Is there anyway to correct marking a swap as okay when it wasn't?  

I'm new to PBS and have only been here a few months.  This the first time I've had a problem. I requested a book and was not happy when it arrived as the cover was taped and the book was very beat up.  I looked at the posting guidelines and against my better judgement decided to go ahead and mark it as okay even though I felt it barely made the posting guidelines.  I did not open the book at that time.

I went to read the book the following day and discovered animal feces smeared inbetween the pages.  Normally something like that I would have noticed immediately, but due to the flu I had no sense of smell when I opened the package.  When I actually went to read the book and opened the pages, the smell made me gag.  

I contacted the sender and politely told her that the book has smears over several pages that seem to be small animal droppings and that I would like my credit back due to having to throw the book out.  

Her reply was not what I expected.  She said she just got the book herself the week before and decided not to read it, but after paging through it, decided to pass it on. That there were no stains when she sent it and that she would not return my credit.  Her reply was quite rude and took me completely by surprise.  

I submitted a complaint to PBS through their feedback button, including that I do have photos I took of the disgusting mess prior to throwing the book out.  

I notified the sender of my complaint.  Her response was that I am a liar and she does not care if I complain to PBS.  Then she says if there is damage to the book it is the previous person's fault (the one who sent her the book), not her fault.  Then she back pedals and says she looked at every single page before posting the book and there was no stains.    

I am very confused about this entire transaction.  I'm 68 years old and have never been called a liar in my entire life!  I do not understand this person's hostility over me asking for a credit back.  I feel I was more than polite and not insulting in my correspondense.  Is this typical of problem swaps?  

So how can I mark this transaction as a problem swap when I already marked it okay by mistake?  

Unfortunately there is no undoing marking a book received normally. One of the reasons to thoroughly look at a book before marking it received. If the damage is something we can miss when we inspect it when we receive it, then it is possible its something the receiver could have missed too if they didn't read the book (though that isn't an excuse, it is an explanation).

The site does not become involved in problem swaps. They expect members to work it out on their own. They don't have the book to look at and can't know how it did actually leave the sender. To become involved they'd have to take sides and say someone isn't telling the truth. If a member become extremely rude or admits they mailed a problem book the site may do something, but otherwise they expect members to take care of situations themselves. If the other member won't make it right, since you don't have the follow up to do on the transaction, you will probably have to chalk it up to lesson learned and move on.

I agree with Melanie's comments. In addition, when contacting a member regarding a problem swap be sure to initiate it from your Transaction Archive if it is after you have already marked the book received. This creates a record of the conversation that is linked to a specific book and problem swap. If a member accrues multiple complaints about books they send their membership may be cancelled.

So, when contacting a member about a problem swap, click on "Transaction Archive" in the yellow bar near the top of your My Account page. Select the "Books Requested By Me"  in the View box, scroll down to the transaction in question, and click on the PM button at the far right of the transaction listing.
 

And don't worry, this response is abnormal, of the problem transactions I've dealt with to date all but one have been finished politely, and the majority of them to a reasonable end.

In all honesty I haven't even read of a someone receiving a book in this bad of a condition even on these threads, so I am sorry that you've encountered the exception.

I would simply recommend that you report the rudeness, and then let it go at that point.  From the sounds of it the stress of frustration dealing with this other person isn't worth any possible gain you may receive.  It like my own first RWAP that I marked incorrectly, is simply a good way to help you to remember to thumb through your received books when you get them.

Thank you to everyone who responded to my post.  I've just chalked it up to one bad experience and hopefully I won't encounter anyone like her again.  

Peace,

Mary