I was so excited when I opened my mailbox and there were 3 books in it :) When I got into the house I (of course) immediately started opening them when I realized that one was already 'opened'. One side of the packaging was ripped open. The book was ONLY wrapped in the printed PBS paper, no plastic or anything and the corners and such were not taped. Even the back had a couple of rips in it. Well the book is in terrible condition and I don't believe it could be posted again. It may even have water damage but it's hard to tell if it's that or if it's just messed up that maybe it was just smooshed.

I hate to ask for my credit back but I can't repost this. There's even a tear/cut on the spine. What do I do?

Sounds to me like damaged by PO, not by sender.  The PBS wrapper is ALL that is required, so can't fault someone there.  I have received some really well wrapped books using that paper, but still, I don't think it is a good idea in general for anything larger than a MMP.

Tiffanie--

Yes, that's definitely RWP.  Unless the damage seems to have been there before the books were wrapped, it falls under "Damaged by USPS".

Per the Help Center:

"If you feel that the wrapping of the book contributed to its damage en route:

• You can tell the sender this in a Personal Message
  • Please be gentle!  The sender may be new to bookswapping.
  • You can ask for your credit to be refunded if you believe it is warranted."

Cheers,

Catt

Yeah, it's not a MMP and they didn't use near enough tape. The corners weren't even taped.. well, they were but not far enough down that it would hold in place I guess. So it's okay that the inside of the pages are ripped/cut cause it went through the cover? Some of the book is crinkled (including part of the cover). I make sure to package my stuff with care so that things have much less of a chance of getting damaged in the mail. The other two books made it here fine (even an MMP that only had the paper as the wrapping). So now I'm out a credit, case closed?

Catt,

You must have posted this while I was typing the other message :) Thanks. Ok, I will mark it RWAP but I'm not sure if I should ask for my credit back or not. It's one thing if you make every effort to wrap things really well and then it gets damaged but I'm not sure in this case. It's kind of hard to tell which damage was here (if any) before it was sent and which was damaged in transit. By inspecting the wrapper I do think most, if not all of the damage was in transit.

<<I'm not sure if I should ask for my credit back or not>>

Only you can make that call, but either way, do mark it as RWP and give some gentle but constructive feedback to the member regarding packaging.  You might check their profile and see if they are new.

Cheers,

Catt

How do you check to see if they are new?

If they have a profile and choose to disclose it, you can see when they joined on that screen (click on the PM button in your pending books and then their user name)

I can't figure out how to view the profile but they aren't new cause they wrote a review in 2006

<<I can't figure out how to view the profile>>

Under the request area, click on "PM", and instead of PMing them, click on the blue link to their name.  Not everyone has a profile and, as you said, you've found they posted a review a few years ago.

Good luck.

Cheers,

Catt

I'm wondering if all 3 books were actually requested with 3 credits or was it a 3-for-1 deal.  If a 3-for-1 deal and the one book you actually requested with a credit is OK, then damge to either of the other books is a mute point. Only if the actual requested book is damaged will you have any recourse. Of course, you could PM the sender, if for no other reason than to let him/her know what happened.

No, these were 3 different books from 3 different people. Only one book from one person was damaged.

Also, I did PM her and have not gotten a response.

removed to protect personal info since the forums can be read by the general public, not just PBS members.

It looks to me like it got caught in a machine or otherwise crunched.  Definately Damaged by USPS.  Asking for your credit back is a judgement call, but in this case, I wouldn't.  A bubble mailer or other extra wrapping might have saved it from most of the damage, but I doubt it would have stopped all of it.  For me, when I receive a book damaged in the post I subject it to a 'reasonable standards' test.  Does it appear  the sender met the site minimums for wrapping?  (book completely covered, no scotch tape?)  Was the damage by the USPS above and beyond normal mail processing? (crunched, run over by truck?)   If the answer to both of those questions is yes, then I don't ask for a credit return. 

Ok thanks. I'm not going to ask for my credit back but I did let the person know so maybe they'll want to be sure to package better. I prob should have taken a pic of the wrapper too duhhhhhhh (maybe I still will). If ONE more strip of tape had been used I don't believe this book would have been damaged like this.