of the book.

We have started some unlimited books plans for our corporate/retail clients. these are plans that are designed to make sure that a customer can read as many books as possible in a month. we have put in the words "99 books in a month, 1/2/3 books at a time" this does not mean that you can read 99 books in a month. one can read from 26 to 78 books in a month considering 26 working days, we need to put the number 99 there are per the instructions from our legal consultants. Please not the updates of the deliveries done today are done in the morning tomorrow and hence you might not be able to order for books on the same day - we request you to drop us a mail on [email protected] conforming that you have received the deliveries and hence we will update the same - this will enable you to order further books. Please understand that we deliver more than 1400 books per day and as per our rules we have to deliver within 3 business days, we will try our best to make sure that we deliver you as many books as possible.
  1. Digital products will be counted in your membership plan
  2. Once order confirmed the same cannot be cancelled or reversed
  3. Summaries are not complete books but brief of the book
  4. Digital products will be accessible only for 30 days