Today I received my second book that was underlined within, though minimally.  There was also a section or two that had brief notes written in the margin.

I have this thing about previously underlined books... I hate them and don't read them.

I feel bad refusing the book after the sender ships it to me, but am I in the right here?  I've had a sender or two warn me ahead of time that the book was underlined, and I replied with a thanks for the warning, please cancel my request.  Even a few pages of markings and I don't want the book (unless of course it is something rare and not easily replaced).

Just curious if I'm expecting too much here, so thanks for any other perspectives.

You are right.   The rules are that if a book has underlining, they have to ask you first.   There are other sites that take them.  Not here.

PBS says that there is to be no highlighting or underlining exception for textbooks and those have to be agreed to first.  this means that the sender needs to PM you before sending the book informing you of the condition and asking if you still want it.  Otherwise it is considered unpostable.  I have the same attitude as the OP.  I RWAP those books no matter how little underlining or highlighting there is.  I have refused books when senders have asked me before mailing them.  RWAP this book and ask for your credit back.

Ruth

Got a book in this mornings mail  that was in great shape, leafed through the pages and marked it received, even sent a nice PM to the sender. Sat down to read it a while ago and noticed there is underlining throughout the first chapter and five pages with BRIGHT GREEN highlighter on them. Now I ask you, how did I miss that!  So, the moral to that story is that no matter how impatient I am to start reading a book I will always check it out really well prior to checking it in. Oh yes, and get some new glasses, definitely.LOL

 I found myself being so distracted by the underlining, I kept thinking now why in the world did they underline that.  Why did they think that was important, am I missing something.(scratches head) Oh well.

I recieved a couple of books with underlining.  I can't use them.  I am an English teacher and if I put books with underlining out on my reference shelf, then my students will only read the underlined parts, not the parts which I consider important.  I've marked both of these books as RWAP and asked for my credit back, but gotten nothing from the senders.  I got so frustrated, that I have now have requester conditions which explicitly say NO UNDERLINING of any kind and that they have to PM me with the book conditions if they have any questions.  I havn't had a problem since this, but I have had some people PM me about the condition of the book.  I'm not really sure what I could do if I got an underlined book even with my RC, but it makes me feel better.  Personally, when I'm annotating a book I use Post-It notes.  I'm teaching my students to do this as well, so maybe there will be a few less green hilighters out there (or red pens...those are terrible too). 

The worst book I've recieved on here is an English grammar book, which had over half of the things either underlined in bright red pen or hilighted.  It is so bad that I put myself back on the wishlist and got another copy.  I finally got it, but I'm not happy about having to use a second credit.  I could have bought the book new for the price of two credits.  Oh well...I wish there were something stronger than RWAP and asking for your credit back.  This is just another time I wish we could leave feedback for those we have transactions with like we do on e-bay or half. com.  If we did that, then I think people might be a bit better about not posting unpostable books. 

Out of curiosity why would anyone underline or highlight a book that isnt a textbook?  I wouldnt dream of doing this myself.

Erin, if you didn't ever hear back then you need to mark the transaction "Unresolved" on your Transaction file.  When you marked them RWAP - did you say you needed to hear back from them within a certain time frame?  And did you tell them you would mark the transaction Unresolved which would get them a 2nd black mark on their record?  I hope you also put into the PBS notice part of the check-in page what was wrong and what you requested of them.  I'm sorry that this happened to you.

Ruth

Jedipriestess, my mother underlines anything she reads in red ink.  Then she sends it on to us expecting that we read it.  This she does to books and magazines.  I hate it.  I always just chuck it in the trash.  And she does this to 90% of the text!  Useless.

Ruth

You are not suppose to TAG the book with conditions.  Argh.  A tag will show up with every book, not just yours.

I agree - I hate it whenever there is a tag like that or it's the review of a book!  I always mark the "thumbs down" for those reviews or erase the tag since enough of those will result (hopefully) in their disappearance.

Ruth

Well the sender sent a nice note back, she didn't realize it was underlined, and added:

"If you would like to mail it back, I will be happy to return your credit."

Either she misspoke or she wants me to actually pay shipping to return it to her  leaving me where I was (no book) and the price of return shipping shorter?

I better ask her to clarify that!

If she wants her book back she needs to give you a credit for the postage.  It's in the Help Docs:

• Remember that the requestor is not required to send the book back at his or her expense.   There is more information about this below.  The sender of a problem book does risk losing credit, book and postage; this is the incentive NOT to send problem books.

If a requestor sends you a Personal Message about a problem swap, you do need to reply, and to resolve the problem if there was one.  Because the requestor can provide follow-up on how the problem was handled, resolving the problem will greatly reduce the effect of a problem swap on your account record. Unresolved problems (or not Responding to PMs about a problem swap) will more seriously affect your account record, if a pattern of this accumulates on your account.  Remember that one problem swap will not harm your account, even if it is marked as unresolved by the requestor who gives follow-up on how you handled the problem.

If you dispute the nature of the problem, you should be sure to write your PM by clicking the PM button on the swap in your Transaction Archive.  This will record your response on the transaction and if your account is ever reviewed for problem swapping, this information will be there to explain what happened in this swap.

• A requestor does NOT have to return the item in a "problem" transaction
  • if the sender wants the item back, he or she should send postage or a credit to pay for its return.

So, if anybody is still reading this.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The sender sent me a book that was UNLISTABLE by club guidelines.  Since I wasn't warned by her, I am entitled to my original credit back.   Correct?

Also, now she wants the book back, and says I should ship it back to her since then we will BOTH be out the same amount of postage....  I told her, I will send it back for another (a second) credit, which will cover the cost of her return shipping.  Why would she think it would be fair that I pay shipping like she did even though I did nothing wrong and SHE  listed the book improperly?  She also noted she wants to put it back on her book tower, meaning somebody else will go through this in the future.

In short, to get the book back, she would need to give me a total of TWO credits back, correct?  That's the way I understand it, and I refuse to pay shipping on my own to cover somebody else's mistake.

Admin, please respond? 

You are correct.  The guidelines are explicit on both the underlining and the credits.  You can quaote them to her and tell her that you want at least the one credit you spent within a certai number of days to avoid getting another black mark from this issue.  At least she is still PM-ing you.

Ruth

If you want PBS reps to respond you will have to go to "Contact us" link at the bottom of the page.

Ruth

Thanks Ruth :)  I just wanted some official recognition of this rule so I can reference her to it.

I hate making such a deal about one measly credit/book, but it's more a matter of just doing things properly and (senders) taking responsibility for their mistakes and not expecting others to pay the price for their mistakes.

And I'm glad to know all this (or at least be reassured that I was right all along about this rule) for future reference.

This book has only a few pages of markings, which would probably be ok for most, but these notations are like kryptonite to me.

I will now officially stop whining.

Roger, it's not that it might be okay for there to be a little underlining.  The important fact is that the guidelines say no underlining unless it's a textbook and then the sender has to PM you and get your approval.  Otherwise the book needs to be listed in the Book Bazaar so that anyone getting it knows they are spending a credit to get a book with underlining.  The standards are what's important in FIFO.  And we members are the quality control where the enforcement is concerned.  If we let people get away with it once they'll do it again.  It happens all the time.  We need to get members to understand what is okay and what isn't by asking for our credits to be returned when this happens.

Ruth