Hi there

I made a mistake today and marked a book received before I flipped through the book. Shortly after I unwrapped the plastic wrap to find that the cover and first 30 pages were water damaged. I PM'd the sender but is there any way to officially mark it RWAP now or is it too late?

By the way, this is the second copy of the same book (a wishlist book) that I have received with water damage!

It's too late to mark that book RWAP.

Sorry to hear that you're having trouble with the same book.  Maybe you could contact TPTB and explain the situation and ask to be put back on the WL?

Thanks for your reply!

I figured there was no way to reverse it - my mistake for jumping the gun/being too trusting. I have received 20-30 books and have been happy with the condition of most of them so that's pretty lucky. I've received a few water damaged books - maybe people don't know what water damage is?

I've done that, too.  Luckily it was a book that I planned to keep and the minimal water damage didn't bother me, but I still felt as though I should have RWAP'ed it to let the sender know it wasn't postable. Since then I've been trying not to jump the gun so much in marking received. 

You might want to PM the sender anyway to let them know that there was a problem with the book.  That way they (hopefully) will be more careful in checking their books before posting them.

I've done that on accident before. I ended up sending a polite PM to let the sender know that I found the water damage and I know they might have just overlooked it or maybe weren't aware of the rules (and then mentioned the no damage from liquids guideline).  I didn't ask for a credit back or say it in mean way or anything--I just sent it as a "FYI, just wanted to make sure you know so you don't get dinged next time" sort of thing.

Goli--

You can politely PM the sender and explain the situation and, if you wish, ask for your credit back.  They may offer to return your credit (or they may not).  Some folks find that providing photographs of the damage (take a digital photo and post it to a photo sharing site, like Flickr or PhotoBucket, then provide the link) can be helpful for the sender to understand what happened.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Catt

"I have received 20-30 books and have been happy with the condition of most of them so that's pretty lucky. I've received a few water damaged books - maybe people don't know what water damage is?"

I hope this doesn't sound rude  but I have recieved 68 books in about a year. Every single one has been excellant. 90% of them have looked like brand new. I could just have been lucky. so far, and maybe I'm due for a bad streak. ( knock on wood.) but when I see someone say,"most of them" are good. And also that a few of them ( that's about 10%) have water damage. It makes me wonder if THEY know what water damage is, as opposed to wrinkled pages or foxing.   Or if they're being too particular.

I know this probably sounds rude, and I apologize beforehand but it's a thought I had.

Thomas, IMO some types (genre, publishers, etc) are more or less likely to have damage. 

Textbooks, workbooks, classics and biographies (used in class) IME are more likely to be mailed damaged.  Over half of the biographies I've received this year have been RWAP due to undisclosed highlighting and writting on text pages. 

On the other hand, romantica and some of the more difficult to find small imprint books are much less likely to arrived in unpostable condition.  Maybe readers take better care of them because they cost 2 to 3 times more than mmpb and are often difficult to find?

I also have had a large number of RWAP and it's not wrinkled pages or foxing. It's stains, fingerprints, writing on pages, obvious water damage, etc. Maybe I'm just unlucky, but I'd say I'm lucky if a majority of the books I've received *haven't* been damaged in some way. And I am by no means super picky or not understanding of the rules.

I've had to slow down and actually take a minute to inspect my books more carefully before I click "received"... actually flip the pages etc.

I feel for you... I hate it when I'm reading a WL book I received and find a stain I missed doing a quick "flip-through" when I marked it received!

(I also agree with PMing the sending member... I actually had a member buddy me back a credit for a damaged book- even though I didn't ask for it!   You just never know...)

Thank you for all your replies. I definitely need to slow down and flip through the books I get before marking them received too. I haven't been a member of this site for long but have had so much fun sending and receiving books and I think it is a great place for booklovers.

Tomtir - I  know that this is a used book service and I'm not looking for brand new books, nor am I particularly picky about the condition in terms of my own reading enjoyment. My mom is a librarian and I've been reading used books my whole life. I just don't feel that it's fair to send books that don't meet guidelines because they can't be reposted and fed back into the system. I know what water damage is - i dont see why my post led you to question my knowledge. It seems you have been lucky - not everyone has been so lucky. I now have two copies of the same book that I won't be able to repost - I'm sure they will show up in the book bazaar one day!

By the way, the sender didn't respond to my PM. That's okay - lesson learned!