I know this has been covered before, but I just received an RWAP book.  It's a WL book I've been waiting for, so I'm pretty disappointed.  It has what appears to be water damage, with the bottom of pages stained blue from the cover (hardback) and also the spine is almost completely separated from the book; about 1/4 of the pages are torn from the binding.  It's so bad you can see the "woven" area of the spine.  Why would someone send a book in that bad of condition?  You have to know what condition it's in - I'm looking at it and I can see the damage immediately.

It's very discouraging when people do that. Then they respond with "its only been read by a couple people and I didn't notice the damages".   Thank goodness the other 98% of the members here care about the books they send.

IF it's obvious that the damage wasn't caused due to package tearing open in the mail, many people here will take a photo of damaged book and send that to  "Contact us" to show how obvious it is that it's a RWAP.  ....just an idea

Well, luckily I didn't need to do that, as my credit was returned almost immediately.  That alone tells me that the sender knew the condition beforehand.  Maybe they thought because it was a WL book I wouldn't care.  Also, there is no way this damage could have been caused by an open package.  It looks as if it was used as tug of war between two people, and the book lost.  The spine is almost completely torn from the book.  The package was dry, but there is very obvious water damage to the book.  It never should have been posted.  I just don't get why people post books without thinking something like, 'Would I want this in my collection?'  That should be the first thing.  Second, even if you haven't read the book, open it and look at the pages to make sure everything looks good.  It's just frustrating to wait for a book you want and come across this.  especially since before you post you get that little pop-up that asks if the book is possible.  That's your cue to look at the book.  Why send it if someone is going to ask for their credit back?  You've lost mailing costs AND a book.

There is no point in sending pics to the contact us link. They only get involved when the sender admits fault, and then no pics are needed.

I just found out something that bugs me, if you post a picture of your book/audio etc. it doesn't have to match the item you are posting.  REALLY?   Isn't this bait and switch?  Seems rather underhanded to me.  So now I get burned by getting an abridged audiobook when I thought I was getting the unabridged due to the photo. 

In some cases people will send a book that looks awful because they are hoping the receiver just wants to read the book and might not care about the condition. I got a pbk book once that was broken on the spine and was actually in two pieces. When I objected the person who sent the book couldn't see why I had complained. They said they had received the book that way and felt the book was perfectly readable.

"I just found out something that bugs me, if you post a picture of your book/audio etc. it doesn't have to match the item you are posting. ... I [got] burned by getting an abridged audiobook when I thought I was getting the unabridged due to the photo."

The views expressed here are my own and do not speak for the Team or other image approvers.

Images submitted by members can be difficult to handle correctly. The problems related to cover images are several-fold. First, PBS is designed to display only one image per ISBN and even though the system requires that ISBN, title, author and booktype match a given listing, publishers often use different cover art for reprint editions. Therefore, no individual cover can be guaranteed to match a specific listing.

From the Help Center:

The image on a book I received does not match the listing!  (Underlined emphasis is mine.)

The cover image does not need to match the listing used to Post a book.

• ISBN, author, title and booktype must match when you post a book; cover image does not have to match.
  • If ISBN, title, author or booktype does NOT match then you received the wrong book and you should read There is a problem with a book I received! for instructions about what to do.
  • If ISBN, title, author and booktype all DO match and only the cover image does not match, this is not considered a problem transaction.

• Cover images do NOT have to match the book being listed because sometimes publishers reprint using the same ISBN but a different cover art.  Also members upload cover images here, and the best-quality image may not be the one on the book with this ISBN.

• The system is designed for readers to share books, and not for collectors looking for specific cover art.
  • If you DO want a specific cover image on a book you request, you can try to use Requestor Condtiions for this purpose.  You can read How to Use Requestor Conditions for more information about how to do this without missing out on books you do want.

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That said, image approvers are expected to be vigilant regarding things like abridged vs. unabridged editions and large print vs. regular print, and to reject images that do not meet the specifics of a specific listing. Even so, incorrect covers may slip by if an approver doesn't notice specific qualifying criteria such as abridged/unabridged or large type and, in addition, many images are imported by PBS when updating its database from subscribed-to third party services. Unlike member-submitted images, imported images are not subject to approval and may result in incorrect or poor images in the database.

Furthermore, many cover images do not indicate a specific edition, publisher or booktype. In most cases, image approvers cannot match member-uploaded images with specific ISBNs,  so as long as the required criteria of title and author match, a good member-submitted image will likely be approved.Even though we try to be careful, images for abridged vs. unabridged versions for given books may result in the database either from an image approver missing the specific detail, or from images automatically imported when PBS updates its database.

Also, if you find the same image on other sites, such as Amazon, then it's likely that the listing was imported into our database with that particular image. This is quite common.

Or, as Chris said, someone could have posted a wrong image, and if the listing wasn't clear as to abridged/unabridged, the wrong image might have been approved by mistake. Since the site rules are that the Title, Author, ISBN, and Booktype are official, and the image isn't official, members can know not to rely on the image. Nonetheless, image approvers wouldn't approve a wrong image if they were aware it was wrong. But when a listing, along with an image, is imported into the database, the image isn't necessarily checked by human being.

Keep in mind that when a member posts a book to a listing, he normally isn't creating the listing or posting the image himself. He's using an already existing listing. He's expected to make sure that his book's title, author, ISBN and book type match the listing, and is specifically told that the cover doesn't have to match.

It's VERY helpful, though, if you notice a "wrong" image, to post a corrected image, or to let one of us know.

If you are looking for only abridged, or only unabridged, editions of a book, Requestor Conditions can be a great tool.