RANTING/COMPLAINING ABOUT MOOCHES: CHAPTER 17!!!

We filled Chapter 16 and we overflowed the accidental August threads....

So, let's start a brand-new, shiny clean, dust & allergen-free thread!!!

and here's a toast (your choice of beverage)

"May all your mooches leave happy, arrive quickly & look wonderful!!"

Soooooo...have I got this right?

The other threads are now closed? :p

OK this isn't really a rant per se...

I sent a book from the US to the UK in late April. Never marked received. I reminded the member 1 month ago, and they last logged in 20 days ago.

Should I force it received? It couldn't take _that_ long to get to the UK, could it? Usually my books get there within a few weeks.

Here's a rant, it was a really big PIA to find out when I had sent the book. I had to go to the other member's page and look at their pending books. It would be nice if the "Books which I have sent" listed the date we marked them sent.

>3 rainbowgirl28: For the latter issue, an easy fix! Hit the "details" button on the top of the page and it'll expand the information, which includes when the book was sent.

For the former, I don't think you can do a force_received for a while at least. While I could be wrong, I think it's about three months before you can mark international mooches lost or do a force_received.

It is already giving me the force received option. I was a little surprised, I thought it had to be at least 6 weeks from when you sent the reminder, but maybe I remembered that wrong or maybe it is somehow factoring in the original sent date.

Thanks for the tip about the show details button. I never noticed it since it's way up on the top of the page, and my books sent are always buried between all of the books I have requested with no response.

I wanted to reply to #199 elkiedee from the previous thread -- sorry you got that feedback! I had a similar experience recently, when I mooched a book that was in perfect condition...when it was mailed. This book was also covered in one layer of thin brown paper, and not very well-taped, and it probably got mangled in the post office sorter. It arrived at my house dirty and looking as if it was attacked by a shark. A large, bite-shaped chunk is missing from the spine, but the actual words on the page are not affected, so I should be able to read it, but probably not add it to my inventory when I'm done :( I do believe that it was in good condition when sent, and not wanting negative feedback to appear on the sender's account, I sent a private email explaining what happened and suggesting more secure packaging in the future. I guess I expected a response saying he was sorry or something, but... nothing.

Yeah if I receive packaging that was significantly damaged but the book survived OK I usually leave positive feedback with notes about what happened. It's very rare for me to get a reply from someone about the feedback.

I've left notes and suggestions in my feedback when a book is injured in transit because of poor packaging. If the moocher contacts me, I remove the comments from their feedback since they have read it. A lot of poor packaging is just due to not having heard back that old Christmas wrapping paper and scotch tape isn't always adequate.

In the august-thread, Nightvamp wrote:
"I'm starting to think about quitting on bookmooch. Everytime i send a book out internationally it costs me around 7 euro's (about 9 dollar). But ok, i get the points for it, so no problem. But today i finally found a book i want, and the person's profile says there willing to send to my country. So i'm happy, later on i got a message. I've i'm willing to pay 10 euro's he will send the book and otherwise not."

Since I live in the country of the owner of that book, I offered to angel the book for her.
So I asked for the book, explaining (I shouldn't have done that) it was an angelmooch... and it was rejected: 'because if he only got one point, he preferred to send it abroad himself!'

(I have clicked the abuse-button... willing to be paid to ship abroad, and refusing to send within your country...)

@9

That is awful! Some people...

This is the Response email I received.....from my "when will you send these books'...given, I set a September 1st deadline...he had 8 "requests"....hasn't sent any...this email might explain...or not..

*Email deleted by request*

What the Hell do i do???

>11 jdthloue:,
Make sure you send that email when you contact abuse.

#11--I thought complaining about our bad mooches was sad? Did I miss something?

#11 His email is beyond rude but most of his other books were only requested Aug 15th so there doesn't seem to have been any abuse of the system (apart from the email that is - yowch).

Definitely send the email to the abuse team, then try to forget it all happened. Sorry you had such a bad experience.

Also - they're NOT free books!

#11: Not abuse of the system maybe, but wow is he out of line. Also, for someone who professes to appreciate "social graces & manners", he has got precious little of them. Only an e-mail that threatens to set dogs on him would make such a reply slightly understandable, if still not excusable. I hope that the admins can at least remind him that putting a book in your inventory means you are in principle willing to send it.

>11 jdthloue: Much as I appreciated reading that and thinking mean thoughts on your behalf about the person who sent it, I think Mark's probably going to ask you to take the full text there down since we're not supposed to post correspondence between BookMooch members if Abuse is getting involved. Some summarizing would probably be fine.

Good grief, though!

@11 Sounds like he might have some other stuff going on in his life right now... Yikes. I would just contact abuse. Or even just cancel and count your losses at this point. :-/

#11: I am with orangeworlds (#17) on "just cancel and count your losses" - just chalk it up as a life experience.

Speaking of (learning from) experience, shall we ask Mark & John to add to BM rules that any abusive word/gesture toward other members (like this one) is ground for closing the account?

"Speaking of (learning from) experience, shall we ask Mark & John to add to BM rules that any abusive word/gesture toward other members (like this one) is ground for closing the account?"

It should certainly be grounds for a strong warning from the abuse team. Maybe two strikes and you are out if the person is otherwise a good moocher. But if someone shows a pattern of being verbally abusive, yikes!! We don't need them on the site.

Abusive and threatening communications have been grounds for suspension since the first day of Bookmooch. These incidents are rarely isolated, but rather form a pattern of abuse in most cases. The abuse team will request the full mutual correspondence, and then go from there if there is agreement that one of the parties involved acted badly.

There are only two areas that pose a legal threat to Bookmooch: the trading of pirated books/items (copyright law), and the public posting of negative comments towards a specific individual (defamation law). So we have always asked that people please not post private communications with another member in any forums/blogs etc. as doing so might bring a legal headache for Bookmooch...

Not to mention the fact that few of us would like to see our personal e-mails publicized without our consent under any circumstances.

So you all would be doing Bookmooch a big favor by not doing so :)

*will not rant about the "free book" comments in that angry email, will not will not....*

Just a small whine here, totally my "fault", but meh. I was away for the weekend (awesome time in San Diego with relatives), and when I checked my email upon getting home I found I'd missed out on a long-time wishlisted book. Arrrrggghhh! What timing!

Doing a happy mooch dance here.

Not only was I able to mooch a book from my wishlist
BUt
The moocher credited my points back to me.

BM people are in general such nice people. Fortunately #11 experience is rare.
Definitely upsetting & says much about the sender but not a typical BM response.

Orangewords,

In post 200 of the previous thread, you said:

"I do understand the problems with "vactioning" oneself, though I personally don't see a problem with activating and deactivating an account when needed."

It's situational. I had just added 12 new books to my inventory, 7 of them were highly wishlisted and went quickly. My husband takes my packages to the post office and had asked me to put the account on vacation so he wouldn't need to make another trip to the post office that week... so I did, then needed to log in again on Thursday to mark four packages sent and one received. While I was there, someone mooched another book; on Saturday night, when I took the account off vacation again, two more books were mooched... but this time, I'm ready for them Then again the danged captcha thing is annoying too... in fact that's my least favorite part of being a Bookmoocher.

I don't think requesting an ETA is a bad thing... however, no communication is a VERY bad thing

#11
I'm sorry i posted the full-context email...this is the first such i have received and didn't know the Protocol..it's gone now (from above)...and thanks for your support

;-}

.......and i did cancel the mooches..I did not post negative Feedback, either...figure the guy has a lot going on in his life.....or at least, i hope so...for the sake of that eMail.

@23

Very true, 1dragones. I guess my main complaint was the lack of communication... and then the subsequent rejection. I suppose the to vacation or not vacation was a bit incidental to my rant... haha.

I have tried to mooch a book twice now and had the mooch accepted and then rejected - the first time I emailed and asked why (assuming she didn't have the book any more) and she said technical problems and that she would relist, so she did and I remooched, and she reaccepted... and then re-rejected! So have emailed again to ask but this is getting silly now. Plus I am now collecting rejections against me which looks bad... grrr.

#26: rejections for requests that you make do not look bad on your record...

only when YOU reject mooches... and we all have reasons for rejecting a mooch... all very good reasons... legitimate reasons...

So, don't worry about someone rejecting your mooch... but I might let the abuse team know if they have a history of rejections.

Welcome to the LT side of BM!!

>26 readingwithtea:

That's ridiculous!! Does she have a lot of rejections on her account? You may want to report it to abuse.

I recently mooched a book almost solely for the purpose of vacationing the (currently inactive) person who owns it because the last several people who mooched the book did not see fit to either a) wait a full seven days before canceling, or b) hit "did not respond" even though it had been a while.

ARGH. IT IS NOT THAT DIFFICULT TO VACATION SOMEONE.

Minor, but still:

I know two months is a long time to wait for a mooch. That's why I said in my status that I can't send before September. That's why I individually asked if it was okay that I couldn't send before September. So why, after agreeing to that, did two people cancel August 30th?! The day before I was going to mail them out! -sigh-

Daaaang that sucks. If you can wait that long, why not wait a few more days? *rolls eyes*

When someone emails you and tells you it's going to be a few months, it can be easy to forget what they said a few months later. I always save all of my bookmooch delay emails, but I know not everyone does.

When I have mooches sitting a long time, I do try to check the other person's status to see if they have been logging in and keeping things updated. Sounds like the person who cancelled did not do that. Or maybe they just really needed the points!

27, 28, thanks for the welcome and the advice! I am going to give her a few more days to respond re the second cancellation, then just cut my losses... she's a very new member so not really sure what is going on, doesn't look like abuse.

I'm still waiting for that book which was supposedly sent on 20th July, and judging by the fact that so is everyone else it's not the fault of Royal Mail. I wouldn't have minded waiting this long, but all of those books being marked as sent when I'm 99% sure they haven't been seems a bit shady. I know someone else here was waiting on a parcel from the same user; any joy for you?

I could have walked there, collected the book, read it and walked home with it by now.

Going back to Post #11 (which i had to delete)...

so far I have heard Nothing from BM Abuse..I had chalked that vulgar/abusive eMail "up to Life Experience"

and, i put that person on my Personal BookMooch Shitlist...

I guess i'm satisfied..but, jeesh, do I have to accept eMails that, basically, tell me to Fuck Myself?

#35 That is very frustrating. As it's been more than 6 weeks I would mark it lost and then click abuse on the book owner's account and explain why. Although they seem to have been vacationed anyway so I'm not sure what else the admins can do.

#36 I don't think you necessarily hear back from the admins when you click abuse. I don't think anyone has said that you need to accept that sort of email but clicking abuse is the way to deal with the situation and then it gets dealt with by the admins without involving you further (is my understanding).

#37 souloftherose - your response to #36 - I find that not hearing back from abuse about a situation I report is phenomenally frustrating - I don't know if they got it, ignored it, did something about it, or thought I was full of shit and blew me off.

I think they should keep the person who reported the abuse updated on what's happening and how it's been resolved, but that won't happen.

Twice I've clicked abuse and gone into the black hole. I may change my mind if I feel someone's not playing fair, but right now I can't imagine setting myself up for **nothingness** by clicking abuse.

jdthloue, I'm sure that you gave admin all emails, both from and to yourself. Unless he is still sending you unpleasant emails, to which you are not replying in kind, I think you can assume that admin has handled it.

I'm sorry that you're still so upset about it. Maybe you could pour yourself a large glass of your favorite wine, relax with a book, and we'll all send you virtual chocolates until you feel calm again. I know from experience it can be unsettling, but it's important not to dwell on the incident.

jdthloue, I'm sure that you gave admin all emails, both from and to yourself. Unless he is still sending you unpleasant emails, to which you are not replying in kind, I think you can assume that admin has handled it.

I'm sorry that you're still so upset about it. Maybe you could pour yourself a large glass of your favorite wine, relax with a book, and we'll all send you virtual chocolates until you feel calm again. I know from experience it can be unsettling, but it's important not to dwell on the incident.

35> No, I didn't get my book either. I think I'm going to hit abuse & mark it as lost. Hitting abuse will at least alert BM so hopefully she won't be able to come back and start using her MASSIVE haul of points.

36> That does sound really frustrating. Is the user still active on the site? Hopefully their account will get suspended so they can't continue to be abusive to other users.

This is just a minor irritation more than a rant. I swap on both BM and PBS, and yesterday I received a notice that one of my wishlisted books had just been auto-requested for me on PBS. I was happy. I deleted the request from my BM wishlist, checked the inventory of the sender, and requested an additional book. Today I got an email saying that the transaction was canceled. The reason: she swaps on two sites and it was already requested on another one. I checked BM and, sure enough, that book had just been listed and requested from another user, and it was obvious from the bios that it was from the same person. I know that several of us swap on both sites and I think we've all made the mistake once of getting a double request for the same book. I can understand that happening in certain circumstances. What I don't get is why, when she listed it on PBS, she didn't notice that the book was wishlisted and being requested. Even though there is officially one hour before an auto-request is placed you can see immediately that the request is pending. If she listed it on PBS first she should have seen that, so why would she have gone on to list at BM? If she listed on BM first, why, when she then added the listing to PBS and saw it was going to be requested, didn't she remove the listing from one of the two sites? It wasn't one of my most highly sought books and is a minor issue, but still somewhat annoying. So now the book is back on my BM wishlist as well, and I'm returned to my place in the PBS queue which means I should get the next copy listed there. Hopefully it will come through on one of the sites before long.

dadena,
which book is it? maybe one of us has a spare copy or at least we can keep our eyes open for one...I know there is a huge sale coming up in 2 weeks for me and I can look for it if you like.
~ Missy

Just had to cancel a bunch of mooches and auto-vacation the person - I mooched 7-8 books from her more than a month ago, offered to meet up if she lived nearby to save on postage (as it turns out, she works at my husband's uni so it might have actually worked!), she accepted all the mooches and then I heard nothing more. I reminded and waited another 14 days and now had to cancel.

I feel bad because she doesn't seem to have a bad history, but total lack of communication and not adhering to the "I will post in: a week" note is a bit rude...

*unsure of self*

cricketgirl, you waited longer than you needed to to cancel the mooches. Please don't feel bad. Her life may have simply gotten too busy or she's lost interest, so vacationing her account was the appropriate thing to do.

Missy, thanks for the offer to keep an eye out. The Book is A Flickering Light by Jane Kirkpatrick. As I said, it's really not a big deal and I know my turn will come up the next time it is listed at PBS. But if you happened to find a copy at your book sale I'd be happy to mooch it from you.

> 44 How exactly do you vacation someone again...I've forgotten how. So far I've waited over a month with no response and reminded them a week ago and still no response...not sure what to do next? Do I just cancel now and select "no response" fro the dropdown?

#47: you cancel the mooch & mark the request as 'no response'

#45: what I find bizarre is that she is logging into BM loads (23 hours ago when I was cancelling the books, and she has logged in again tonight) - which is weird! why total lack of response if she logs in a lot?

Anyway, cut my losses, I guess...

#47 yes, just select "no response" and it does it automatically.

> 48, 49....Thank you!!

>42 dadena:

I post books to several sites... if I am not sure, I start by checking Amazong to see if it's worth more than a few dollars. Then I search the ISBN on PBS to see if it is a wishlisted or unposted book there. If so, I post it there and only there.

If it is already posted to PBS (sometimes I add to my reminder list to see how many copies are in the system), then I will post it on both sites.

I do have some books listed on PBS only that haven't moved yet after being listed for several weeks/months, so I need to sort through them and post to bookmooch :)

Here's my bookmooch rant for the day... I mooched a French version of a book from a member in Canada. The ISBN listed was very different from the American books, so I knew if it was listed by ISBN I should be good. Also, the listing said the book was in FRENCH.

I received an English version of the book and the ISBN definitely did NOT match :( -1 for the sender. I rarely give negative ratings... if it was only an ISBN mismatch I would maybe just do +0, but the listing said French and they were in Canada... Although I guess the title being in English should have been a warning...

That would be unamusing :( Quelle livre?

>53 Bcteagirl:

It was a Baby-Sitters Club book. I don't speak French, but I enjoy collecting the foreign editions, and bookmooch is a great way to do so inexpensively.

Which is why it's important to be careful to list the correct edition in your inventory.

When mooching a specific edition, I usually mooch with something like "Thank you so much for letting me mooch your French language version of Captain Underpants." In one instance the moocher then rejected my mooch because it was the wrong edition listed - she didn't find an ISBN on the battered paperback copy of the book she had so she listed it as the Everyman's Library hardcover edition with no condition notes.

The fault is hers, not yours, but with people listing books haphazardly, it can save you frustration to double check the edition when you mooch.

If I'm hunting for a very specific edition (size, coverart, or binding), I always mention it in the mooch notes (if wishlist) or email the owner beforehand if not wishlisted.

If they don't respond to the mooch note when accepting/delaying the book, I email them.

>55 RidgewayGirl:

Yeah, if I was mooching from someone in the US, I would have noted that I only want the book if the ISBN matches or something like that. But when I mooch from other countries, I find it reasonable to assume that if they are listing a book published in the (a) language of that country that it is what it says it is.

The sender wrote back and is pretty annoyed I gave her a -1, she said she couldn't find the book's ISBN in the system, so she did a search. I haven't written back yet, but I feel no remorse. She should have read the book description and she should have noted in the condition notes that the ISBN did not match (among other things!).

Pet peeve: when I request a mooch from a US moocher, and they reply asking for me to mooch more books because "It's really expensive to ship to Canada now." Isn't it pretty much the exact same cost to send to Canada than within the US, and you get two extra points? I know it's not triple the cost. And when I'm paying twice as much as that to ship to the US or within my own country... -fumes- Again, just a pet peeve, but it gets to me.

I am always surprised by that as well, especially for smaller books.

#58: if they start requesting more books from you, (especially if they don't have anything else you'd want) tell them that you'll get an angel to mooch them for you. They don't have to send it to Canada. That should shut them up really quickly... they don't want to lose the extra two points.... and they get greedy.,,, well maybe not greedy, but....

I checked a post office receipt from recently where I sent a smaller paperback to Canada. The postage was $4.03 ! It was 10 ounces. Not expensive.

Compare that to a 8.20 ounce package to France at $9.04 ...

A 5.60 ounce book I mailed to another state at the first class rate was $2.07. (media mail is cheaper at $2.38 after about 6-7 ounces up to 1 pound)

No, that's not an acceptable excuse to me. Get an angel & (excuse me) shut them up call their bluff!!

(please forgive my rudeness... if I'm perceived as being rude)

>58 Danneeness: It's not the same cost, but it's a pretty darn good one, considering the points. I base my decision on whether I can afford to send a mooch on a set price* per book, and Canada comes out pretty far ahead. My cut-off weight for Canadian mooches is four times the weight for most other international mooches.

So unless that book is super heavy, they're just being annoying.

* Approximately my hourly wage. Minimum wage in my state is pretty good, but I'm still a student on limited hours.

I don't know how it is in other countries, but I must admit that for books can't be send as letter-mail (because the thickness parcel is more than 3 cm/1.2 inches), I prefer an international mooch over a national...
Until now, I only had to send one book within my country, and that point costed me € 5.7/$7.3. An 'international' point costs me on average € 3/$ 3.8...

A pet peeve of mine: I try really hard to help newbies and other BMers who may not understand the rules (ie, people who I see breaking the rules and I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they just don't realize...). So it's really frustrating when I get a response to my helpful, polite little email that's basically "well *I* think my way is right so I'm going to keep doing it!". Even after I linked them to the wiki and quoted BM rules. It's just.... argh. Frustrating. (yes, I clicked abuse. I was trying to avoid that, but if they won't listen to me, maybe they'll listen to admin....)

#63 But Heather, you shouldn't complain . . . THE BOOKS ARE FREE!

*grin*

*running away*

>58 Danneeness:

It is significantly more expensive to ship books from the US to Canada than within the US, but it's cheaper than the rest of the world. If you requested a 1.5lb book, it would cost $7 to ship to Canada, vs $2.77 to ship within the US.

The point to $$ ratio still works out in their favor, but not as absurdly as you were imagining.

It's also way less convenient for people who use electronic postage because they have to go in person to the post office for international requests and they have to fill out a customs form.

I am really frustrated. A guy's profile said that i could mooch a book. Then he askes me for money for the books(postage). I cancelled the mooch and got in tooch with AnneTanne, who was so kind to help me mooch the book. (you're really an angel :D )He also cancelled that request because he would'nt send it for just 1 point. So he has sent me an email saying that he changed his mind and he would sent the book to me, i just have to mooch them. I emailed him back some time ago that the books aren't in his library anymore. Still no reply after that. So you'll understand that i'm really frustrated after this.

That sounds like a very early mooch of mine.. you need to report it to abuse if they are asking for money.

58/65: Yes, the difference is that heavier books to Canada can't go by Media Mail.

The 1.5 lb pound example book to Canada costs less to ship per point than the same book in the US.

However, the 4 pound book to Canada costs $11.45 (if it fits in a flat-rate envelope, unlikely) or $16.77 (1st-class international) vs $3.55 in the US by media mail. Over 4 pounds makes it $27 for a flat-rate box.

And yes, we know Canadian outgoing prices are insane regardless of destination, but there is still a comparative rate difference with heavy books from US to Canada.

>66 nightvamp:: Nightvamp... I fear that guy has lost all interest in BookMooch, and has cleared his inventory.
It was stupid that I mentioned I was Angelmooching those books, otherwise, he would have send them maybe... Now he realized it was for you I asked them...

Don't let it spoil the pleasure you can have with BookMooch - it was one of your first experiences I think?

BookMooch is great, but for some people the concept is a bit strange, and for that reason some beginning Moochers do strange things, and abandon BM after only a little while (like that Belgian fellow did)... So can be a bit risky to mooch from beginning moochers... but when you're only starting to mooch yourself, that's a lesson you don't know yet.

(Edited to correct at least one spelling error. How many went unnoticed by me?)

68 > Unless I'm wrong, the book I was requesting was a small paperback, definitely not a particularly heavy book.

70: *nod* My post was only about heavy books.

Light books are another matter entirely, much cheaper per point to send to Canada. :)

Minor bleat, but every so often I list a hardcover in my inventory that's too heavy to send outside of N.America. I say so in my condition notes, and it's invariably mooched by someone very far away. So far, everyone has canceled the mooch when I reminded them of the condition notes, but why every single time?

IMHO: Because when the mooch page comes up, then conditions are not visible on the screen until you scroll down. If the mooch 'button' would be below where the choices are listed, with their conditions, then this wouldn't be as much of a problem.

but this is my opinion only. and on my desktop & laptop screens.

This is somewhat annoyance with myself for not even thinking of checking something about one of my books. I had a book mooched from me and suddenly realized I should have checked to see if it was abridged or altered and should have noted if it was. It never even crossed my mind when I listed the book that it might be different from the original text. So I finally checked and it's been watered down for children. I emailed the moocher and I haven't heard anything back. I really don't want to send out a book that isn't original to someone who's expecting it to be without making sure it's okay with the moocher first.

I would email again & if you have not heard from them & they have logged into the site, I would refuse it rather than send them the 'wrong' book...

BUT.

One question: did you enter it via the ISBN? If you did, then I would send it because the EDITION you are sending & that the moocher is requesting is an abridged/children's edition. So the book you are sending IS what they have requested. AND you tried to inform them.

When you send, or refuse, I would mention in the publicly viewable comments that you tried to contact them about the edition, but that they did not reply.

(they probably need to check their spam folder)

Thank you.

I'll try emailing again. I've had some problems with my Yahoo email address not getting received, so I use two email addresses for BookMooch, but I haven't heard from the moocher at either account. If I don't hear back after the second email, I will probably refuse the mooch. I know they are expecting the full unabridged, unaltered text from their comment in the mooch email.

The book doesn't have an ISBN so I entered it by finding it on Amazon then using the Moochbar to add it to my inventory. I checked the description and on both BookMooch and Amazon, it says the book is adapted (I'm pretty sure that wasn't there at the time I added the book, but I think I listed this book in a bulk add, so I might have missed some details).

>68 infiniteletters: "Yes, the difference is that heavier books to Canada can't go by Media Mail."

You cannot ship anything from the US to Canada via media mail. Or from the US to any other country.

This is true. Last summer I visited The Book Thing and had to mail myself a box home to Canada. No media mail :(

77: *nod* To be yet more specific.

Shipping light books within the US and from the US to Canada uses 1st-class. After that, most people in the US ship to other US members with media mail. Shipping to Canada still means 1st-class, thus more expensive.

I listed a bunch of books about a month ago, explaining that they'd be mailed a few per week on a first-come/first-serve basis, as I have to lug the books to work, which is a pretty long walk, in order to mail them later in the day, which means lugging the books BACK past the PO that I pass earlier but can't go to.
Anyway, I responded to all the requests, explained that they would get the book but it wouldn't be in the next few days, and someone placed me on vacation.
Is that not the most obnoxious thing? I'm clearly corresponding with anyone who contacts me, and have obviously been logged into BM recently.
Just so passive-aggressive!

Weird!

Strange. Had you hit "accept" on each mooch? Maybe your emails went into someone's spam folder, so they may have thought you hadn't responded.

Rant about myself! I've been crazy busy the last few weeks at work, and didn't have time to take books to the post office on the first like I promised. Since my mother was heading there anyways, I dropped the books off at her place, marked them sent, and forgot all about it. I just went shopping with her and found the bag of books in her backseat. Now I have to send messages to people telling them I didn't send the books the day I said I did. I'm not only embarrassed, I feel horrible! I'm going to try to send as many by air as I can afford. I just feel horrible about it. I've done this before, and never had any problems. My mothers great about remembering, it's actually kinda worrying that she forgot about something. Sigh! I feel so bad about this!

I think any normal person would be very understanding about that Mare, especially if you simply explain the situation :)

oh, yes, most will understand... but let them know that you gave them to 'someone' to drop at the post office & they didn't do it! apologize profusely... that usually works.

Is previous members said, communication is the clue...
Last week I had a similar experience... I had my first national mooch, and the book should have arrived the day after I marked it send. However, because it couldn't be send as lettermail (due to dimensions), it had to go as 'kilo-post', and for that reason the person behind the counter glued a 'kilopost- addresstag' over the address I had written, after having copied the address on it.
I didn't check if it was copied correctly, and found out the next day on the trackingsite, that the parcel was returned to sender because of an incomplete address. I immediately mailed the moocher, and after I received the parcel I have sent it again (after having send a second mail to announce that I had the book back, and it would return the next day.)
The moocher didn't mind the delay, but appreciated the communication, and even smooched me a point...
So be quick to let your moochers know what happened, and I'm sure most will be very understanding...

This isn't a rant so much as a disappointment. I'm not a perfect moocher, but I do try to communicate & I try to keep things pleasant & smooth. I don't ignore requests or communications.

About a month ago, I requested a book that I really wanted. I had borrowed a copy from the library & really really liked it. A copy came available on BM, so I requested it!! Happy! Happy!

The book owner was a published author (e-books) & had a cute bio & linked to her blog. She'd had successful mooches & all seemed happy!

A week and a half went by. The book wasn't accepted. It just sat there at the top of my pending page taunting me whenever I had to check on pending bookmooches. So, I clicked the email button & emailed saying something along the lines of that I know lives get busy & real life gets in the way, but.... could you let me know if you are still willing to send your book??

Silence. Nothing. Nada.

So, a week later, I hit the Remind button. This time her profile page are the dreaded red letters spelling out that she is "on vacation" But I am hopeful.. many BMers get this status by over-eager moochers.

Still, Silence. Nothing. Nada.

I'm concerned that perhaps real life did get in the way... so I check her blog. She is posting. She has a twitter account. VERY VERY ACTIVE!!!

So, while she isn't logging into BM, she is online & nothing in her blog or twitter indicates that she is involved in any major life crises or important projects. In my view, her life is so fluffy-light that it makes marshmallow creme look heavy.

This morning I canceled the mooch with a -1. I gave her every chance & more. When a mooch is accepted, I can wait a long time & have. But there is communication, not silence.

What really surprises me is that this happened in a community of book lovers. Her audience. The people she wants to buy her books.

I just hope that her account isn't available in a google search. (But she links to BM in her blog.)

No, I'm not going to say which member she is & my account isn't linked via LT. Because she is on vacation, there are no books in her inventory. I hope she returns, but it doesn't matter anymore & I don't expect to get a response to my cancellation.

Thanks for letting me mini-rant....a long post but a mini-rant.

>88 skittles:

Arrrg... I hate it when people do that!

I agree, I'm surprised that an author, who supposedly would want to foster good will in bookish circles, would stand you up like that.

I think you would be doing us a service to tell us (at least) the name of the book. Then we can get on her blog and "bug" her a little about not wanting BM members to read it... ha ha.
Is she ashamed of it????

#90: Glenda, she writes ebooks. They can't be traded on BM.

and, per BM policy, I won't name/shame her... just namelessly rant.

Yeah, it would be interesting if a bunch went over to her blog & said something like "we see you are BookMooch, but your account isn't active... what happened????"

But we have to act like adults, don't we??

(darnit! I'm just no fun!!!)

>91 skittles:

Awww... Why do we have to act like adults?!

I refuse to grow up.

#92 (& 93)

We have to act like grown ups to show others how things are 'supposed' to be done.... like sending books on time & in good condition & well wrapped... and to show others how to behave in a proper manner.

That doesn't mean that we always act like adults or behave like adults, it just means that when things count, we behave like adults.

and if I really acted like an adult, I wouldn't have a home full of books that overflows my bookcases (10+) and my floor & my coffee tables & my desk & my bedtable & my dresser & under the breakfast bar counter & in the closet & in the bathroom & in....

I try to act like an adult "most" of the time, but I'm human.... I make mistakes, I'm selfish, I have a temper, and I read a lot of good, bad & ugly books.

and that's not going to change!!!

waaaaait, acting like an adult means not having tons of books lying around everywhere? Well then NO ADULTHOOD FOR ME! :P

I have to say i'm shocked for the first time about the condition of a book I just received. The condition notes said "spine has some wear" and quite frankly that is the least thing wrong with this book!! The first third of the book and some of the middle pages are water damaged and the cover has so many creases I don't know where to start counting....and a tear to the spine. Not only that, it is covered in dust and even has a dust bunny still attached to the it!! ...and it also wasn't indicated that the cover was different. I would never have mooched this book if I had know the condition of it.

I feel bad leaving a "0 or "-1" because the person has perfect feedback...sigh :(

Any suggestions?

#96: Weelass, ask her if she sent you the wrong copy because this doesn't look at all like the one she was supposed to send you!! (look innocent as you send it).

Ask if she mixed up & sent you the wrong one... you know from her feedback that she would never deliberately send something so different from the condition notes!! Act really puzzled about it!

See what her reaction would be... you aren't accusing her of deliberately defrauding you, but she MUST have made a mistake!!

Good idea. I'll try that. I read through her feedback and it's all good so i'm truly baffled by it. I really find it hard to believe after reading all the comments that she would send a book in the condition it's in. I'll let you know what she says!

Thanks!

> 97 I emailed her and she responded right away with an apology saying that her husband must have mailed me the wrong copy. She returned my two points and thanked me for not giving her negative feedback. She's also going to look for the correct book to send to me if she can find it!

I'm so glad this turned out positively and I may still get the correct book...*phew*

Thanks again for the suggestion!

#99: Weelass, glad that it came out ok.... and you got your points back!! Sad that a mistake happened, but they do, even to the best of us.

btw, what was the book?

> 100 It's Brimstone by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Hopefully she can find the other copy!

A minor grumble... I requested a book, and on May 1st was told my mooch was accepted, but that it would be delayed. Okay, not problem, communication is key, right? Then I received an email July 5, telling me that the sender would mail the book that week, if I still wanted it. I responded that indeed, I did still want the book. Then... nothing. I sent reminders via Bookmooch and personal email on August 30, and the sender still has not responded. Any suggestions?

>102 AMQS: I just checked, and it seems the person is "On Vacation"....Can you cancel Mooches from a Vacation-ed Account? I don't know for sure..but if you can, that's what I would do. Seems to me too much time has elapsed.

Yes, you can cancel mooches from a vacationed account (although not if its been marked as sent, in which case you'd need to mark it lost and consider reporting them to abuse).

>103 jdthloue:, 104 thanks. I'm pretty sure the book has not been marked as sent. I don't mind the delay as much as the lack of communication.

Here's a complaint against myself: I just canceled a mooch I requested because the book owner never responded to my request. Usually, when I'm in this situation, I give the owner a solid two weeks of time to respond (one week for the initial request, one week for the reminder). In this case, however, another user posted the book in their inventory, so I canceled the mooch seven days after the request plus 24 hours after the reminder and I mooched the second copy.

24 hours after that, the first book owner sends me a very kind email explaining that she was out of town and offering to send the book out if I'd care to remooch it.

/headdesk/ If I'd just waited another day....

#106: that's why there are status notes in our profiles... to let people know when we cannot get to our computers & our books.

She was wrong in not putting her status in her status notes, not you for giving up & getting it elsewhere.

(boy, am I in a grumpy mood today!!)

*sprinkles candy over skittles to cheer her up*

I agree, if someone is going on vacation or out of town, that's what status messages are for. There is no reason to feel guilty for cancelling a request that wasn't responded to.

So, I'm having difficulty with a mooch. I requested two books from a seller and one arrived today in an "we are sorry your mail was damaged" envelope from the post office. Just one. The other is currently missing...

I gave a +1 for the book I did receive and then sent a polite email saying what had happened and making sure the missing book had originally been packaged with the one I had gotten and stating that I'd wait a week or so for it to turn up before marking it lost.

Then I happened to get a whiff of the book I had received. Is it permissible to give a 0 rating for a book that reeks of cigarette smoke when there were no condition notes posted? because I really really want to, but I also don't want to be unreasonable.

That would be entirely reasonable.

you can keep your feedback +1, but put a nice little note in the feedback... "....and the smell from the book reminded me of my Uncle Charlie and his cigars!! Thank you!!"

Hah, passive aggressive feedback.

The person's being communicative about the missing book, so I don't think I'll change the feedback this time. But it did feel good to rant a little. Ah, LT therapy.

Edited: Ack. "did feel good" not "didn't feel good"

If I got a book that reeked of smoke, I would check the sender's profile to see if it noted that they were a smoking household. If not, and if everything else was OK, I would probably still give +1, but I would clearly (and not sugarcoated) note it in the feedback and suggest that they either add it to their profile or book descriptions.

Adding such a note to the "status" is best, that way it shows every time the mooch button is hit, without having to add it to every condition note.

Small Rant: I heard some good things about Joanna Bourne's Spymaster series, so I borrowed library copies of the first two books, Spymaster's Lady and My Lord and Spymaster.

I read them & I liked them... a little different... getting used to the French viewpoint/attitudes.. but I liked them... a lot.

So, I went to mooch them... nada..

They were available on PBS, so I requested one... and waited...

It finally arrived today... and it is a well read library copy!! not in any shape to be a keeper. Because it hasn't been out long, I thought I would get a lightly read copy... not one stamped with library name & address, etc... and red marker on the bottom of the book!

Disappointed!!

but, library copies are acceptable on PBS... no condition notes & former library copies are ok.

I guess I'm going to have to wait & try again... blast it!!

115: Seriously? With everything I've heard about PBS, I thought they'd be more strict about condition. Huh.

Tiny little annoyance: People who, for whatever reason, refuse to mark a book as recieved even when I *know* that it has been. This isn't a case of "it may not have gotten there yet" or anything, this is a book I sent with another, in the same package (taped to no tomorrow, so no chance of only the other book arriving), and the other was marked recieved almost a month ago. Despite a reminder and two emails, and the person logging in constantly, it remained on my pending page. I was too annoyed and fed up with it to wait for the "six weeks after reminder" to force-recieve it, so it's now marked lost. Maybe not completely accurate, but better then getting stressed about it everytime I look at it on my pending page.

I am ranting... at myself!! earlier in the summer, I angel mooched a book for someone in Canada, and when it FINALLY arrived, I looked at the wrong line of my angel mooch log book and reserved it for someone in the Philippines, who had requested six other books.. and the person in the philippines accepted the reservation without question. (???) I guess her record keeping is as messed up as mine is.

NOW, the book is on its way to the Philippines, and the person who wanted the book in Canada is asking me why I gave it to someone else instead of him.
WHAT A MESS.

I can't believe how screwed up this situation is. So today, I am going shopping and buy the d*mned book and send it off to Canada. ( it is heavily wishlisted)

I only hope this makes it all right. {sighs in discouragement}

I'm really sorry to hear about that, I know how hard you work on your angel mooches. I think it just falls under the category of 'spit happens'. If you think about it, if the worst thing that happens this week is that one person does not get one book, then it is still a pretty good week right? *Smiles encouragingly and makes Glenda a nice cup of tea*

I've done the "buy a copy of the book to fix things" dance.

Glenda, you are an amazing angel! You managed to keep my massive pile straight even after I added to it numerous times. I can't even imagine trying to keep multiple angel mooches straight. Sit back and enjoy your cuppa tea. You deserve it for all the hard work you put into being an angel. :)

117 >

And thanks for putting a new heavily-wishlisted book into BookMooch circulation!

Tiny rhetorical question: If someone actually comments in their status that they use condition notes and wouldn't send something someone may not be happy with, why did I just receive a book from them with very visible liquid-stains (and no condition notes)? Arrrrggghhhh.

thanks all for your encouraging comments (you make a great cuppa, teagirl!!)

After visiting three of my fav. book-laden thrift shops and two book stores I was able to order it. I could have ordered on bookmooch/amazon connection, but Borders offered it to me, free postage and 30% "member" discount. So I hope this will make my poor "angel in need" happy. A brand new book. I should get it by tuesday and have it shipped out by Wed. a.m.

and Maple, let's do hope he reads it quickly and puts it back into circulation!!!

Heather: I'd ask before giving a negative. I know that sometimes I (used to ) list books I hadn't even opened to see if any pages are stained or marked up... I'm much more careful now because -as you all may remember- I unknowingly sent out a "stinky" book once, because I simply didn't detect an odor. Maybe he/she will smooch you back your point(s) and apologize. On the other hand, if the stains are on the cover... hmmmm...somebody goofed up.

Not so much a complain as a weird situation.

I saw this book I wanted from someone whose profile was set to "ask first". I must have send a request for it shortly after it was posted since I added the book to my wishlist when nobody was offering but this copy became available a few hours later.

It took a few days for me to get a reply. The funny thing is that I had almost forgot about this request and almost mooched the book from someone else. In any case, I did eventually get a reply and it was yes.

I mooched the book. A few hours later the mooch was rejected because the book was "no longer in inventory". I don't really mind not getting the book, it's not a rare book but I was just confused by the whole situation.

124: Check the person's history, do they have a habit of doing that? That's what I always do if I get a rejection for that reason. If it was just a BM glitch or a one-time deal, meh, it happens. But it's always a good idea to check and make sure the person isn't making a habit of rejecting for that reason (since "no longer have it" technically isn't a valid rejection reason....)

123, I'm glad you got the book!
I gave a neutral (not negative) with explanation. I've been pickier with book-condition lately 'cause I've been mooching a lot for my mom and for Books For Keeps, otherwise it honestly wouldn't bother me.

Gendy, that's a pretty shady history for someone so new. Looks to me like they added books (over 320) in bulk to get the points and are only giving away a select number of books that they may physically have. I have not been around that long, but it looks pretty hinky to me. I'd be tempted to hit the abuse button.

Woooooah. Just had a look, and yeah, that definitely looks suspicious. Wow.

Pretty hinky, indeed! That person just contacted me on pbs wanting to swap bm points for pbs credits! What are the chances? Kinda creepy.

Oh yeah, that person's inventory is now gone, however, they still have over a hundred points. The point history is really hinky as well. A lot of mass adding to inventory then mass removal.

Wow I hadn't look at the other transactions! It doesn't really bother me to not get the book but this whole situation went from weird to really suspicious.

The PBS for BM points... once again, Wow!

Actually, this is a PBS rant, but I hope you'll lend a sympathetic ear anyway.

2 out of 4 books that arrived had problems. One was an old sci-fi book, which, yes, being 50 years old means it will not be brand spanking new, but this one had excessive spine flaking and a 2 inch tear in the cover along the spine. Sigh.

A second book arrived well wrapped and in good condition - but REEKING of smoke - even while still wrapped. Things like this make me feel bad because there's nothing wrong with the book otherwise, but I specify in my condition requests that smoke smells are not acceptable :(

Sigh :( I hate leaving bad feedback - I feel like a monster!

on PBS, it isn't see publicly (which you know) but it will be seen by TPTB which is a good thing...

and I hate the attitude of some PBSers who ignore condition requirements (like smokey smells & animal dander) because of the familiar "its a free book" or "its within the condition requirements of PBS, so you should be happy you got it" or "you're too picky"

Most of the books I get through PBS (& BM) are in fantastic condition... but the ones that don't give a spit irritate the jell out of me!! At least on BM, you are usually cognizant of the condition of the book before it arrives. usually.

Aww Macs, that sucks! I thought that smoke smells had to be disclosed with PBS?

I cancelled a mooch from June today. I felt horrible leaving bad feedback for it, but the person angeled the book for me, and then I didn't hear from her for months. The last I heard from her was in July, when she said the book will be sent the following week. I reminded her over a month ago and heard nothing. I got another copy in the mail today, so I cancelled. She's obviously overwhelmed as when the BM forums went online, she seemed to be EVERYONE's USA angel. Sigh. I just wanted to hear something, anything from her.

>132 Mareofthesea:: Ugh! Block 'o capslock, hard to read.

Canceling for lack of response is especially a pity in an Angel transaction. I'm glad you had been able to find another copy of the book.

#132: no, they don't have to be disclosed, but you can have a requirement that if the books smell like smoke, you don't want them. I don't know if mac has that requirement (PBS has a special term for them that is escaping me right now) but if she marks that the book doesn't meet her requirement, she doesn't have to give a credit for it.

There's a special note or screen that says something like "this member doesn't want books from homes with repites or snakes. if you have reptiles or snakes in your home, please do not accept this request."

Then there are the situations where there is no smoking in the home, but the postal carrier who picks up packages has a 200 pack a day habit, smokes in the postal vehicle & the books reek no matter what the sender tries to do. (some rural carriers are not postal employees but contractors, so they can smoke in their vehicles)

I had a frustrating PBS experience this week, too, when I received a severely water damaged book. Water damage doesn't even fall under the category of special requester conditions. It is simply not allowed. You would think that would be obvious to people, but I can't tell you how many water damaged books I've received. I filed a complaint and the sender willingly returned my point. I'm now back at the front of the FIFO line for the next copy, so it all works out okay. Still, I hate to be put in the position of having to request my point back from someone who mailed me a book, even though they are clearly violating the rules of the site.

and this week I got a book (via PBS) that was wrapped in their printer paper wrapper... and taped with office tape, not packing tape. Cello tape!!!

I know that people complain that PBS treats their members like idiots.... but how are some members behaving????? are they following the idiot-proof instructions? and what does that make them? SMART?? COURTEOUS?? HONEST??

I dislike people putting PBS down because of how it is organized & run... they have reasons for what they do based upon their business practices & feedback from members.... just like BM... but I worry when even dumbing down instructions & procedures isn't enough!

on both sites!

Arrgh! Another PBS rant. What does one do when the recipient of your book's account is suspended or closed before you get your credit?

Well, I guess I have to wait another week for the pbs 'take action date' before I get my credit. And upon further research the other book I have been waiting to receive my credit for is on hold! Arrgh!

I will most definitely NOT be sending any more books out from PBS. I don't like that you cannot review someone's history before sending your precious books out into the ether or your points for that matter.

Okay... I feel better now.

#137: may introduce you to the concept of "buying points at PBS?" You don't have to send any books out on PBS if you don't want to... but I would leave a couple of books on your bookshelf.... perhaps The DiVinci Code?

Points cost a little bit more than the cost of postage to send a book Media Mail.... people should be able to make a small profit on points.

There are some posts on the Book Bazaar where people will sell credits/points... sometimes the price is better for others. Take a look there. I've got a couple of people I buy from on a semi-regular basis, but sometimes they don't have the points & I have to check the bazaar.

There are different ways to pay, the quickest being PayPal. (yeah, I really don't like them or trust them, but I'm careful) Some will let you send them an Amazon gift card or will accept a money order sent to them...

and regarding your point to a closed account... I think you will get your point.... check the point register at:

http://www.paperbackswap.com/members/registry/credit.php

that should tell you what has happened with your credits.

feel free to PM me with any questions.

Awww! You're a doll, Skittles. Always there with the answers I need. Thanks, so much! ♥

Gotta go feed the hungry old folks. ;-) I will check back in later.

A little self-rant here, courtesy of the annoyingly-small paycheck I got today. I have.... 7? 7 or 8... packages all ready to be mailed, one with like five books in it, a few that have already been delayed for over a month. Promised to get them out by the end of the month. Paycheck is $144. Bills equal $120. ...... ARGH.

I love BMers dearly 'cause they are always so understanding when this happens, so I'm not worried about that, but it's so frustrating! I *like* my trips to the PO, yunno?

#138 - Okay, I am done feeding the parental units. After someone explained that pbs points are at a premium, I found a gal on pbs who traded points for a credit and we have an ongoing thing now.

I just put up two Dr Phil's books and there are over 500 and 900 of them.

I did look at the point register and there is nothing regarding those books. So for now, I wait. *sigh*

^Heather19, I know just what you mean about liking your trips to the PO. My favorite part of the whole BookMooch process (aside from getting such lovely packages in the mail) is driving home from the post office and racing to my computer to click "sent" on the books I just mailed. It gives me a lovely feeling of community and accomplishment!

Update: Ah, the lady who was on hold received my book today! Woo Hoo! Now, if my book would just come up! ;-)

#143
What book ? Perhaps one of us has it on our bookshelf & not yet posted.

I am looking for Porius by John Cowper Powys. And I am hoping to find the unabridged version published by Overlook.

I adore the Arthurian legends.

Haven't ranted in a while, but I recently received a book that was filthy dirty with food spots all over inside and out (OK, I hope they are food spots). I really think this should be noted in the book condition. I went to give the sender a minus feedback, but all of their other feedback was very good, so I let it go. I'll spray it with lysol and throw it away when I am finished with it.

#146: send an email to the person, letting them know that you wish their condition notes had been a little better... you probably still mooched it, but you would have been better prepared at its condition...

and mention that you didn't want to state it publicly in your feedback, but just wanted to FYI them in an email.

I sent one recently about something that wasn't right, but I stated that I didn't want to leave that info in the feedback... when they respond you can leave the feedback as it is, or change it if their response is less than stellar.

The response I got was a heartfelt thank you & they listened & was glad that I hadn't said anything in the publicly viewable feedback.

146: I understand not wanting to leave negative feedback if it looks like it was a one-off, but at least note in the feedback (or email them) about the condition. They need to know that's not acceptable condition without notes, they'll never learn otherwise.
(edit: I swear skittles's post wasn't there when I went to type my post. Oh well. lol)

#148: you need to learn to type faster, that's all!!!

>148 Heather19:

I've starting writing what I want to say, copying the text, refreshing the page to see if anyone else (most likely skittles of course!) has said anything, and then actually putting in the message if nobody has said anything or I feel my message has something else helpful. If that makes sense.

It works more than 80% of the time!

#148 & 150 and others: Do I talk too much??

I don't think so. And of worthy note skittles, you say useful things with regard to communicating with other moochers.

>151 skittles: Oh, yes, bookel is right. I was just teasing. :)

I always hear rants on here about the condition of PBS books, but I have still had MUCH better luck with books from there. Maybe it's just the types of books I request, but I feel like barely anyone on bookmooch uses condition notes. I always do, of course, and I am sure everyone on here does as well...

Since I have lots of bookmooch points, I am willing to take my chances on books without conditions, but I get burned a lot that way too. Nowadays, I always note if someone sends me a crappy book, or if it was damaged in transit, even if I leave +1. I get a ton of books where the envelope was damaged due to poor packaging, and I always make sure to mention that in the feedback.

As far as PBS, I have only received a handful of books with problems, and I like that you can usually get your point back. With bookmooch, it's like a black hole sometimes with bad books, but no big deal since the points are easy to get.

Not so much a rant as a puzzlement. There's a book I have been waiting to be marked received and as I reminded her yesterday, she says there was no way to mark it received when she was logged in 10 days ago. I have asked her to sign back in and check, but, sheesh! Wouldn't you want to communicate that to the owner?

#154 Yes, the majority of my transactions on PBS are very satisfactory (as are the majority on Bookmooch) and I think that it is because most people do adhere to the posting guidelines and because the guidelines are so clear that I get irritated when I received one from someone who doesn't comply. I probably also get more irritated when it happens because the points are harder to come by so I am much pickier about what I request on PBS. But I must say that I have always gotten my point returned when I have complained that the book didn't meet the guidelines. It mainly frustrates me because I feel like the bad guy asking to have my point returned from someone who mailed me a book, even though they are clearly in violation of the site rules. I guess I just resent being put in that position.

>156 dadena: I feel that way too, about all of it.

I think the reason that the PBS rants are all about book condition is because all the other steps are pretty automated. If the other person doesn't respond, the request gets canceled automatically so you don't have to do very much upkeep yourself. I find that with my Bookmooch annoyances 90 percent have to do with getting the book sent in the first place. Very few have I had a problem with on the receiving end - and that's usually bad packaging, which happens with PBS just as much.

While this is neither a rant nor a complaint, it is a slight irritation. I sent out a book a few weeks ago on BM, and the person I sent it to hasn't marked it sent. They did add it to their LT inventory though, and they have logged into BM recently, they just didn't mark it as received...

#158 People not marking books as received is one of my biggest pet peeves.

If they don't react to a reminder, maybe you could send them a friendly e-mail asking if they have received the book. That usually works for me :)

I've found it works quite well to send an email asking if maybe the moocher had wandered away from the mailbox, paging through the book and forgotten to mark it received by the time they reached the house. Something that will allow the forgetful moocher to laugh and mark it received without feeling bad works best in my experience.

>158 tophats: I (when I remember) try to add my pending books to LT even before I get them, just so I can remember they're coming. Though I do stick a "pending mooch" tag on them, so I know the mooch is still in process. That could be the case. Maybe.

158: Don't forget that it's not a sure thing they've actually recieved the book yet. I often add mooched books to my LT inventory before that actually arrive, and remember media mail (if that's how you sent it) can take a long time.
(I have GOT to start refreshing before I post! 161 was not there when I typed this.)

They responded to the second reminder-- it has now been marked as received. I suppose I just needed to be patient. :)

I've posted before about how I'm trying to find back issues of the Realms of Fantasy magazine, and I have been able to mooch quite a few. The latest batch reached me just last night, I did my yaaay happydance, and I went to put them on the book shelf.

Where those particular issues had already been placed.

I really ought to start cataloging my magazines. *muse*

How long does it take to get to the forced received situation? She says she received the book 10 days ago and has not responded to my email from yesterday asking her to sign back in and check for the 'received' button (that she says is not there).

#165: I think it is 6 weeks from the 'reminder' email.

but don't quote me on that... ymmv, etc.

Thanks, skittles...

'ymmv' ?

your mileage may vary

in other words, what happens for me, may not be what happens for you.

LOL, I like that. ;-)

LOL?

Left Over Lemons?

make lemonade!!!

;)

Bwahahahahahahaha! ROFLMAO!

Not really a rant, because I've become quite zen about getting books...the book will come when it's time for the book to come.

But I am curious, I may have the record here. I have mooched the SAME book (same edition) 4 times and never gotten it. The last moochee hasn't responded since Aug 4th, so I don't think I'm getting it this time either.
This book:
http://bookmooch.com/detail/0689841701

Has anyone ever tried to mooch the same book more than 4 times?

>172 ealaindraoi::
I've taken three attempts, at the most - if my (aged) memory serves me correctly - and managed to get it either on the 3rd or 4th.

LOL - yours is definitely related to the title: it just can't get there!!!
Bwahahahahahahaha!

highdesertady - your fault for that last noise. :)

> 172 YES. OMG. Not on BookMooch, but on PaperBackSwap, I tried requesting House of Leaves about seventy-billion times before someone actually mailed it. Ugh.

My record is also three - getting it on the third time. I don't think I've hit a fourth yet, thankfully.

#172, I've tried three times to mooch Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger and still haven't managed to get it. What really makes me sad is that I used to own a copy, but it had mildew and I've developed a pretty serious mold allergy, so I had to get rid of it.

# 173 - I know, I am so baaad!

Update, the lady finally received my book! Woo Hoo!

I mooched a book three times before I received what I wanted. The first try had bookcrossing markings, which I didn't want. The second was missing the last chapter! The moocher did not realise, but it was evident on inspection of the inside back cover that pages had been ripped out. Plus it was the wrong edition. The third was the correct edition with no markings, in good used condition, so I was happy.

>174 MsCellophane:

At least on PBS, if there are multiple copies in the system, it will keep rolling over to the next person until someone either sends it or they all disappear and you're at the top of the wishlist and are next in line next time it gets posted. It's not as exciting as the wishlist-watching of bookmooch, but sometimes I am lazy and like less effort on my part.

Of course on bookmooch, if there are multiple copies of a book listed, and everyone looks like a flake, I might request two copies of the same book. If I end up with both, I just repost it.

I have tried to get Hexwood several times since I joined BookMooch in October 2006. Actually it was the first book I tried to mooch.
As far as I remember, there´s been two mooches with no response, one marked sent but never arrived, one or two "ask firsts" with "sorry" or no response and one unsuccessful angel mooch.
Difficult book to catch. :)

I'm on my third mooch of Sweets: A History of Temptation.

First mooch, account was closed.
Second mooch, sender claimed book was sent but the account was vacationed and 7 books ended up 'lost' in the mail.
Third mooch, sender has been communicative so I'm hopeful, but the book was mailed in late July so I'm nervous. Granted, it's an international mooch so I haven't given up yet.

I can't remember if I have had any trouble with specific books, but I have had a couple of books which have been mooched/cancelled two or three times in the last couple of days. They are from the box of children's books that I picked up last week.

Okay, I'm near tears right now, and I know it honestly isn't THAT big a deal in the scheme of this, but this sort of thing REALLY frustrates me (and, okay, it's that time of the month so I'm emotional anyways).

I just shipped all the pending-mooches that I'd promised I'd ship before the end of the month, and thank goodness I checked my email right before going, because one of the people who had mooched like 6-8 books had suddenly cancelled, with no explanation, leaving "0" feedbacks for all of them, with NO feedback as to WHY.

I was at a friend's house last night and it was really just happenstance that I checked my email while at her house, otherwise I would've ended up shipping all those books without knowing they'd been cancelled, and therefore not getting any points for them.

I just... I know people are free to cancel whenever they want, but I had communicated my promise to get them out before the end of the month, and had recieved no indication that she was thinking of cancelling or that she was getting impatient at all. And then to leave neutral feedback with no explanation? It means that my history now has a whole slew of RED, with no explanation.

I emailed her expressing my concern and asking if there was a problem or some reason, and expressed my concern over the neutral feedback with no explanation. I'm REALLY hoping it was just "I need the points right now, oops didn't remember/think to leave explanation or change the neutral" type of thing.... Really hoping.

0 & -1 are the only choices when canceling. Not everyone knows that you can go back & edit it to a +1 after it's entered.

Sorry you're upset! ::Hugs!::

Seriously? *goes back to check* I could've sworn.... Huh.
Well, that makes me feel a little better, I guess. Huh. I totally didn't remember/realize that.

184 What? wait! You can go back after canceling a mooch and change the feedback to a +1??

#186,

Yes. (I'm pretty sure...) :-)

I wish +1 was given as one of the initial options, tho.

I always mark my books as sent before I go to the post office. On more than one occasion when I have not done this, the sender cancelled in the time it took me to the post office and back.

I mark no book sent before its time.. it bugs me when (mostly new) members mark books sent, then send a month (Or in the case of recently received books from the US, 2 months) later.

I have also had issues with people marking books sent, and then contacting asking me to cancel because 'it was too expensive' or 'they will not have time'.... or marking them lost and telling me that is why they marked them lost. You can't do that since it refunds the points to both parties. I am very much against marking books as sent until they are actually in the post office.

>184 iwillrejoice: I had no idea you could change the feedback to +1 on a cancellation. I've just changed month old feedback on a mooch I canceled armed with this new info. Thanks for telling us!

Yes, you can mark a cancel as +1 after cancelling, I've done it myself, for a rejection actually (checking my history, it was just so an angel could mooch the book for me when the moocher realised they couldn't afford postage, so it was a positive outcome overall and so as not to cause misunderstanding with a new moocher). Just go to the details in the history and change it and feedback if required.

I would be very patient on that international mooch. I would not be surprised if it was sent sea mail, as they can take over 2, 3 or more months. I'd wait six months if I knew the amount of time it usually took and it hadn't arrived yet (eg. from the UK it usually takes 2.5 to 3 months or so to arrive sea mail). I've heard of sea mail taking a year or more from some foreign countries. The longest to me was 3.5 months from Canada, which was my first mooch from there I think.

>172 ealaindraoi:

And get this - you're 4 of the 7 "previous moochers"!

I came here to rant about a moocher who had asked for a few books from my inventory, and then realized that the reason their name sounded so familiar is the fact that we've already discussed this moocher a few threads ago. Odd.

#192 - I KNOW, right! :) I look like I'm collecting many copies of the thing!

#173 The name of the book is part of the irony of the whole thing - I'm in Maine where the big joke is that 'you can't get there from here...'!

I think vivir has a tie, not the same edition, but I counted 3 times she tried to mooch it directly, and if she also had a angel mooch that didn't go, that's four. I don't think 'ask first' that don't respond quite count.

Despite my wariness towards it, I have taken to marking books sent right before I go to the PO. This time, however, I was spending the night away from home and was "maybe" going to be able to stop by the PO on the way back home. In that situation, I didn't feel right pressing send early. But yes, I've learned the hard way that it's better not to wait until after the PO trip.

I've also had instances where I've mooched books several times before actually recieving the book. Usually it's a simple case of the owners never responding, but I've always felt it weird that it shows your name on "previous moochers" even if the transaction was canceled. It skews the data, I mean sometimes a book can *look* like it's been mooched 10 times, when actually only 4 people have actually recieved the book.

#195 Its one of the reasons why I like to use online postage that I can print at home, and stamps - If I print out and pay for postage, I will send it the next day so I don't feel bad about marking it sent, but I always add that it has postage and packaged. I think it makes the book receiver know I'm serious about sending it. If I have to go to the post office, I always wait until after I send the book, but I'm always worried that the book will be canceled in between giving it to the post office and marking it received.

Just to clarify - If I use online postage, and plan on sending the book the next day, I'll mark it sent. If I have to go to the post office to buy postage, then I mark it sent when I get back. I didn't make this very clean in the above paragraph.

Probably 95% of the time I mark a book sent, it is at the post office within an hour or two of me having marked it. Every now and then, I might mark it the night before if that's when I package it up, but that's rare.

Once I have put the time into packaging a book, I REALLY don't want to see it get cancelled on me.

Contrary to markwp's recommendation and what most people do, I only mark books sent after I get home from the post office.

It's worked for me 349 out of 349 times.

#196 - Oomba,

Once it's marked Sent, it can't be canceled. :-)

HTH!

I'll never again leave the house before marking a book as sent, after getting burned on a pricey international mooch. No reason to throw away money for the sake of a semantic technicality.

I mark as sent just before I go to the post office, mainly because I will often not be able to log onto BookMooch for several hours after mailing them.

I do change the message though, to reflect that they are not yet sent, with something like "On my way to the post office soon. Your book will be in the mail before noon." That way I'm not misleading anyone and I don't sound like an irresponsible jerk if I have to email them to let them know that I didn't get to the post office yet. Which hasn't happened yet...

I try to remember to mark them mailed just before I leave, but I'm usually rushing around.. the books are in a bag by the door. If I get scammed, I get scammed... I just want to get rid of the books!! (when I can). and feedback works both ways.

And this brings us to the end of another great thread of ranting & complaining about problem mooches!!

Join us again in the new thread:

RANTING/COMPLAINING ABOUT MOOCHES: CHAPTER 18!!!

THIS THREAD IS NOW CLOSED!!!

CLOSED!!!

CLOSED!!!