I just damaged a wishlist book as I was getting ready to mail it out. Sigh. I dropped it and it got some stain on it and a slight tear to the corner of the hardcover. I PMed the member and let them know what happened and asked them if they'd like me to cancel or wanted me to send the book as a freebie. And if so, I'd mail out the book using PBS postage and then refund their credit immediately. I'd still like them to get the book if they want it and thought if I canceled first, I'd lose their address and wouldn't know who to PM to see if they still wanted it.

Was this okay? I'm second guessing what I did and wonder if I should just cancel the order. Thanks.

As long as you gave them the option of having you cancel, I think it's very nice of you to offer to send the book anyway!  (How frustrating for you, though!)

I think what you did was great!   You are leaving the choice up to the requestor - perfect.

I feel your pain!! I was so excited the other day when I got my books in the mail that I opened them outside and dropped 1 of them in the mud. The one corner towards the spine got muddy and I offered it to one of my friends here on PBS and sent it to her for Free. Isn't it a bummer when you can't repost a book? :)

It was nice of you to offer this to her for Free though!

I got a big chocolate smear on a swap book yesterday.  I had made some rice krispy treats the day before.  I always put a chocolate shell coating on them.  I got some for the kids, then sat down to read for a few minutes-not noticing the blob of chocolate on my hand.  So now I have to buy another book for the swap-I had already revealed the book so I can't just grab a different one from the TBR pile. 

One time I put an already posted/accepted WL book on a little side table we have.  I sat it down next to a containor of baby wipes, not realizing that one wipe was hanging over the side under the lid. The book sat w/the wipe touchign it all night and absorbed all the liquid.  I had to cancel that one.

There was one time i found sone slight damage to a WL book. I PMed the person and gave her a choice.....sne it as it, or if she would like another book from my shelf, I would send the damaged one as well. She just said, just send the one book...it was really slight...damage, but that isn't the right word either.  But she was happy!

Thanks everyone! = ) I wasn't happy about damaging the book, especially because I knew I'd be disappointing someone. It's a 'speciality' reference book for writers and I've noticed certain books don't get posted that often into the system so figured they might like to have it anyway. None of the text is ruined, just the top edge of the pages but I figured stained is stained so that makes it unpostable.

And thanks for sharing your stories ... I don't feel quite as bad knowing I'm not the only one to make a postable book unpostable. = )

 edited because I forgot how to spell 

That totally stinks and I think what you did was very kind.

I did something similar a few weeks ago.  Picked up the HB WL booked to wrap/mail it.  Fumble fingers (me) dropped it and ripped the top of one page (Chapter 20).  I PMd them and they still wanted the book.  Once I mailed it (via PBS postage), I buddied a credit.

jackie