I recently received a WL book that I had to mark RWAP.  The spine was cleaved in two different placed (completely cleaved and not just creased).  Also, in one of the sections that was cleaved, one of the pages had come loose.  I decribed the damaged and asked for my credit back--mostly because of the loose page. 

Today I received this reply back:

PROBLEM REQUESTORS like YOU ruin paperbackswap for the rest of us. I had NO LOOSE PAGES in that book--you OBVIOUSLY pulled it apart, so you could receive a free credit. DO NOT REQUEST FROM ME EVER AGAIN.                

I was quite take aback by this reply and I can assure everyone that I in no way purposely damaged the book to receive a free credit.  I'm also at a loss as to how I can not request from her since the book was posted to my WL through FIFO.  She did refund the credit, so I'm pretty sure that I need to mark the transaction resolved, but I'm not sure what to do about her reply.  Does it need to be reported somewhere, or do I just forget about it.

They're obviously angry because they got caught out.  There's not much you can do - there's no way you can definitively not request from her again without micromanaging your requests - who wants to do that?

My advice?

Do not respond to them.  You're being baited so don't fall for it.  Just mark it as resolved and move on.

And yeah, I had someone accuse me of getting a book wet once so I could request the credit.  I just sat here with my WTF face...

I have no plan of responding back to her, I just wasn't sure whether this needs to be reported anywhere.  I personally don't deal well with confrontation, so this really threw me, but I don't think it's harassing or threatening, just really rude.

And it never dawned on me that someone would deliberately damage a book for the credit...much less that I would be accused of it.  I have plenty of credits and books, who needs the hassle of that.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate hearing a reasonable voice after the day I had--which was topped off by that PM. lol!

I would not respond to them at all, just not worth your time or trouble.  While the PM is abrupt and not very nice, I don't think it's overly nasty or contains anything reportable to TPTB.

The other member knows they sent an unpostable book and they're just mad you called them on it.  Really, what logical reason would you have for ruining a book?  Just to get a credit?  Makes no sense.

You are correct, with the FIFO system you have no way to make sure you don't request from her again.  It's a blind system that way, she'd need to check who she's sending her book to and cancel if she doesn't want to send to you anymore.

Agree. Completely ignore them.

They are perfectly aware that they sent you an unpostable book, and they don't like that you had the gall to complain about it. Let them have their tantrum.

They didn't get completely nasty, so reporting them probably won't do much. If they make a habit of sending books like the one you received, they won't be here long anyway.

It's so frustrating, but  I agree, though, that you just have to move on and avoid the bait.  I had almost the same thing happen where the requestor accused me of purposefully spilling liquid on a book and sending her pictures to get a free book.  Luckily these people are few and far between.

Either don't respond, or just tell them thank you for the credit return and tell em to Have A Nice Day.

-RD

Sadly Heather, although rude, it's probably not enough so to need reported to TPTB.

If you feel inclined to respond, I'd just keep it simple and polite..."Thank you for credit return, I have marked this transaction as resolved."

I'm undecided which is worse, the outright rude responses or the cheerfully defiant.  I recently received an unpostable book, the sender didn't directly admit they knew the book was unpostable but did say the book was 'readable' *eyeroll*.  When I politely replied that 'readability' is not the issue, the book was unpostable per PBS guidelines, the sender again cheerfully said the book was readable but the would be happy to refund my credit...but the credit was never transferred.  I sent one more polite reminder several days later, then marked the RWAP unresolved.

Heather, since it bothered you enough to post about here, I'd report it to the in-house PBS staff using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of any PBS page.  If this person is making a habit of these kinds of replies, they'll want to be aware of that pattern -- there's no call to respond as she did, and I'm sorry it happened to you.

I just wanted to come in to say that it may not have been cleaved when she sent it.  There's a possibility that it was jostled in just the right way during transit or had a really rough ride that caused it to become cleaved.

I agree that the member's response was rude.  I wouldn't respond, but I would mark it "unresolved".

Here in this forum for past few months there have been a ton of complaints about books being received with spine damage.  The consensus was that a lot of books are being damaged from rough handling by the USPS.