This is what Small pubs and their authors have to deal with EVERY day.

My publisher set me up an account with their distributor so I could call in and order books at a discount since it made little sense for them to send them to me and we pay postage twice. Normally it wouldn't be important to say that the books I ordered through the distributor were to be new books as nothing was said to infer otherwise.

So as the drama unfolds, (there really should be no drama IMO but whatever) I received the ten books I ordered. Upon opening the box I found three of the books were books I had signed and dated whilst visiting a local B&N who'd ordered them. Two of the books even had the green B&N "autographed copy" sticker on the front cover!!! One of the books had a cover that wouldn't close all the way and might not have bothered me at all except I'd already found three books that were clearly NOT new as I "assumed" they would be. Why would I assume otherwise?

Upon calling the distributor to discuss the matter I was told they only ever sent out new books and NEVER sent out returned ones. I do understand that one person in a company could easily misunderstand policy and give wrong information but I had called earlier that week to see about signing on with the distributor myself. I asked what was done with books returned from bookstores since bookstores were more apt to send books back then keep them and I was told they went into a section for damaged inventory never to be returned to new inventory even if they were in sellable shape. I even have a PDF file from the distributor that states this. Keep that in mind as you read through the email I just received from the distributor regarding my claim:

Hi Sue,

My name is [B] and I am the account manager for [Sue's publisher].

I know you were given a choice of whether to send back the books or receive credit for them. However, I would like to receive the books back so that we may look at them and use them to show the receiving department where to look for the stickers in the future so that something like this does not happen again. We would like to use these as a learning tool.

It is correct that we do use returns in re-sellable condition to be put back on the shelf for resale, but we try to only take the books that are excellent condition, obviously we need to pay more attention to what is on the inside and added stickers on the outside as well.

Please let me know if this is OK with you and I will send the replacements and the call tags to return the other books right away.

Thank You,

BS, Customer Service Representative

My response:

The information I have from the rep who sets up new accounts (confirmed in the PDF they sent me) and the person I spoke with originally about my claim, negates the comment concerning the use of returned-from-bookstore books. At no point would books-returned-from-bookstores to Ingram, Baker & Taylor or any other distributor and then to Bookmasters, be put back into resellable stock. Both individuals I spoke with and the PDF file clearly stated this.

Based on that, I see no point in sending books back that my publisher (and subsequently myself) have already eaten because my publisher was already charged return shipping on returned books and administrative fees on top of having to refund monies for the books sent back. If the Bookmaster's policy is adhered to no employee of Bookmasters should have to be trained at all as used books would never be sold as new.

And since I now have no guarantee that the next four books I'll receive will be new either, I'd simply like the four used books taken off my charge. As far as returning books to you at no cost to use as "learning tools" . . . I'll pass. What's there to learn? Bookmsasters isn't supposed to be sending out used books as new. I'm also very concerned about the books I send back going out again to some other unsuspecting customer.

So yes. Take the four books off my charge and I'll keep the "damaged" ones. BTW, I'm curious, since I'm interested in setting up an account myself (or at least was) do publishers see any of the money that's made off of returned books that are sold as new? And when are customers told that the books they're buying as new are actually not that at all?

Addendum:

Just received response from BM.

Hi Sue,

I will make sure they credit you the 4 books.

I apologize for the mistake.

Thank You,

Customer Service Representative

LOL Well. Thank-you for addressing the question I had. I wonder when I order my next books if they'll be new or used?