I recently requested a book that wasn't wishlisted, but after stumbling upon it, was really interested.  I sent the request, and it was accepted.  The next day I received a PM from the sender saying that the book had come into his/her possession with water damage, and did I still want it.  I replied that since water damage technically made the book unpostable by site guidelines, would the sender be willing to make me a deal, and send me another one of his/her inventory in addition to the damaged book.

The request was then canceled, lol.

My first reaction was one of annoyance.  I earned my credits, and take pains to only add books that are in good condition, and go above and beyond guidelines.  Why should someone get one of my credits for a book that wasn't allowed to be posted to begin with? 

After thinking about it, I realized it was silly to be upset over a book, lol.  Then I wondered if maybe my PM had been offensive, or against the community culture of this site.  What do you think I should have done?

Theresa,

I would have PM'ed back " NO THANK YOU " ! I, too, always send out books that are " Postable" !

I know this is a "used Book Club", but no one wants books that have been abused. I have been very fortunate, I've recieved around 200 books since I joined in April, 2009. Only 2 books were unpostable.

Theresa--There's nothing wrong with how you handled the situation.  Some people are unwilling to make deals for what ever reason.  The polite thing for the person wondering if you wanted the book to do would be to send you a PM telling you "no thanks". 

If there's more than one copy of the book in the system, you're now free to order the book again.

You did just right. The sender should have offered to do it when they PMed you it was damaged.  Some people just get in a tizzy when they get called on trying to send unpostables for a credit. You are absolutely right that you should get a postable book for a credit.

I don't think there's any reason to get annoyed over this.  Technically they should have jsut cancelled the request when they noticed the damage. But when you said you didn't want it with the PM they did cancel.  So no harm done.  It's not like they are sending the book anyway.  They aren't obligated to send you another book for free if they'd rather just do something else with the book.  Although a PM saying no thanks to the deal would have been nice.

Mary,

Like I said, I realized it was silly to get annoyed over a book, but I still reserve the right to be a little perplexed at least, lol.  The owner knew of the damage BEFORE the book was posted...it wasn't something that was discovered later.  At least they were nice enough to check to see if I wanted it in its condition, which is what makes the situation so perplexing, and why I sought opinions from the board---is it acceptable to go ahead and post an unpostable for credit (as opposed to only advertising it on the designated board section) if you give a disclaimer after accepting?

I've been a member of another swap site where the condition of the book doesn't have to follow a set of guidelines, but its customary to include condition notes when posting the book, so I wasn't sure if this was the norm for THIS site or what.

They really shouldn't have ever posted it -- the only exception is textbooks, and that's with highlighting/underlining (and cookbooks, which you can post with stains, notes, etc.), NOT water damage. I'm glad they PM'ed you about it instead of just sending it, but it should have been offered in the book bazaar instead of being posted.

is it acceptable to go ahead and post an unpostable for credit (as opposed to only advertising it on the designated board section) if you give a disclaimer after accepting? Absolutely NEVER. No book should be posted to someone's shelf knowingly unpostable. Hopefully this person didn't notice the damage until it was already requested, I think many of us catch damage on a book here and there that we didn't catch the first time or happened while it was stored.

I would be annoyed with someone who sounded like they knowingly posted a damaged book tried to get me to pay them a credit for it and then didn't bother to answer a PM back.

Posting an unpostable book to your bookshelf (ie FIFO) violates Terms of Membership.  The other member should not have posted this book since it appears they were aware of it's unpostable condition.  Unpostable books may be advertised in the Book Bazaar and discussion forums, and even traded if condition is clearly declared and accepted by a requestor.  Listing unpostables FIFO is NOT the correct method to handle the situation, and some requesting members may have returned a cranky reply to the pm you received.

As per site membership guidelines, requesting members have every right to expect FIFO books to be in postable condition...the only exception is the Textbook waiver.  Guidelines for Textbook transactions is clearly outlined in The Rules

OTOH Theresa, you are first in line for the next copy of this book so it's not worth your time to worry about!

Your OP doesn't say that they knew before it was posted.  I had a book on my shelf for 2 yrs that I bought used.  It was finally ordered, I accepted and when I did an inspection of hte book I noticed a big water stain under the dust jacket on the back cover.  I just cancelled the book request.  It's a heavily posted book so I didn't bother to PM them before I cancelled.  Maybe because this wasn't a heavily posted book he figured he'd still offer it after he noticed the damage.  Like I said at least he didn't just go ahead and mail it and hope you wouldn't complain.

What I would have done differently was just to say "no, thanks, please cancel the order" and waited for the system to order it from someone else.

Cheryl

It wouldn't have been a problem for me. I have done it a couple times where the book that someone requested had some minor underlining in it-not hightlighting.  I either offer them another book from my self and would send both, or I'll send it but buddy them back their credit-giving them a "free" bok. I already had the wrapper printed out and didn't want it to go to waste.

Sorry; I thought stating that the owner had come into possession of the book with the water damage already to it was clear enough.  But I digress...the book owner received the book from this site already water damaged, and after reading another thread on here, it seems that water damage during transit is not a new thing.  Perhaps that person thought it was justifiable to try and get a credit for the book that came to him/her already damaged.  At least they asked first.