Hi guys!

I seem to be having a spell of bad luck with audio books this week.  One that I have been listening to, 'Fallen' by David Maine, has a completely non-functioning disk.  I've tried it in multiple CD players, and not a single one can play it.  In a print book, it's the equivelant of having 1/7th of the books' pages torn out.  I marked the book as received when I got it, because it wouldn't be fair to make a user wait until I finish an eight hour book (that would take up to two weeks), but this is a pretty big flaw and definitely not postable. 

My second problem book was an audio version of Othello.  I've only listened to the first disk, but it's completely scratched up that there's major skipping every 3-5 minutes.  Again, definitely not postable by PBS's guidelines, but I marked the book received when it arrived because it wouldn't be fair to make the sender wait, so the transaction's already closed.

Is there any way to change the transaction to RWP, or other action I can take through PBS?   I guess I need to start spot-checking CDs when they arrive, eh?

Once it's marked, there's unfortunately nothing that you can do *to my knowledge* other than to send the sender a pm and tell them that there is a problem and ask them to remedy it.  You can pm them from the transaction archive so that your messages are on record with the transaction.  You can ask for a refund.  You never know, they might be nice enough to return it.

I wish I had a better answer for you.  Sorry.

It won't help you now,  but in the future you could rip the CDs to your computer before you mark them received.  It only takes a few minutes and you know you may have a problem disk if your computer has trouble ripping them.

I've talked to members who scan their CDs visually and if their are any scratches or scary marks, they run the CDs through their CD player before marking an audio book received.  They skip through and play 5 seconds here, and 5 seconds there, just to see if it plays.

Thanks for the responses, guys!

Sharon, that's a great idea.  From here on out, I'll definitely try ripping the CDs and seeing what happens.

While you cannot mark the book RWAP at this point, there is nothing keeping you from telling the sender about the problem, and telling them that you would like your credit or both credits back for the book. You are entitled to your credits back, according to PBS rules, you simply can't mark them RWAP, which is only half of the issue. Good Luck!

Suzi--

You might also try cleaning the CD that won't play, either with a commercial cleaning kit or with instructions available on the web.  It won't solve the RWAP issue, obviously, but it might help salvage the disk.  We have a CD cleaner that we use, it cost less than $20, and we use it on music CDs, audio books, video games and DVDs, so it is very handy and has saved the day a number of times when we had a disk that wouldn't play.

Good luck!