I received an offer this morning from someone that wanted 5 of my books. They had 14 trades previously but of the last 8 trades 6 swappers never got their books and the 7th received them after 4 months. This has been going on since June of last year. I declined to trade with him. I explained that I felt that I couldn't trade with him because I'm not sure I'll receive my books. I have been burned 4 times before on BOB but every time it's happened their boxer ratings were perfect before the trade and then their accounts were suspended. I actually can't believe PBS is still letting him trade. Is there a different way I could have handled it?

I totally agree with the way you handled it!! I too can't believe PBS is even allowing this member to still do bob trades. I bought the bob membership, but have put it on vacation hold until my membership runs out. I've gotten burned too many times & just simply don't have the money to ship books & receive nothing in return. I agree 100% with the way you handled it!

i too have been burned for a large amount of books

i have a few ?requirements is not the right word but it will do)

have to have (near) perfect rating

the most important one- must use pbs postage and dc... that way- i know you shelled out the $$$ for postage so i have a good idea you will be sending the package along.

I have had good luck but did have one problem trade that was eventually resolved. I did have to get the boyz involved, but it was resolved to everyone's satisfaction. however, I will now look at ratings before I trade with someone new. I have had some repeat BOB's which is nice.

So far I've had good luck with BOB trades. I had one person send me a book with dead bugs in it but she sent me another book that was in good condition quickly. 

I would have turned this one down too. 

I also only do small BOB trades, usually 4 or less books unless it's someone I know from the boards. . I know a lot of people like to bigger trades because it saves on postage. But I prefer smaller ones becuase if a box goes lost or the other person flakes out on me then I'm only out a few books. 

I think there should be a better way of policing these things.  Maybe have people have to put credits in escrow until teh books are received and in good condition-like they do in the games and virtual boxes.  You get your credits back when your books are received in a timely fashion and in good condition.

I've only been burned on one BOB swap.  The person had a perfect rating, then fell off the face of the earth--no answers to my PMs or message from TPTB.  I really fear that something happened to this person--we had even chatted via PM prior to and during the swap, so it just didn't make sense that they would let themselves get banned over a few books.

I am very surprised that that person hasn't had their account suspended!  I would have declined the trade too. 

Except for Mary, I've done box swaps with the other posters in this thread, and they were all great swaps.

Wow, I have been VERY lucky with BoB's. I have always gotten my books right away and always mailed my books right away. My DH did leave one box in his truck for 3 days, but I PM'd the boxer to let her know it was delay for 3 days. Sorry to hear there are bad boxers out there.

I, too, have had very good experiences with my BOB trades. I understand you not wanting to swap with the member, and completely agree it is within your right in BOB to trade with who you choose. This Boxer may have already been contacted by the PBS Team about their Box problems and may have made good on them.

I'm fairly new and have only done one BOB trade so far, but I would probably decline that person also.

I've had great experience with BOB trades, but I've also had not so great ones.  I've received all of my books, but have gotten a fair amount of unpostables.  Right now I have my account on hold.  I've taken it off hold to do trades with people from the forums, but then put it back on hold. 

Kathleen, you may wish to consider notifying PBS of this person's BOB record?  I don't know what criteria admin uses to review these things, but wouldn't hurt to point out that someone with a shipping record this poor is still arranging trades.

I have mine on hold now too.  I just noticed that it removes the Boxer icon when you put it on hold. I just don't have many books posted and want to catch up on some reading. 

Sorry to hijack, but how do you determine a traders ratings? I can't seem to find any place where there is feedback.

TIA  

He pm'ed me back and said he had run onto some trouble last year and he understood. Darn my book loving heart I told him that if he resubmitted his offer I would trade and give him a chance to repair his rating. I also said that if didn't receive my books I would make sure the Great God of Books would curse him and he would only be able to read romance books forever! No offense to you romance readers but he has more of a sci-fi interest.

Good for you Kathleen! I hope it is a great BOB trade for you.

Book Binge, on Box-O-Books swaps there is a feature to leave feedback. 

When a a BOB has been offered to you on the page where you pick books from their list in the upper right. Below the search bar it should have the member name and then Boxer's rating. You can view all ratings.  When you receive your BOB you return to the BOB area to mark that you have received them and you can rate how well the trade went as well as leave comments. This is done separately from just marking them received. You must do one then the other.  This only works in Box of Books not  books for credits.

This only works in Box of Books not  books for credits.

Ahh, that explains why. I've been banging my head trying to find the feedback section. Thank yoiu for explaining Kathleen!

In a case like this, I might explain to the other member that I was concerened about  their feedback, but offer to do the trade (assuming they had books I wanted) if they were willing to mail first wait for me to mail until after received their books.

I would probably also have said I'd do one with him but I wanted him to use DC and that I wouldn't mail until I saw that the DC for his box was scanned. Then he can rebuild his reputation but you have piece of mind that your books have been mailed.