Hi All,

I just received a requestor PM saying the book was water logged/stained when it arrived.  They gave me a credit but stated they wished I had told them the book was damaged bc they wouldn't have used the credit for it.

I purchased the book brand new from the bookstore for a class I ended up dropping.  Thus, it was never read, binding never cracked, and it sat on my shelf for the past year or so.  I know it was brand new and personally packaged it up in PBS wrapper myself. 

I replied back saying the book was in good condition leaving here and I DO pm requests on books I'm worried about, such as yellowing or seeing a few too many readers.  I've never had this happen and wonder if it was the USPS or what happened.  Should I refund the credit? 

If it was new and I wrapped in ti plastic and sent it out I'd have to say no.

according to the help center: the package was wrapped properly and this was just bad luck, then you do not need to refund the credit.

If your book was damaged en route due to poor packaging, you should refund the credit

I hope this helps

If you didn't wrap it in plastic and it got water logged, it technically was not your fault, but I would refund the credit. It's your call since the book was new!.   (If you did wrap in plastic first, I would  not refund the credit). Perhaps she is looking at a book received from someone else!   IMHO

thanks all for your input.  I PM'd the requestor and hope to hear from them...

Did you double-check the book before you sent it?  The reason I ask is we all make mistakes.  The time I *thought* I checked a book, I didn't, and it had highlighting.  I took it off the shelf, and mailed it, thinking it was like brand-new. 

I had someone pm me the same thing a while back, I know the book was perfect when I mailed it, no one had read it but my dad and then me, and I wrapped it. I just gave them their credit back and left it at that, I think every now and then you are going to run into some people that may or may not be honest so you do what you have to do to make yourself happy.

The site does NOT require books to be wrapped in plastic.   It is a nice thing to do, but I wouldn't refund a credit because the PO droped it in the water or their mailbox is not protected from the weather.

As much as I applaud using plastic wrap, and use it religiously myself, it isn't required and you don't have to refund the credit if you don't want to, that is totally up to you.  I always check my books prior to sending, but if it was a brand new never been read book I probably wouldn't have checked either. 

That being said, recently I had a complaint on a book I sent, she said it was damaged by me.  When I PM'ed her she said it had a water stain.  Now this book was absolutely in pristine condition I bought it at a thrift store and it sat on my shelf for a few months so I double checked it prior sending including taking off the dust jacket to inspect the outside cover.  It was in new conditon.  Since I always do wrap in plastic (double wrapped because it was a big book) I knew it wasn't damaged in route.

I did not refund the credit.  While I believe 99% of the folks here are on the up and up, there is always that 1% that think they can get over on you.

Waterlogged sounds like a USPS error, not  a sender error. If you have credits to burn, give the credit, other wise, as long as you wrapped it to PBS requirements, you are not obligated to. I would hesitate to give credits back for reasons other than those recommended by PBS because it will set up a standard of people expecting credits back where none are due.

It's nice of you to be concerned, but if it's a usps error then you are under no obligation to either refund the credit or feel guilty about it.  It's unfortunate, but it's a chance we all take here on this site. 

One thing you could do if you're really wanting to get a better idea of whether it was something you did or something that happened during shipping is to ask the receiver to send you a picture of the book and the packaging with the damage shown.  If it's only on the book, then maybe you overlooked something, but if the package is damaged too, then it more than likely happened along the way.

I agree that you don't have to wrap in plastic. It's not required on pbs. I would ask for a picture of the book (to be sure they are telling the truth) and then decide to give the credit back or not.

Asking for a photo is a good idea.  I have offered one in the couple cases where the book was damaged and the sender claimed it wasn't.

You could always send the person a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you want to see the book before you make up your mind about the credit. I'm pretty sure it's within the rules to do this. Isn't it?

I've had two complaints, I think. I gave the credits back both times. One was a book with damage that I missed and the other was a person who wrote a really long pm explaining to me how disgusted they were by the horrible stench of smoke in the book and said their kid was deathly allergic. I gave this kind soul their credit back, even though they did not have a no smoke condition on their account. I have no desire to kill any children, so I really wish people would use the conditions!

Maybe I don't trust people, but if her kid is so allergic to smoke she should have used conditions.