This is the first time this has happened to me.  I've waited forever for this two book boxed set of books.  (Still has 46 people wishing for it)  I actually didn't think anyone would post it, but since I was moving up in line...I guess someone had.

Last night I get granted the wish.  I ordered the 'book'.  Today I get a PM from the poster saying....and I'll quote it...

i listed this set because it is boxed as a set, but thought that i would get 2 book credits for 2 books, while the recipient would still get the casing that comes with them. I accepted your request to give you time to decide if you want me to pin them to your wish list separately, and still send them as a set, or if you would rather i cancel and list them separately for anyone interested that way. I just wanted to be sure you still had first chance:)

I'm completely at a loss.  I didn't even know you could get the books seperate.  To me they aren't worth two credits.

Should I just cancel. (Since they haven't printed label yet, I can still cancel) Or what do you guys suggest? 

I do know that asking more than one credit for a book is wrong (pbs rules).

The way they are going about this is completely wrong, they should NOT post it as a box set and then say that they won't send it unless you give them more credits. But they can break the books up and post them separately in order to get a credit per book, or offer the set in the BB for up to 1 credit per book. I would PM this person that the way they have posted it is against the site rules and THEY need to cancel the order so that you retain you place in the WL line. If they refuse, ask R&R to cancel the transaction. Per HC:

If each of the books bears a unique ISBN, you can Post each as a separate entity

• this way, you will earn a credit for each.

If the "box" holding the boxed set bears an ISBN, you can post with that number, BUT

• this way, you will earn only ONE credit for the SET.

There is not a way to post the books individually yet require one member to take all of them and award you all of the credits for the one bulk request.

If you do post the books individually and want to send them all to one member:

• you can start a topic in the Book Bazaar Discussion Forum to advise members that you have a boxed set.
• Another member may be glad to learn of this and request all of the books from you using the bulk request "order more books from this member" feature.

I'd send her the information on the rules about book sets. And I'd also tell her that she is the one who needs to cancel. Otherwise you would lose your place in line. I do think it's important for her to realize she can't ask people for more tha one credit. I guess she can post the books separately although are the books wishlisted as a set?

I pm'ed them to just go ahead and cancel.  Maybe someone will post it as a box set.  Oh well!    I guess I can wait another couple of years.

This is why I haven't posted a single one of my box sets to the club library, but put them in the book bazaar.  Because I'm not shipping books at a 3:1 or a 4:1 rate just because they are in a box.  I don't want to split them up but I don't do deals that only involve one credit.  Usually I offer them at a discount, but not for 1 credit.

It just seems wrong to me that they were listed for 1 credit though, and then the person requested 2.  Its like bait and switch?   They were listed for 1 credit.  If if that were an error, it still should have been honored. 

They need to cancel so you don't lose your place in the WL line. Then they need to find someone to post them directly to or it'll just offer them to you again. 

If the books have a seperate ISBN# they can be posted seperately. But they need to find someone w/both on their WL to post them to in order to send them out together. 

I'd ask them to cancel and advertise them in the book bazaar if they want a credit for each book. I think if they're full size, individual books, it's fair to get more than one credit for them.  But not to post them as one and then ask for a 2nd credit afterwards. 

They do have a right to get one credit per book, but doing what they did was wrong.  They should have listed them seperately to begin with.  And all under the guise of wanting the receipient to get the outside cover.  Doubtful.  Sorry that happened to you.

This person was a new member who didn't realize that she wouldn't get credit for both books. I actually told her to pm and offer the books to give the wishllister first dibs on them before she cancels. I was thinking the member may have the books in all their ISBN's on their wishlist and thought offering them to the original wisher would be the courteous thing to do before cancelling. I didn't think about it seeming like she was trying to break the rules.

The new member does know the rules about boxed sets now and she DID think it would be nice if one person got the whole set. Nothing doubtful goiing on here, just a newbie who didn't fully understand all of the rules. We've all been there.

This was completely my fault! She wanted to cancel, but I wanted to make sure that the original wisher (Jennifer) got first dibs before she cancelled. So,  sorry Jennifer! This was a bad, BAD judgement call on the part of this tour guide!! I felt bad for her and felt bad for the wisher, but my trying to keep everyone happy made a disaster! Aargh!

She did note in the PM that she had been unclear in the rules.  So I'm not surprised to hear (and am somewhat pleased) that it was just a mistake and she was trying to be nice with the PM. 

It just seems wrong to me that they were listed for 1 credit though, and then the person requested 2.  Its like bait and switch?   They were listed for 1 credit.  If if that were an error, it still should have been honored. 

According to the rules all books are worth only 1 credit, the only thing you can get 2 credits for is audiobooks.  I think while they are so intent on making changes to help this site, they should do as they have over at the DVD site, sets that include more than one book should get more than one credit.  Over at the other site if you request a dvd that has two discs it costs two credits, and the description of the book tells you how many discs so you know.

I would think that if the books come in some sort of sleeve, wouldn't the ISBN code be on the box or sleeve and designate it as a set?  If so I'm sure it is within their capabilities to make the system recognize those ISBN's as more than one credit 

Yes, the box did have an ISBN which is what she used. She didn't realize that using the ISBN on the box would only earn her one credit at the time she listed it. She's only been a member for two days. It was a simple mistake that I made worse.

I think your idea of having the ISBN on a box set be worth the number of books in the box is a great one. It works great at SwapADVD.

I think part of the issue is getting the data on how many books are in a set.  The data is much more standardized on DVDs as they have only been published starting relatively recently.

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Tammy -- no, the ISBN on the package doesn't tell anything about how many books are in the set. If you look at some of the database listings for boxed sets on PBS, you'll see that there's no standard for the data. Sometimes the description says "3 books" sometimes it says "books 8-11", etc. It would be practically impossible for the system to automatically give one credit per book for boxed sets. The data that's needed to do it is just not available for books (at least not in the database PBS uses). As Brett said, it is available for DVDs, so that's why the feature is available on that site but not here.

I'm too new to know anything about the rules and what should be what.  I just hung around for about 2 months reading and researching the site before I listed any books or asked for any swaps.  In this case - it really sounds as though both situations are right.  But since the ISBN isn't informative enough for the system...I would say that people should list each book separately and let the requestor know it is a "set".  Maybe there should be some room in the guidelines about this specific situation.  It seems unfair that the sender is sending more books than she is getting credit for without having made that decision for herself.  (There are many boxed sets out there.)  On the other hand, she is caught now because as she's listed the books and someone requested the set as only costing one credit...she should probably go ahead and send the set as it stands.  She could try to work this out so that both of them go back to their former positions before the request was made and the sender can delete the books from the system for a while then re- list them separately..and the requestor can get them as separate books along with the sleeve as a bonus.  Does the requestor know it's a set and that it's a "deal" that the poster didn't know would cause this situation?

Ruthy, unfortunately, there's really nothing more that can be done. It is stated in the rules (as quoted above) that a boxed set will only get you one credit, I don't know what else can be done.

As soon as she found out that she was only getting one credit, the sender for the OP did ask if the OP would like her to cancel. There's no reason the sender would be forced to send the set after she found that she only gets one credit.

PBS wouldn't make her stick to it, since it was an honest mistake, she can cancel and either post the books separately, or offer it in the Bazaar as a set.