I had ordered a book that is listed as edition unknown for a friend's holiday gift about a week ago. She doesn't mind used books so that isn't the issue. What is at issue is that when the book was recieved it was a Large Print edition and not a regular font edition. The sender didn't send me a PM prior to shipping the book so this was quite a surprise to me to get this book in this edition and a bit of an unhappy one. I realize that the person didn't HAVE to PM me, but I feel as a bit of common cortesy that they should have.

When I recieved the book I sent them a message about this and told them I was a bit disappointed to find out that it was a LP edition, but really I know that since I ordered the book by title that part of the responsibility lies on me. Their big issue and defense is however, that they seem to have put in the only review for this book that: "Book is a large print edition" which isn't really a defense since A) folks don't always read book reviews when ordering books, and B) how am I supposed to know that this refers to the exact book that I am ordering? If I had noticed that at all I would have dismissed it as it could have referred to any edition coming in and out of PBS.

I am not going to be able to repost this book and regain my credit as they suggested because I am not sending books out during December. I don't need to go into the reasons why, but I'm sure many of you can guess them. lol!

I don't feel it is all my fault, I feel a sense of shared responsibility for this disappointing transaction.

Thoughts or advice on this are very welcome. :)

Just repost it in January. 

I think the responsibility lies on the person who listed the book. If they listed it by ISBN it should have come up as a large print book. Putting it in the book description isn't sufficient, as you point out, not everyone reads them and people aren't supposed to put  individual book conditions in the book reviews  (Unless of course, they're listing it without an ISBN). I feel that you're right, the seller should have PM'd you and let you know.

I wouldn't let it deter you from reposting it though. A lot of people on here are looking for large print books. Just be sure to PM the requestor and let them know before you ship it and if you list it with the correct ISBN it should show up as a large print book.

Also, something to think about...would your friend really mind a large print edition? I don't need large print editions, but I actually enjoy them because they're so much easier to read.

Good luck!

I don't feel the sender did anything wrong. You can always repost it and get your credit back. If they followed the guidelines, then it shouldn't be necessary to constantly  PM requestors about the book being a large print, a library book, or whatever. You indicated it was "an unknown edition". If I would have wanted a specific type of book, I would have PM'd and asked what edition it was rather than accepting an unknown. Just my opionion, though.

As long as the sender used the correct ISBN they didn't do anything wrong.

[edited because Marsha found the right information from the Help Center, below]

  Kristina,

Although the sender can't PM you before accepting the book request.  It was the sender's responsibility to make sure the book was posted correctly.  You might want to send this info from the Help Center to him/her.

From the Help Center:

Problem: you enter the ISBN on your book, and the listing that comes up does NOT say Large Print, but your book IS Large Print.

Explanation: This means that the publisher assigned the same ISBN to (at least) two different versions of the book.   At PBS, because each ISBN can be attached to only ONE version of a book, if you have the "other " version you need to enter it as if it does not have an ISBN.

Solution: Post this book with a customized listing for the book, using the Post Books without an ISBN link on the Post Books page, so that the Large Print status of your book is clear.

• To make the book's Large Print status clear, you should
  • Put "(LARGE PRINT)" after the title on the Post a Book Without an ISBN page
  • Check the box for "Large Print" on that page

^^^ Good idea above.

Just a note to say (and you might tell the sender this as well), that reviews are NOT supposed to contain the condition of the book, there is no way to link a review to a specific copy of a book, so no one will know that it referred to her specific book. Plus, probably a large number of people don't read reviews before ordering books anyway.

Reviews are specifically for what you thought about the contents of the book, i.e. well-written, good story line, characters were well-developed...

There is a whole group of people on this board that volunteer to go through and help wipe out those condition-specific reviews.

There is a slight problem with the info Marsha posted. The listing does not come up regular. The listing says UNKNOWN that would mean that nothing could be posted to it if you read the rules that way. It is up to the requestor to ask if you want to know what the binding is when it says unknown. Unknown can be anything, it can be LP, regular, PB, HC who knows? That's why you have to ask on unknowns. I'm sorry, but this listing isn't a matter of duplicate ISBN's this is a matter of when the book was first listed, the person filling in the information didn't complete it. We have several of those in the database, and since R&R will not let anyone correct any of them, unknown to me, means exactly that, unknown and so any binding can be posted to it. Until the assign a binding to that book, it is up for grabs, and it could be anything. But, that is just my opinion.

I kind of think since you ordered it with the "unknown binding" that you got what you got.  If you wanted a particular binding you should have ordered one that specified it's binding type as paperback, hardback or whatever.  Did it have a regular ISBN posted and does the ISBN match the ISBN on the book? That's the big issue. IF the ISBN doesn't match then you did not receive the right book. But if it was posted without an ISBN and said unknown binding then you got what you ordered. Why can't you still give the book?  Just tell your friend that you didn't realize it was a large-print book when you ordered it or get her another one and post the book in Jan.