People, I can't express how important it is to leave honest, accurate feedback with BOB transactions.   If you get bad books,   let others know.  Likewise, if you get great books, let others know.  I always look at the feedback left before I accept a trade, and if the trader seems to have problematic trades I'll decline.  The feedback is in place to be a warning system to alert us to members who send out non-postables, who wait until they've gotten the other person's box before sending, or who just wait forever until they finally do send, or who've had a statistically remarkable number of BOBs gone missing in the mail. 

And, on the other hand, if you get negative or neutral feedback, calmly explain in the response box, your situation/side of the story.  I'd be more inclined to trade with someone who honestly explained that they 'missed" something in a book  than someone who plain out said they never make mistakes or send out garbage. 

If you have a problem with a BOB but the person resolves the problem be sure and note that as well---I think we'd all rather trade with someone who works with you in a dispute rather than someone who completely denies or ignores PMs.

Anyone else have anything else to add?  Disagree?

I agree with you completely.  As you can see, I also am a boxer and am very interested in a members feedback rating.  So far, I have never had a problem with any trades, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Technically, I agree.  I certaily hope others are honest about the conditions they leave, but that is so much more difficult and scary in practice. 

I have had a couple transactions that I felt were very bad and in the end ::cringe:: I didn't leave any feedback.  For instance, with one I was about to leave feedback and I saw someone else had a similar problem w/ her and she outright called the member a LIAR (exactly like that w/ caps and all), etc.  I know she couldn't do anything to me, but...   Anyway, I'm a scaredy and chicken out if I have a neg. transaction.  With other transactions that I was feeling neutral about, I've marked as positive but the actual feedback doesn't sound enthusiatic.  Something like "thanks" (lower case, no exclamations, no extra details).

In other words, I'm one of the boxers you're talking to and a hypocrite to boot, but it's bc I'm afraid of the confrontation.  I know its not fair to others, though..... I just ::shrug::

And this sounds very 'excuses, excuses' to me, but it's what i go through every time I do come across a dissapointing BoB trade.

I have enough trouble honestly marking 'received book w/ problem' for reg. credit swaps (I usually do though, I just usually don't ask for credit).

Jo, I sent you a PM.

Joy, I'm glad you agree--when people KNOW they won't get away with sending trash maybe they will think twice before taping up that package!

I'm not afraid of neg feedback.  If you have 20 swaps with good feedback, and one with poor, and people can look at the feedback of the member who left it for you, who will they believe?

I had some nutball on eBay not send a package for over 21 days.  I emailed her and asked where it was.  She claimed it must have been lost in the mail, so she resent it.  I waited another 12+ days and finally left neg feedback.  She retaliated with neg feedback stating I didn't pay for 28 days, which was a total lie.  If you look at my transactions, everyone else says "quick pay, great communication".  Who would you believe?

I'm not a boxer but I agree with what L says.  You can pretty much spot the liars or the guilty parties based on someone's feedback record.  If I saw that someone had called someone else a liar in all caps and said a bunch of nasty stuff about them, that is not a person I would want to order from, whether they were telling the truth or not.  Leaving feedback comments like that speaks volumes about your character.  Sometimes you have to kind of read between the lines.

Don't you think that open communication is the key to not having to write negative feedback?  Try to resolve any problems before you give feedback.  I have had times when the wrong book was sent to me or they were supposed to send three books and omitted one or other problems like that. People are human and those kinds of problems can be corrected easy enough. If they make it good, what is the big deal?  There have been about three instances where people have offered me a trade and never shipped theirs to me. Two of those happened before the feedback feature was put into place. One was after it was in place.That is the only one I had to write a negative feedback for andI hated having to do it but  in it I said."I regret to have to leave negative feedback for you but you never shipped my trade or answered countless PM's about it. After two months,  I can only assume you never had intentions of sending it."

All other experiences I have had with all other boxers have been great. It is a wonderful PBS feature!

I agree with the last statement. I have been selling on ebay since before anyone knew what ebay was. I was there when they started using user id's instead of email addresses. Out of over 7300 feedback (4300+ next to my name) I only have 10 negatives & those were from newer users who didn't contact me before leaving it. If they had I would have worked it out & there would have been no need to leave it. Before you leave negative feedback try communicating first. You'd be surprised at how effective that can be. One word of caution. Don't be rude or accusing because it only makes you look bad & can start even more problems. Always be polite. You get better results that way.

I had a negative left by someone. He had agreed on a different book since I didn't have that book. He forgot & left me a negative. He apologized but that doesn't help my feedback any. If he had emailed me first I would have reminded him & things would have probably been different. That situation shows what  kind of problems lack of communication can cause.

And I have not been so lucky on the box-o-books. I've had 3 people not send the books even though they got the ones I sent (I use USPS DC on everything I send out) . This last one I have already tried to send a message to her with no response so I am going to have to leave bad feedback. And believe me I don't like doing it but 3 times is enough. If she'd respond it wouldn't be a problem but.....sigh.

Oh well. Anyways I just had to add my thoughts on this matter.

Willow (also my ebay id)

Oh, I totally agree - communication is essential.  But if someone refuses to reply, you really have no choice but to leave a neg.

I was able to use a member's previous negative feedback to my advantage not long ago, and get a credit for book that didn't meet my requestor conditions.  Had those other people NOT been honest, I might have had no recourse when the bad boxer tried to snow me. 

So, I agree, it's important to be honest.