Im not having a good day.  I got a book request, I accepted, printed the wrapper, marked it mailed, grabbed the book and my purse and drove to the post office.  I get out of the car, slip on the wet sidewalk (it had rained) and dropped both my purse AND the book in a huge puddle.   Needless to say the book is ruined and I cant really afford to go buy a new one to mail.  Does anyone have any ideas how to proceed from here?

You have to contact PBS and ask them to cancel the request. 

You could buddy a credit to the requestor and ask them to mark it received. 

Is that a one or the other option or do I need to do both?

I would probably do the 1st and ask PBS to cancel it.

LOL of course because I just did the 2nd option.  BAHA  Well we'll see what happens.

If they mark it received will they not lose their place in line if it is a wishlisted book?  If TPTB cancel it the receiver can be put back in the front of the line.

Ok we resolved it.  Its not a wishlisted book, its readily available and she just marked it recieved and I gave her the credit back.    All's well that ends well.  Now Im going to go dry out my purse!  LOL

I didn't think about the book being WL.  For a WL book you would definately have to ask PBS to cancel the request so the requestor could go back to #1. 

Sorry this happened to you, and I hope you weren't hurt when you slipped.  (Which, of course, didn't occur to me to ask until after I had mourned the loss of a good book in a puddle!  LOL)

No Im fine.  My purse on the other hand, not so much!  LOL

Just a quick note, a member here once posted that she wished all her books arrived wrapped with inner plastic layer to waterproof the package and I'd never thought about other members living in wet areas since I'm in California now...  I thought it was a good idea, and I started wrapping all my books with an inner plastic layer.

Books with this additional protection would be fine to resend even if they were accidentally dropped in a puddle!

(PS  I'm glad you're not hurt.  So sorry about your purse, and of course, about the book...)

I thought about that, my practice in the past has always been to just buy a waterproof bubble envelope at the post office, after yesterday I may have to rethink that. hehehe

Sorry that happened to you :(  I'm glad you're ok

I'm one of the ones that always asks for plastic (actually have an RC for it... it rains here constantly in the summer!)  Would definitely have saved the

book :(

luv2cook,

you're not the first person to do something like that.  Shortly after I joined PBS, I had an order for 5 trade size paperbacks (WL of course)  I didn't have a package big enough for them at my house so I put them in a plastic grocery bag to take to the post office to get a bubble mailer.  Of course after I take the bag out of the car (along with about 5 other packages going out at the same time) I dropped everything into a large puddle that just happened to be next to only my car.  The plastic bag did provide some protection, but the books got a little wet where the bag had torn. 

Luckily the wisher was very gracious and still wanted the books with the water damage (it didn't effect the text of the book at all) and I refunded her credits anyway as the books were technically not postable (PBS didn't have the new rule about accepting credits for UP books as long as the requestor knows and agrees back when this happened)

So, long story short,  WELCOME TO THE CLUB!!!!!

The worst package I've gotten in ages was last week and it was a bubble envelope.  The book was loose in a larger envelope and it looked like the PO machines had punched holes all over that envelope.  That wouldn't have kept anything dry!  Interesting because I have found that to be the case with the plastic type of envelopes too.  If you don't fasten the envelope around the box tightly, then the machines eat holes in what you thought was waterproof!

I have a large box of manila envelopes. I usually stick the book in, seal it then wrap it tightly around the book and tape it. I think I'm going to start getting zip lock baggies at the dollar store. May be a good idea now that the weathers getting worse!