I have been offered a HB fiction WL book, that clearly does not meet my requestor conditions, and this is unusual in that most people will just decline if conditions are not met or they don't want to deal with them. (Which is fine by me, and no hard feelings). This person is still offering something that clearly does not meet my conditions, and I wonder if the book meets PBS condtions...What do you think?

First off, here are my condtions:

PBS does NOT require that hardbacks have dust jackets,  but I prefer them as I enjoy the cover art. 

 If your     FICTION       hardback book does not have a dust jacket,  please cancel  the request.   

ALL OTHER HARDBACK BOOKS ARE ACCEPTABLE WITHOUT DUST JACKETS. 

 AS LONG AS THEY MEET THE PBS GUIDELINES.

I have 2 questions about how to handle this:

1)  I intend to pm her, asking her to cancel the order, so that I will not lose my  place in the FIFO............is this how I should handle that?

2)  Based on her email (discounting the dj issue), which is acceptable on PBS, do you think the book is postable?

So, lets put it this way,  if you were next in line for the book, would you accept it?.....................

Here is the email I received from the sender:

Dear Sir or Madame;

This book is missing the dust cover, does have a “worn” look to it, and there are some discolorations on the top and bottom of the pages when closed, but they are not water damage as I’ve flipped through the book and found no water marks next to the discoloration mentioned above, I believe it is simply just normal wear of the book.

Please let me know if there are any questions about the book you would like answered. I can send you pictures if you’d like so you can see what I am talking about before I send the book. This book belonged to a friend of mine that is cleaning house, so the history of the book is unknown.

Thank you and have a nice day
***********************************************

So, what do you think?

 ETA,  HB fiction

I would say at best the book is questionable....the coloring on the page edges may very well be from age but, then again it might be staining...who's to say.  I do question when she says "does have a “worn” look to it," that make me wonder if it doesn't fall into the category of excessively worn.

If this is a book of fiction she can cancel it based on the fact that it does not meet your RC's and yes it IMHO would be best for her to do.

And to answer your question, I probably wouldn't accept it.

• This is a used-book swapping site; books are not expected to be in like-new condition.
  • Older books may have some page yellowing or spine-creasing or dogeared pages; these are all OKAY.
  • Hardbacks do NOT have to include their dustjackets.

• We do NOT have a place for members to describe the condition of a particular copy of a book.
  • ALL books on PBS are expected to be in "good, not excessively worn" condition

Overall Condition:

• No damage at all from water or other liquid
• Not soiled
• No stains (exception for cookbooks--see below)

Pages:

• No staining

I would say ask her to cancel it, because it does not meet your RC.

Then, when she reposts she needs to click that it does not meet your RC.  She can then offer it to the next person, since it is on the gray line of posting. (Though she should still cancel because if it's gray enough to PM about the sender should cancel).

But it clearly doesn't meet your RC.  So she should cancel the order.

Without having the book in your hands I don't think you can determine if it postable or not. If you do not want it, PM her and ask her to cancel the request because it does not meet your RCs. Once she reposts the book it will be reoffered to you and she should mark that the book does not meet you Requester Conditions.  Whether or not YOU feel the books meets site guidelines for the next wisher is beside the point, IMHO. Had she stated it had water damage or highlighting would be one thing, but trying to determine the subjective area of excessive wear or possible staining cannot be done without see the book, IMHO.

I agree with Melanie. The definition of worn is too subjective. I have received postable books that I consider to be worn simply because they have a lot of spine creases. But that is just my opinion and I certainly don't mark them RWAP, because they do meet PBS guidelines. Also, if the spots don't extend into the page they are most likely not stains, but without seeing them, who's to know if they are or not.

If she cancels it because of conditions, neither one of you will lose your place in the FIFO line, but it doesn't sound postable to me.  It sounds like it has mold (there doesn't have to be any visible water damage for there to be mold).

It would totally depend on the age of this book. If it is a 40 yo book, it's probably made with crummy quality paper that has some foxing, depending on how it was stored, the usual top/side foxing could be top/bottom intense. She's probably someone new to the forums and seen too many posts about books that don't meet PBS rules, and is scared to send something that isn't perfect.

But, I don't really see what the point of discussing the condition of the book is. You asked that it have a DJ, it doesn't, so you should simply ask her to cancel and next time select that it does not meet your RCs.

Thanks for the responses to both questions in the OP.

I have sent her a PM about canceling the transaction. So hopefully if that is done I won't lose my place in line.

I sent:

You will have to cancel the transaction since it does not meet my requestor conditions. If I cancel I will lose my place in the FIFO line. (Instead of being 1st in line, I would be # 31).  Thanks, Velma

Ok, now I am confused. When I received the original email from the sender, I thought she had seen my requestor conditions.   Yes or no?

btw, this is the email I sent to her:

You will have to cancel the transaction since it does not meet my requestor conditions. If I cancel I will lose my place in the FIFO line. (Instead of being 1st in line, I would be # 31). Thanks, Velma

now I have received 2 emails in response:

1)    Ok. But will that throw you back onto the list for "this" book? I've already had some other interested people ahead of you that wanted the dust cover and I don't know what happened to them.

I will go ahead and cancelle the book... but please don't be upset at me if it is me the next time round.

2)   "Reserved On: 3/30/08 3:47 PM ET
Status: Waiting 48 hours for other member to confirm that they still want this book. "

I can't do anything until you accept the book. That is probally why I never got your "requestor conditions" because it was never accepted.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, my question is, would she have been able to see my RC?

And what do I do now? 

When you accept the WL book it'll show her your RC then she hits either accept or decline for not meeting RCs. Then it'll pass it on to the next person in line leaving you in the top spot for the next one that gets posted.  It does not show the RCs until the book is accepted. 

ETA: You shouldn't have to advise her on whether or not the book is postable.  You can see it so how would you know. Tell her it doens't meet your conditions because of the dust jacket issue and she needs to decline for that reason.  Then you keep your place in line. 

Looks like you have it on 48 hour hold instead on Auto-request. For her to decline due to RCs, you would need to accept the offer; she won't see your RC until you've done that. You will lose your place in the WL line if you do not accept.  She must just be pre-emptively PMing the wishers in order to let them know the condition of the book and the previous people also let the offer time out. 

Yes all my WL books are 48 hr. hold, nothing on auto.....

Thanks for helping me out with that.  I couldn't understand why she would be able to/want to PM me about the missing dust jacket unless she had already read the RC.

So, I sent this PM:

Ok, this is just to let you know that I will go ahead and click "accept" on the book, that way you can see my RC, and you can then cancel the book transaction since it does not have a dust jacket. Hopefully that will take care of things for both of us. Thanks, Velma

Thanks to all who responded, and hope I this is the last of it.......

I am really irritated now....my RC says that I don't want books that are currently in a smoking household.

they declined and said this

This book is used and was in sold in a used book store.  I have had problems with people before that expect everything to be in perfect condition.  I am weary when they place that in their conditions.

What does that have to do with my RC about a smoking household????

I really wish we could contact these people to ask them why they would put something like that.  it is as if they do not read the RC and put a canned response!  I looked to see who it was but that was last night otherwise I would ask them about their reply.  and of course there are others behind me so its not like the book is available.

They have every right to turn down our RCs. Might frustrate the heck out of when it seems like their book meets them, but apparently this person has been burned before and it is his/her rights to say no to RCs. Sucks when we miss a book becaue of it. I think this is the type of situation that warrants not having a way to contact them, so when we are mad we didn't get a book, we can't be PMing them.

Leslie, just ignore it and move on.  Some people simply don't "get it" and nothing you say or do will make them get it.  It's not worth the headache. :)

I used to reiterate the PBS posting guidelines in my RCs because I got so many books that were in poor condition.  People still replied "My book doesn't meet your conditions."  Huh!?  Then it shouldn't be posted!

Some people decline any request with conditions even if the book might meet them. They just don't want to deal with conditions.  I turn down any that are basically asking for a perfect, brand new book and I've had a few of those. 

my frustration was that her "reason" for turning it down had nothing to do with my RC.  If it had, I would have been ok with it.  I know we all have the right to turn down an order based on RC but please read the RC!!!!

But I'm over it now.....I really didn't need another book to add to my mountainous TBR pile!

She said in her opinion the discoloration was due to normal wear and tear. She may have been so descriptive since you have conditions. It's a used book, right? You may not want it, but I think based on her description it's postable.