Okay so normally I am the one who will take a book in any readable condition. I get the books to read, and build my library. I am also aware others want perfect copies, so if there is any question I pm the requestor, and let them know the exact condition of the book. About three weeks ago, I saw a post for a deal on a group of books by one of my favorite authors. I PM'D the poster, and asked what kind of deal she would do for the remaining ones. She answered back that she would do 9 books for 5 credits. I then realized one was a duplicate so I told her to send the last eight she had. This was on the 19th. She told me she would mail them the following Tuesday, the 24th. The day after my request she list a bunch more newer books by the same author. By Sat she had still not mailed them and the request was kicked to other members. She then sends me a pm saying she was sorry, she had mailed them but had forgot to tag them as mailed. I canceled all the other requests for other members so that she would get the credits when I got the books. She said she had given the books to a family member to mail and didnt know what day they went out.

She couldnt relist the books, for me to order, but asked me to Buddy her some credits when I got them. I ageed. I finally got the books a few days ago, and they were post marked July 30th. I sent her the credits as soon as i got them. However the books are in HORRIBLE shape. 2 of the 8 are actually taped back together. Literally the entire spine of the book is held together with tape and some of the pages are taped back in. The front cover of one of the books is taped onto the book. A seperate book has water damage.

The post mark on the box was July 30th. She mailed them the Monday after talking to me.

I guess I just feel like I got ripped off. I havent contacted  PBS or her because I guess it was giving me three free books so maybe I shouldnt gripe. Its just really frustrating. I dont think there is anything I can do, but I absolutely wouldnt have spent 5 of my last seven credits for this. I have tried composing a message to her but I dont know what to say. Has just left a bad taste in my mouth. I havent been on the site in the last few days just because I feel a little burnt. Hoping maybe venting will help. Thanks for listening.

Sorry you got a bum deal on those books.  Personally I would say you should report them as a problem since they were.  As someone pointed out in a similiar post, had you not ordered the deal and received them as free, another member might have ordered them seperately and received them.  I do believe it is against TOS to not just send, but LIST books that violate the PBS minimum standards.  Granted she took them off to send to you and the deal was done via buddy, but she had listed them on PBS at one point.

At the same time you might want to send her a note: "Hi, I received the 8 books.  Unforntunately I was highly disappointed in the quality of the books.  Two books were barely held together by tape. The cover of another was attached with tape. A fourth book was water damaged.  Although the ones with tape are still readable, I cannot repost them because they violate the PBS requirements. Essentially, I paid 5 credits for 4 books.  I would appreciate your thoughts about what compromise we can come to for both our satisfaction.  Thank you for your time."

I am sure someone can word that a little better, lol, but you get the idea.

Oooh - that's crappy.  Sounds like she wanted you to buddy the credits because she knew they were in such poor condition.  I'd send her an email and let her know they are not in the condition you agreed upon.  See what she says, if anything.

FWIW, I only Buddy credits to people I know well or have seen on the forums.  I feel a little bit safer that way.  Sorry you got ripped off! :(

That's too bad, pretty rotten.

I received my first "unpostable" book yesterday, a hardcover where the front cover is only attatched to the rest of the book by some mesh.  I pm'd her and said "I just wanted to touch base with you about the book you sent, I don't know if it happened before it was sent or if it happened in the mail but the front cover is barely attatched to the rest of the book.  I had to mark it 'received with a problem.' "  I received a message back saying, "Glad you received it, I hope you enjoy it!"

?!  That ticked me off!

Tricia, it sounds like in the end you paid 5 credits for 4 acceptable books.  That sucks, when she promised 8 acceptable books for 5 credits.

Pity you didn't mark  them received with a problem (if those were among the damaged), and noting the postmarks, from your Transaction Archive.  Then you could have accomplished a double-whammy: noted the late postmark and recorded the bad books on her account.  Your PM could have then said "I marked the books received instead of buddying credits, so that the damaged books could be recorded..."

I don't think PBS guidelines apply to deals per se; they apply to the books that are posted.  So she violated the guidelines when she posted the books, if they didn't meet site requirements.

The same thing happened to me too. I did a deal and two of the books were badly water marked. I didn't raise a stink, nor list them as proplematic, because the books I actually ordered were fine. It's the "freebies" that had the damage. I wasn't sure what to do in that case.

I did PM the sender and I g0t a "I hope they're still readable" message back. Yep, I was pissed!

It's hard to know how to handle it when the damaged books are part of a deal.

okay so thanks for the support, alot. I have been trying to think of a way to compose a message to her and I like the suggested one above. Might even copy paste it. Would keep me from saying things alot less umm diplomatic. I couldnt mark the books as recieved with a problem because only one of the eight was in the system as enroute to me. I originally ordered 5, to get the three freebies, from her list but because she didnt mail them in time the books were kicked from the system, so it only showed one in route to me.

I asked her to relist them so i could reorder them and she told me she couldnt since she no longer had the ISBN.  I think I will send her a message and at least let her know these were not even remotely postable books. See what happens from there.

Thanks though, i feel better for venting. it helped to get it out I think. I am def going to make sure I inspect all my books carefully, for water damage and food spilled in them.

I just wanted to add that you SHOULD NOT feel bad for griping about this, even though you did this as part of a deal.  If the person is throwing in "freebie" books that are unpostable as part of a deal, they must disclose the condition of the book, or at least indicate in some way that the book is unpostable.  The fact that all books were officially on her shelf indicates that she was violating PBS rules in the first place.  So, please don't feel bad about complaining, she's the one who's breaking the rules.

If the deal is offering books off of their posted bookshelf, then all the books should be in postable condition.  What you received were not all in postable condition.  It doesn't matter if some were freebies because of a deal, if they were on the other member's shelf then they should be in postable condition.

I'd definitely let the other member know that's not okay and let R&R know.

I sometimes throw in freebies with an order or a deal becasue I have a stack of unpostable books.  If I think someone might like one of the unpostables, I'll toss it in the box as a surprise for them.  I'd never make it part of a deal without letting the other person know the condition ahead of time.

Actually you can mark cancelled books received and record the problem, from your transaction archive...

• I received a book from a canceled transaction!
• How to Mark a Book Received

We didn't used to be able to do that, but we can now...for maybe like the past two months?