I received a WL pb book today - wrapped in thin brown paper. Some edges were taped, as was part of the back, the front had tape only around the label. The part of the back that wasn't taped was torn, and the front was both torn in several places including the front and edge and the label almost illegible - not taped and obviously doused with water. The book was very loosely wrapped with saran wrap, and the book is still wet (likely due to the saran wrap)  - and bent - and just plain icky.

Usually it's clear to me what to mark, but this one kind of has me in a conundrum. The sender tried...but -

The Post Office tore the wrapper and got the book wet.

That's damage by the Post Office.

Many people only tape the seams on the wrapper. That's the areas that PBS recommends taping. (I myself use more tape than that, as do many other senders). But, there are plenty of senders who just tape up all the seams and mail the book.

Waterproofing of any type is not required by PBS, so whether or not they could have wrapped the plastic wrap better is also irrelevant. I use plastic wrap too, but I realize that that is to protect against casual water ... some light rain, maybe. But, plastic wrap is not going to protect against being dropped in a puddle, for example. It might ... but it might not.

The sender could probably package better. However, it doesn't really sound like they did anything wrong. Nobody is required to package books to withstand the very worst PO trip ... we are just required to package such that the packages withstand an average trip.

That was my thought too...and what I went with. It's just so disappointing when it's a WL book. Had it not been trade size, computer paper would have been much stronger than the brown utilized.

If it looks like the sender used a reasonable amount of care in packaging the book, I'd go with USPS damage. To me, fully enclosing the book in paper and taping the seams and edges closed is reasonable. If they clearly should have made more of an effort and the book was damaged because they were lazy about it, then I'd ask for the credit back.

And I think I know exactly what paper you're talking about. That extra-thin crinkly brown stuff that small paper bags are made of? It's worthless.

Plus the brown paper is really bad at allowing tape to stick to it very well.   Get it wet and I coup see the tape just falling off :(