Lately folks have made some errors in accepting deals. It happened to us all. I'm going to give a quick run down of how to accept a deal and how to make sure you ordred from the right person. I'm going to post this as if I'm having a deal to walk  you through it.

1)Follow the directions. IF someone says, be sure to pm me for your free books, do it. They may not get back to their thread often and you might miss out on a deal by not following directions.

2)Order off the person's shelf! I know when I was new I made the same mistake. So I'm going to give  you a senario of how it works.
I offer 125 books for one credit. You go to my shelf and look at my books. At the top of the page will say something like "Bernie's Bookshelf" my name will be on the top of the page. You see a book that looks interesting, but you want to know more about it, so you click the title. If you just hit  "order this book" on the description page, it will go to the FIFO system. I may never see the request. So after reading about the book, you must hit the BACK button to go bak to my page. When you order the book, you must see the name of the person at the top of the page. DO NOT order it off the description page. No name at the top of the page, don't order it from there order.

3)You order a book and it arrives, but there are no free books OR you order a book and pm the deal person with your freebies. They say, "Um, I don't have a request from you for that book" To be sure you requested the book from that person's shelf,  look at the pending book request, off to the right will be a PM this member button. Click that button and it will show you the name of the person who is sending you that book. IF it doesn't say "Bernie", its not coming from me.

4)It takes an hour for a request to hit the requestor. So don't pm the person and say, "Did you get my request?" for an hour. They don't know if they have your request or not at this point. Sure, send your thing for the freebies, but they  are not able to see they have a request from YOU. They may see "pending 1 hour" but it may not be from you.

5)If you offer is NOT freebie that  listed in your post as damaged OR listed in your post as an ARC, don't send it as your freebie. Its very disappointing for someone to take you up on your offer and get 1 PBS standard book and 2 or 50 others that are not up to PBS standards. They shouldn't be listed on your shelf on the first place. Yes, they are free with the order, but  if you dodn't have the deal, someone wouldn't want to pay a full credit for them if they are not up to PBS standards.

If you have anymore questions, feel free to pm me. I'm going to be out of town Sat-Wed. of next week. So I may not get to you right away.

Anybody else in the class want to add anything?

Please don't think I'm pointing anyone out. I have had pms on both sides now. Its confussing when you are new. I'm hoping this will clear some things up for you all.

Thanks Bernie!

And I would like to encourage everyone to read over the PBS standards for books. I haven't had any problems but it seems like some members expect all books to be in "new" or "near new" condition, which is fine, they can list that as a condition for excepting a book.  But PBS standards are not "new".

Also when you request a book you always have the option of pm'ing them if you would like to know the condition of the book first. I have done this on a couple of occasions with great results. We have such nice members!

Char

Thanks Bernie! I remember forgetting(!) to go back to the bookshelf page after reading the description and boy did I have a mess to fix.

the only thing I'd add is to also post your freebies in the thread so others know what's been requested...I usually post then copy my post in a pm to the person.

I've also taken advantage of a lot of great deals here and a few times I've received really damaged books that never should have been on someone's shelf..(thisisn't the norm though) but if I"d spent a whole credit for those I'd have been pretty steamed since they were on the bookshelf as in postable condition. I like the ones who list the damaged ones in the thread or say to check their notebook for damaged freebies.

I've also put in my pm a few times that if the ordered book isn't available(hey it's actually happened to me 3 times!) not to cancel it; to just pm me and let me cancel or whatever so it doesnt' go to the FIFO system. other times I dont' care if it does since I want the book anyways..but I've had people do this and then pm me that it was cancelled because someone requested my ordered book as a freebie but had pm'd the person and not posted it in the thread so I didn't know..by the time I read the pm it had been accepted and printed by the next in the FIFO line...

that said (!) I LOVE the book bazaar and all the generous people sharing their books!

Bumping because I think this can be very helpful for others to read!

These are all great tips Bernie -- thanks for helping us newbies make sense of it all :-)

Cheers,

Catt

Susanna makes a great point - I have ordered deals before, and had them cancel without letting me know.  At that point, my order goes the next person in the FIFO system, who is most likely NOT offering a deal, and I have no idea this has happened.  That means I either spend a credit for one book that I may not have ordered without the deal, or I have to cancel on someone else, disappointing them.  So PLEASE let someone know if you are cancelling an order you had offered, and let them cancel if possible.  Thanks : )

Here's how to be 100% certain that you ordered the book or books from the right person:

After you have placed your order, the page asks you if you want to go to your account page, or somewhere else.

ALWAYS choose your account page.

Once there, find the book(s) you just ordered under the tab "BOOKS I'VE ORDERED" ( or close, I don't have it today)

There you will find a PM button, click it and see if it says the same name and nickname as the person that posted the deal! I do this for every book if it was more than one, and I didn't use the "ORDER MORE FROM MEMBER" button.

Voila! Guaranteed the right person.

You can also eliminate the 1 hour wait by using THAT PM button, there on your account page with the book info, to tell the sender that you have requested book such-and-such(es)  and  also list the freebies you want. Here's an example of what I put in the PM. I usually put the special in the subject, like 
Your 2/1 offer:

GO BERNIE GO BERNIE GOOOO~~!!!

Hi Bernie!  Are you really offering 125 books for one credit?  hahaha-just kidding! 

I've been a member for almost 2 years and occasionally still forget and order off the review page instead of the Member's Bookshelf!   Always good to review tips and PBS rules.  Thanks!