I ordered a mass market paperback that's relatively famous, with an ISBN# and a publication date of 2000.  I am going to put it in a display with a series of books with similar names, as a gag (yes, I am easily amused).  What I got was a 1972 edition (no ISBN#) with a different publisher and a different cover than the one I requested, but it's in decent shape, considering its age, and it will work OK with what I want to do.  But I feel pretty irritated that someone would do this; not sure why it's irritating me, maybe several transactions haven't worked out well lately (yet I've done over 2800, 95% have worked out well, but I digress).   Any suggestions over what I should do?  A mixture of obnoxious and considerate answers welcome.

Can I be obnoxious? Can I? Can I?  The site ASKS if the book matches EXACTLY before you add it to your inventory---and some sap was too lazy to enter the book manually since it didn't have an ISBN, so you are within your right to request your credit back.  IF you don't want to request your credit returned you could at least bitch slap the person with a PM, telling them don't be so lazy next time.

Was I the sender? LOL

I'm interested in your GAG bookshelf...care to elaborate?

You are definitely within your rights to ask them to return their credit. I do hope you marked it received with a problem and specified what the problem was in the survey. I also hope you enlightened the person, who may have skimmed the posting process, and needs to learn the rules better. I hope you directed them to the HelpCenter page that tells them that if the book has no ISBN they must manually enter it.

Some people just don't read little pop ups and small dialog boxes. I don't know why, but I've been teaching computer newbies for years, and it takes a brick to get them to realize you can't just click on one of the buttons and go on. I ask them time and time again, when something has come up "What did that box say?" and it amazes me the number of times the answer is "I don't know."  Or something screws up on the PC and the call me to help. They say a box came up to tell them about something but they didn't understand it. I ask "What did it say?"  Answer: "I don't know, I just know it wanted me to do something."

I just don't understand how some people function in life when they don't read when they do something new! Oh well  :)

ETA: I do want to add, so that you know, that IF the book you received had been a reissue where the publisher KEPT the same ISBN for the reissue, it would have been perfectly within the rules. Neither the publication date, nor the cover need to match that which is on the description the book is posted to. That is not a requirement. If you want a specific cover, YOU must ask to make sure it is, the sender is not required to ask if it matters. Just wanted to point that out, since that was part of your complaint.

The only thing that makes this in illegal post, against PBS rules, is the fact that it didn't match the ISBN. I can bet you that I can go to my TBR and find dozens of books that have been republished using the same ISBN but the cover is different, and the publisher can be the same if they have made an agreement, which I've seen too. The genre I use is especially good at doing these things.

I was going to say that many times, the same book will be republished under the same ISBN. The edition doesn't have to match, and neither does the cover.

It needs to be marked received with a problem.  It's the wrong book and people need to list their books correctly.

However, do make very sure the book doesn't have an ISBN.  They can occur in a number of locations besides just the back cover:

On the front cover in small text in with the price information

inside front cover,

on copyright / publishers information page in front of book,

on copyright / publishers information page in back of book (not uncommon for non-english language books)

and, fairly commonly for mass-market paperbacks from them 1970s, at the base of the spine.  This value is
 often missing the last digit (checksum) of the full isbn value.

possibly other varients I haven't seen yet.

I was going to mention about making sure it didn't have an ISBN#.  I posted an older book recently and there was no ISBN on the back cover, no bar code.  But on the inside page where the publishing info was listed there was an ISBN# in tiny print.  I almost didn't see it myself. 

OK, I marked it received with a problem, and explained it.  The guy responded "You got the book you want; so?", then 15 minutes later, he said "If you aren't satisfied, I will refund you the credit."  What would you guys do?  (Did I mention he's been a member only one month?)  Should I ask him to refund the credit and then be racked with guilt? (I don't need the credit, but it's more the principal of the thing).

John, it's really your choice whether to ask for it back.  It sounds to me like you can repost the book (as a non-ISBN), and it serves your purpose, so you really don't feel it necessary to have the sender return the credit. So you could just do something like I did a while back. For my one "bad transaction" I decided it was a minor problem and didn't ask for my credit back. But I did explain that others might want it back if it happened again. I think I worded it something like: "Since the book serves my purpose and I wasn't planning to repost it, I'm not asking for my credit back. But someone else may want it back if it happens to him, so I wanted you to be aware of the PBS rules to prevent it from happening again."

I know that Sherry already said this, but I just thought I'd post this from the Help Center:

A "wrong book" at PBS means a book that does not match its listing in the PBS Database in one or more of the FOUR necessary aspects:  ISBN, Title, Author and Booktype. 

• Nothing else about a listing needs to match
• Cover image does not have to match
• Publisher does not have to match
• Publication date does not have to match.

Of course, in this case it would be hard for a non-ISBN book to match one from 2000!

I'd ask for the credit back even if you don't need it.  He needs to lear that he should follow the rules.

I would tell him that "Technically, according to the rules, I should get my credit back. But I see that you are new, so in light of that and in the interest of promoting new members to learn and become active here on PBS, I'm not going to ask for it back. But, I'm going to ask that you please read the rules on what can and cannot be posted here, and follow the rules in the future. I hope you are enjoying PBS, and that you have asked questions when you had them or found the answers in the Help Center. I encourage you to contact your Tour Guide if you have problems. your Tour Guide is in your Buddy List. They are usually very helpful members."

That way pointing out that you did something above the requirements for him, and maybe it will encourage him to be more aware of the rules.

Or, you could be throwing your credit into the proverbial wind, and he's just a butthead! hahahaha but if you don't need the credit, to me it would surely be worth the try!

Maybe this is a dumb question to ask, but how did the guy get the order?  When I go in to place an order for a book that has multiple copies, the ones with no ISBN number show up with that funky short number.  It seems to me the guy would have had to post the book under the ISBN number that was requested, so maybe the book does have one hidden somewhere. 

He looked up the book (either here or at Amazon) and found the 2000 version with the ISBN.  Then he listed the book under that ISBN as if it was the same.  The books you are seeing without ISBNs have been listed correctly using the "List a Book With No ISBN" feature, which isn't what he did.

Did that make sense?

That made sense, Kari.  I bet that's what happened.