Recently, I started ordering quite a few books from deals offered by members on the Book Bazaar.  Overall, I have had a good experience but am unhappy about the condition of some of the books I have received.  For instance, I have gotten books with obvious water damage, stains, tears etc.  I have not marked these books received with a problem because I have gotten a good deal on them.  I do feel though that since the books I am ordering are listed on member's bookshelves that they should still meet PBS posting guidelines whether I got a deal on them or not.  Should I mark them RWAP or not?  Looking for opinions and other viewpoints. 

thanks,

Denise

If they were on their FIFO shelf, then sent to you, the price (as long as it was 1 credit per book or less) should meet PBS guidelines.  IF they are unpostable, then the defects should ha ve been disclosed to you and you agree to accept them.  If that didn't happen, then I'd say that the deal doesn't matter and they are RWAP.

Ruth

Want to add that allowing them to continue without reporting RWAP means they think it's okay to continue to do this.

Ruth

I have also wondered how you deal with such.  I have received books in deals that were picked off someone shelf but not the particular book I ordered that where in awful shape.  But I was under the impression that since it was received as a deal there is no recourse.

 So How Do You Handle This?

The book that is part of a deal and is on their FIFO shelf has to be postable.  If it isn't, then you have to be told the defects and agree to them. 

If the bad book is not on their shelf, but is part of a deal, it is probably unpostable.  I think they should still tell you that and tell you the defects, but if you didn't choose it off their shelf, then no RWAP most likely. 

This is why I would want to see their shelf before agreeing to any deal.

Ruth

ETA - the price of 1 credit per book or less doesn't matter.  Of course they could claim textbook, but they still need to get your agreement to whatever defects there are.

Right on Ruth 

Thank you, Denise!  ;D

Ruth

Just a personal opinion: I don't think one should RWAP unpostable deal books if it's not the exact title(s) ordered. Yes, the person who offered the deal did you wrong by not disclosing the condition of the book and by adding unpostable books to his shelf, but deals are outside the realm of PBS-sanctioned transactions, so (a) there's more risk involved, and (b) it's not honest to say that the officially requested is unpostable if it is.

Things you can do:

(1) PM the sender, explaining the situation. I think if you spent n credits and got fewer than n postable books, it might be reasonable to ask for a partial refund.

(2) explain the situation in the comments box when marking the book(s) received.

(3) for future deals, set a a one time RC stating the conditions of the deal. For example: "Please include postable copies of <insert deal book details> as we agreed." This would also minimize the possibility of multiple credit deals being broken up by time-outs, people forgetting to include the freebie books, etc. you can also then mark anything RWAP-RC not met if things go wrong.

The idea of requesting your credit back in such a deal is a different question from the RWAP.  If the deal is more than one book from a person's public FIFO shelf that a member chooses from, it doesn't matter what the deal involves about credits.  The books on that shelf is supposed to be postable according to PBS guidelines.  Then if they aren't, they should be RWAP'd.

Asking for a credit to be returned is a personal decision, and I don't think I would under the circumstances of getting a "deal".  But each to his/her own.

Ruth

But if the book is unpostable (rather than getting a deal/discount), wouldn't it have to be unpostable for a reason and it should be assumed that there is going to be something wrong with it?

I am with Ruth on this. Just because PBS is not programmed to officially have all the books offered in a deal on the recorded swap, unless the Unpostableness is divulged and the ordering member given a choice, then marking RWAP is appropriate. I rarely recieve unpostables from PBS, but do make it a point to mark RWAP when the occasional one shows up. I feel it is my duty as a member to keep the quality of books posted as close to the Criteria PBS sets down.

I would probably not ask for a refund, but I would PM the member and let them know if the additional books included were posted to their shelf, they agreed that the books met the Posting Criteria when they were posted.

If I didnt get at the very least an apology I may even post about it in their Deal thread. Not a nice thing to do, but they would probably take it a bit more seriously after that.

Help  me get a better understanding on this.  Deal offered  3/1 anything on my shelf.  I order book 1  it is fine.  2nd book has big tear, 3rd book appears to have been dropped in the pool, dog bowl, toliet who knows you get the gist.  Since the 1 book ordered was fine I didn't rwap.  But it could have worked out that I order book 2 or 3 then I would have marked it a rwap.  Are you saying I should mark  the ordered book as a rwap because the other 2 where so bad ?  This is history so its to late to do anything about now but would like to know if it happens again.

I would like to add on a positive note that I have had many magnificant deals with pristine books.

It has been clarified before that you can only RWAP a deal if the unpostable books are the ones showing in your transaction archive.  If you ordered book x and the bonus book y is the unpostable, you are marking it improperly if you mark it RWAP.  The help docs clearly state that there is no recourse for deals.  If you know of members who appear to be using deals to unload their unpostables without disclosing the damage to the books, you should report them to PBS.