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DEAR R&R: Newsletter – November 2006

Thursday, November 2nd, 2006

Dear R&R—I have a book that has only a 13-digit number in the front where the ISBN should be. The Help Center says I have to use the 10-digit number to post the book, but my book doesn’t have one! What gives? –Frazzled in Frisco

Dear Frazz,

The 10-digit ISBN will give way to the 13-digit ISBN (now known as the EAN) on January 1st, 2007. The book industry has made this choice in order to bring the U.S. ISBN system into line with the EAN system used in other world markets, and also to alleviate “numbering shortages”. Some publishers have already started to publish their books with the 13-digit EANs. They should be publishing with BOTH numbers to ease the transition, but some aren’t doing this, we hear. On January 1st, 2007, the EAN will become the ISBN, and the use of 10-digit ISBNs will be phased out in all aspects of the book industry. PBS will make this change too, at that time. Until then, you can convert your 13-digit EAN to a 10-digit ISBN using the information at this site, IF your book was assigned a 10-digit ISBN by the publisher: http://www.bisg.org/isbn-13/conversions.html (scroll down to see the portion under the heading “Retrieving the 10-digit ISBN….” ). If this doesn’t work (or is too complicated and you don’t want to mess with it), just post your book as if it does not have an ISBN (using the link beneath the graphic on the Post Books page). Or you can hang in there until January, when your book’s 13-digit ISBN should be in the database. If you worry that your book won’t be noticed if it is posted without an ISBN, you can always “advertise” it in the Book Bazaar. Doing so usually results in a quick request.

Transitions are tough, but the 13-digit ISBN promises to be a good thing once everyone has changed over. In this case, 13 should be considered a lucky number (but not until January 2007)!

Dear R&R—I joined PBS, and then moved, and now I can’t change my address in the Account Settings. Why is that? How can I request a book to be sent to my current address? — Bewildered in Boise

Dear Bee,

You probably haven’t received 3 books from PBS yet. Only after you receive 3 books from PBS will you have the option to change your address in your Account Settings. If you move, and need to change your address, but haven’t received 3 books yet, send us a note in Feedback with your current address and we will help. After you have received three books, you will need to “validate” your address, which is very easy to do—just visit your Account Settings and click the Update button at the bottom of the information in the top section. Your address will be converted to a USPS-validated address automatically. If there is a problem with validating your address, you can read the Help Center item “I can’t change my address in my account settings!” under the heading “Account Options”. There is a link in there to a site which can guide you in validating your address. USPS is very picky about how addresses appear—the change can be as simple as “LN” instead of “LANE”–and a “valid” USPS address is necessary in order to use Delivery Confirmation for that destination.

Dear R&R—I got a package postage-due. It was marked “First-Class Mail”! The sender had put only enough postage for Media Mail rate on the package. Arghh! –Reading too much in Alabama

Dear Bama,

Yes, Media Mail is the cheapest way to send your package if it weighs 6 ounces or more. The PBS Wrapper (and label) is marked MEDIA MAIL. But some of our members don’t have a printer, or their printer is malfunctioning, and they hand-write the addresses to send their books. Please give the sender feedback about this, so that she doesn’t send these “postage-due bombs” to other requestors. You can always refuse a postage-due item (and note the return address before you hand the package back to the mail carrier, so that you can send a PM to the sender letting her know what happened), or if the amount is significant enough, ask the sender to send you postage (or “buddy” you a credit) to compensate you. And be sure to indicate that the package arrived postage-due, on the mini-survey when marking the book received. If the sender makes a habit of this, we will contact her. I am sure it was just a mistake, and one that she will be eager to correct for future mailings.

Dear R&R—I got an email telling me that I mailed a book late! I swear I didn’t! Will this affect my swapping record at PBS? –Panicked in Pomona

Dear Mona,

The email you got was generated automatically when a requestor entered the postmark from a package received from you. Don’t panic! There are several reasons why you could have gotten this email even if you didn’t mail late:

  1. The requestor indicated the wrong date when marking the book received on the optional “mini-survey”
  2. You sent the book late BUT you had gotten the requestor’s consent to do this
  3. You put the book in your outgoing mailbox and it took a few days to get its postmark from USPS
  4. You sent the book on time, but it came back to you for some reason (insufficient postage, the hand-written address was wrong, etc). and you resent the book, which naturally arrived with the postmark of the resending date.

One report of a late-mailed book will not affect your account status. It is only if a pattern shows that we will take action, and ask you to change your habits.

PBS is dedicated to timely shipping, but the system is designed to be flexible. We understand that a delayed shipment can happen on occasion. As long as you keep the requestor informed (so she doesn’t re-order the book if it is declared Lost by PBS), an occasional late mailing is acceptable. It is ideal to get the requestor’s consent BEFORE a book is mailed late, but we also understand (and so do most requestors) that this is not always possible.

Please see the Help Center item “Can a book be sent later?” under the heading “Sending a Book” for a thorough discussion of this topic.

If you receive one of these emails, and you didn’t mail the book late, don’t worry about it. We won’t!

PBS Chapters. Newsletter – November 2006

Wednesday, November 1st, 2006

We have been asked so many times to organize local PBS “get-togethers”. We have had to decline, as we simply do not have the time to do this. But we CAN facilitate this for members who wish to organize their own PBS meet-ups! If you would like to be our local contact for a PBS Chapter, and have a meeting that you would like to publicize, you can send us the information in the feedback area, and we will include it in the Newsletter. Newsletters go out in the first two weeks of each month, so get us the info as soon as you can! You don’t have to have all the details. The Newsletter can provide a preliminary “heads-up” and interested members can contact you by Personal Message to get the time and place. Chapter Contacts must have a public profile, so that they have a nickname and can be found in the PBS Member Directory. Chapters can be regional (Midwest, Southern, East Coast, etc), city-based (Chicago, Boston, etc), or by state: you decide! Wouldn’t it be great to meet some of your PBS Buddies face-to-face? We hope to hear from some of our motivated, super-efficient members on this—we know you are out there!

Box-O-Books has had a facelift. Newsletter – October 2006

Friday, October 6th, 2006

Box-O-Books has had a facelift. We have had a lot of positive feedback about the renovations that were put in place about a week ago. We appreciate all the feedback that our Boxers sent in, and tried to address every item. Now, the Boxes are labeled differently (“They Mailed” or “You Mailed”) to help keep things straight (thanks, KajunFriend, for that suggestion!), PBS Delivery Confirmation and Requestor Conditions can be applied to Box-O-Books (many Boxers asked for this) and the whole feature should work much more smoothly, We have also introduced the concept of “verified Boxers”. If you use PBS Delivery Confirmation on a certain percentage of your Box-O-Books swaps, you will have a special “DC Boxer” icon that will show to other members. And of course, there is still the Boxer Rating system for personal feedback on each transaction—you can read about a Boxer before you choose to swap. If you aren’t subscribed to Box-O-Books, you can read about this feature in the Help Center, under the heading “Box-O-Books”.

Custom DC Labels: Newsletter – October 2006

Thursday, October 5th, 2006

Custom DC Labels is another feature that originated with our members. So many were posting books to send to a friend using PBS-DC that we realized this feature was needed. Now you can print out a custom PBS-DC label for any package you send (and yes, the holidays are coming!). You can reprint the label as many times as you want, for no extra charge, during the first 14 days (but of course, each barcode can be used only once). Simply click the Custom DC tab on the right menu of your account page, and enter the information. It’s that easy!

We passed three-quarters of a million books quietly in the last month. Newsletter – October 2006

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006

A cool million isn’t far away! We hope to reach this goal by the end of 2006. It would be a great way to ring in the New Year!

The PBS Store is having a sale! Newsletter – October 2006

Wednesday, October 4th, 2006

PBS T shirts are $7.99 instead of the regular price of $11.99 through October 15th. Order that Tote or BookMate you have been eyeing while you’re there—they can be packaged together and save on shipping costs. BookMates continue to fly out of the Store—they make great presents. We have gotten some great suggestions from our members for new items to add to the store, and you may see these in the Kiosk soon. Please send your suggestions to store@paperbackswap.com –we’re always on the lookout for great stuff to offer our members.

DEAR R&R: Newsletter – October 2006

Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006

Dear R&R—I got a book where the wrapper was taped to the book itself! Why do people do this? –Annoyed in Ann Arbor

Dear Ann,

We don’t know. Nothing should ever be taped to a book. Applying tape to a book’s cover is almost certain to damage it when the package is opened. The Help Center item “How do I wrap a book?” has suggestions about how to wrap your book so that it gets to its new home in the same condition it left yours. The basics are: cover the book completely, consider an inner layer of plastic to protect against the elements, reinforce the corners and seams with tape (shipping, not Scotch) and make sure the contents of the package don’t slide around. We ask members who receive inadequately-wrapped books to give feedback to the sender (gently, please! Everyone is new to the club at one time), and share their personal “tips” on packaging, so that senders can improve their methods. If a wrapper is taped to a book and the book is damaged because of it, the requestor should ask for the credit back, and the sender should give it.

Dear R&R—I got an order for three books from one requestor, but when I printed out the wrapper only one title showed up on page 2! Am I not supposed to send the other two books? –Wondering in Willamette

Dear Will,

This has now been fixed! Previously, the wrapper for a bulk (multiple-book) request showed only one of the titles to be included in the package. Now you should see all the titles that are to be sent in that shipment on the second page of the PBS Wrapper. We have had this on our To Do list for a long time, and we thank our members for being so patient with us. Check your account page, Will, to be sure that all the titles are listed on the transaction there, because this must be a request submitted before we made this change. Any wrappers you print for future bulk requests should show all the titles on the second page.

Dear R&R—I ordered a book over a month ago, and it never arrived. I re-ordered it from someone else when the first copy was “lost in the mail” and today I received the book from the original sender and the postmark on the package was 2 weeks ago!!! This book was mailed late—why should I have to mark this received? The sender shouldn’t get credit for sending a book late! –Steamed in Schenectady

Dear Steamy,

Most books that arrive late were delayed en route through no fault of the sender’s (USPS is terrific, but it’s not perfect!) If the package bears stamps, the postmark might not reflect the actual date that it was mailed. If the package has a metered strip for postage, that is a different story: the date on a metered strip IS the date that the package was mailed. Before you write an angry message to the sender, do consider that something serious might have happened to delay this mailing. It is impossible to know the circumstances here. One late-mailed package can be understandable; however, PBS does not tolerate a pattern of late mailing. If a sender’s record shows that she or he is mailing late as a habit, we will reprimand him or her, and if the late-mailing does not stop, the sender will be removed from the club. It is important to let us know about late mailings, so we can investigate each case.

Late mailing without notice to the requestor is very inconsiderate, and we want to know about it when this happens. We tell senders that if they HAVE to mail a package late, to ask the requestor (using the PM feature) if it is OK to do so before marking the book mailed. This gives the requestor the chance to decline (the sender should cancel here, and repost the book when it can be mailed out within PBS timeframes), and try to get the book from someone else. In most cases, requestors don’t mind if a book is mailed a little late, as long as they are made aware of it, so they don’t re-order the book, and end up with two copies. We do recommend that “lost” books not be re-ordered too quickly, as frequently lost books are merely USPS-delayed, and do show up.

In this case, Steamy, you should mark the book received. You have gotten the book, and you can repost it and send it out to a new requestor, and get your credit back. While you are marking the book received, you will have an opportunity to let the sender know about the late mailing. Keep in mind that serious circumstances could be involved here—you don’t want to yell at a late-mailer who’s been hospitalized for a heart attack. But a firmly worded message to the sender, along with a notification to us by feedback, will go a long way to making sure that this does not become a habit with this person. Be sure to include the details of a transaction (book title, sender’s name, postmark date) when you notify us, so we can look into it.