I had a book on my WL for a long time, and someone posted it. I accepted it and when I got it I noticed that it had a lot of underlining in pencil and pen and writing in the margins in ink. It isn't a text book, but is nonfiction and I could see it being assigned in a class.

I marked it RWP and PMed the sender  "I checked received with problem because this book has a lot of underlining and writing in the margins, and I was not told about this before it was sent. This is in violation of PBS guidelines. Would you please give me back my credit?"

She wrote "I passed that book along without ever looking in it so I have no way of knowing if what you are writing is accurate or not. "

What would you do?

I'm going to chalk it up to just one of those experiences, she would probably just tell me I had enough time to mark up the book myself. Most of my trades go well - but it's really maddening to have someone tell you they weren't paying attention so you're the one out a credit.

Yeah, post pictures.

Then if she does say that you wrote in it, you can send the history of your PMs to the PBS higher-ups.

 I would offfer to show her a photograph of it by email.   Be sure to show the top of the page where most books have the book title in at least one of the photographs.

They may not intervene if you post photos.  I haven't heard anything back from my  inquiry.  I post my photos here mainly to show others what water damage is and what an unpostable book looks like - there are people who truly think these books are postable.

Elizabeth....

In my opinion it is the sender's responsibility to check a book through and through before sending it. I do not read all of the books I send out but you can bet I flip through them to make sure there isn't a problem before I post it. Good luck!!!!

Jenn

I passed that book along without ever looking in it so I have no way of knowing if what you are writing is accurate or not.

I'd write back, send the pictures and tell her...if you never looked at the book, you did not insure that it met posting guidelines in the first place, which is a violation of PBS requirements.

Yep, I agree with the above, not checking it is not an excuse for sending an unpostable book. I would ask her how she was sure it was even postable on the site then?

If i aquire books from whereever, I alwasy at least thumb through them.  I give them a good visutal going over, check the binding and see that there isn't any markings...and if there are, hopefully it is in pencil and can be erased. It takes about 2 minutes.

There's another step you can take.

If you don't get any satisfaction from the sender, go to your transaction archive, find this book, and click on "Was problem resolved?" You'll see several choices on the next screen, one of which is a variation of "sender has not resolved a problem with this book."

When you report this transaction as a problem, it alerts site management, and they in turn, contact the sender on your behalf. There's no guarantee you'll get satisfaction even then, but at the very least, management will see the PMs and be made aware of the problems you've been having with the other member.

I haven't yet had the privilege of receiving unpostable books....

However, I don't think I'd mind the book you received.  I actually like to see what other people think is important enough to highlight, underline, or notate.

The guidelines require a book that is in pretty good shape.  I'll bet they wrote the guidelines knowing that people would push it.  I think everyone should follow the rules, but that's an individual integrity issue.

Personally, I would probably only request a credit back if the book is unreadable, had a moldy smell, or was gross and I didn't want to touch it!!

On the bright side, now you have a book to use to play in one of the Unpostable swap games!

Michelle

I know where you're coming from, Michelle, but the "no writing and no highlighting" rule is a very objective standard. There's no judgment call to it. If nothing else, Elizabeth can't repost it when she's done with it.

Yeah, I wouldn't let her off the hook because she didn't look at it! I mean, that's kind of her responsibility. Nobody is *that busy.* It reminds me of a weird eBay situation I got into. I ordered a rug hook kit sold as BRAND NEW, sealed in the box. I love doing these kits. Anyway, when it came, it was open, half done, dirty, with markings all over the legend. It was GROSS. I wrote the seller and she was like, "I got it at an estate sale, I don't have time to go over everything I list." Yet she had time to go searching on the internet for a DIFFERENT picture (she obviously didn't photograph the one she sent me, since it didn't have plastic all around the box) and somehow got the box's content description... without looking at it? Yeah right. She did refund my money, but it smacked of a shady deal.

I agree with everyone here... not checking a book before you post it is a violation of the guidelines since you aren't really sure if it is in postable condition or not.  That is no excuse and now you are out a credit.  I would still ask for my credit back and offer to send pics if she wants proof.  If that doesn't work then just go in and mark the transaction "not resolved"

I ALWAYS flip through books, even with books I "know" are in postable condition to make sure nothing got spilled on them, etc.  Shame on her for not checking.. it isn't your fault and you shouldn't have to pay for it.

Not an excuse. You have to look through a book before you send it. It was her responsibility and she should give your credit back.

It is the senders responsiblty to check what they send out, I always thumb through every book I send out for that very reason.  At least twice I've had to decline because of a small water mark or something.  Sometimes I think people use this excuse as a way not to be responsible for sending out anything they please.

You can miss things even if you check your books.  I check all of my books when I buy or aquire them & still miss things.  I've had 2 books I sent out come back as RWP - both had spine exposure - and I missed it both times.  Anyone can have an RWP, the important thing is how you respond to it when you have one.  I've opted to give people the benefit of the doubt.  Keeping my one lousy credit is not worth treating someone like a con artist.  People can do anything to a book - from spilling liquid on it, to setting it on fire - in between pulling it out of the mailbox and marking it RWP, so you NEVER know, unless you go through everything one page at a time - and then, you could still miss something.  I've even bought brand new books and found binding flaws or stains in them when I got them home & started reading them, so you never know.  If I hadn't read the books & just posted them, assuming a book was postable because it was never read, it would be pretty stupid of me to treat someone who got it & marked it RWP like they were trying to get a free book, wouldn't it?  Honestly, if I had a chance to tell people who automatically assume they're being taken advantage of every time there's a problem, it would be just give people the benefit of a little doubt.  Unless it's an RWP because of something really dumb, like the requestor hadn't read the posting rules & thought former library books or something with a UBS stamp were unacceptable - something that clearly should be filtered out by RCs (which can and does happen:P) - then just refund the darned credit.  Life is too short to live in mortal terror of ever being taken advantage of.  And frankly, it happens way too rarely on an individual level to even worry about.

<<When you report this transaction as a problem, it alerts site management, and they in turn, contact the sender on your behalf.>>

This is not entirely accurate.  When you follow-up on a problem transaction, some options will trigger an automated email to the sender reminding them to try to resolve the problem, but site owners do not intervene, generally, in individual transactions, except in certain circumstances which are described in the Help Center.

I'm sorry you had a negative experience, Elizabeth.  The sender is in the wrong twice over here -- they didn't check the book before posting, and aren't working to resolve a legitimate problem.  Highlighting and underlining isn't subjective; it isn't allowed except in textbooks, and only then with prior permission of the recipient.  Send photos and quote the appropriate Help Center sections for them.  Hopefully they will see the light and refund your credit.

Cheers,

Catt