Apparently the likes of HarperCollins and some other credit-crunching publishers are starting to 'smuggle' this 'print on demand' process into amazon and other places. They're letting some very popular titles slip out of print, then reappear (for the same price) as a paperback 'reprint' that is actually printed on demand. An author I know told me this happened to her book with HarperCollins - without informing her or her agent. The problem for the customer is that these reprints are often a shocking quality: really cheap paper, photocopy-style illustrations instead of the original shiny ones and all kinds of glitches included. This author ordered a copy herself and found a key page of the text was missing - replaced by a duplicate of the copyright info! And there's no sign on amazon or elsewhere that you're buying a cheap copy instead of the original (apart, perhaps, from the phrase 'reprint'). So caveat emptor!

I would think you would be within your rights to request a refund as these books aren't fit for purpose nor workmanlike quality.

I have used Lulu in the past and so far my draft copies of a book that I have spent far too much time on have been fine.

Lulu is very good, from what I've seen. The irony is the big publishers are trying to copy them with their own titles and are falling far short. This will be quite a story later on as agents are going nuts because the contracts are being ignored as they quietly change the status of the editions.

I will be publishing my book as an internet download.

As a Marxist/Greenie I will not have a tree felled for my prose.

All I need to do now is write it.