Is forced receiving of books a new feature?

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Is forced receiving of books a new feature?

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1k00kaburra
Bewerkt: jan 8, 2019, 3:11 am

I posted this in the Bookmooch forum, but it doesn't look very active so I'm cross-posting here as well...

In late November, I mooched a large quantity of books from another user. The books never arrived, so about a month after the initial request (maybe a little longer - I think it was after Christmas) I sent a message through the website mentioning that the books hadn't come and asking if the sender happened to have a tracking number. I didn't hear back, but I thought I'd give it a few weeks since this is a popular time of year to travel.

When I logged onto the website last night, I noticed that all of the books had disappeared off of my "Books which have been sent" list and marked as received. Another book from a different sender was also marked as received; that title was coming from overseas and was sent at the end of December so I wouldn't expect it to arrive for a little while yet.

Has this happened to anyone else? I don't know if it's a bug or some sort of error. I don't think it was an administrative override because usually one is contacted before they act, right? But I also don't know how the books would have otherwise been marked received. Is this a new feature?

2wester
jan 8, 2019, 1:17 am

It's definitely not a new feature, I found an e-mail conversation where it was mentioned from 2008.

It was meant to be used in case books were sent and then the moocher disappears.

It is a very annoying thing that it can be used as soon as six weeks after sending, i.e. quite a lot before you can be sure enough that an international book is lost to mark it lost.

It's also annoying that there is no place on the bookmooch website where they clearly explain features like these.

It has never actually happened to me to have a book force received when I did not receive it, but if it did I would contact the admins. Maybe there is some way they can be changed to "lost".

3normandie_m
Bewerkt: jan 8, 2019, 4:35 am

I took a look at your mooch history and it doesn't look like your books were forced received because when that happens it's usually displayed in bold red text. However, the same thing happened to me a few years ago - I logged into my account and found that all my pending mooches that had been sent were marked as received with positive ratings. Some of these mooches I wasn't expecting for a while due to slower shipping methods, so I then had a bit of an anxious wait to ensure that they all came (and they did!).

I posted in this forum when it happened (thread here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/156273) Based on the response I got from BM tech support, I assumed that someone had hacked into my account to receive the mooches, so I changed my password and didn't think any more of it. Seeing that this happened to you though, I wonder if there's some kind of bug in the site that caused this to happen? Would be interested to know if it has happened to anyone else.

4k00kaburra
jan 9, 2019, 3:41 am

Tech support said that they had gone in and marked all the books received because of complaints against my account, which is surprising because I checked my inbox, trash and spam folders and I haven't had anyone from support or the senders themselves reach out to ask if I've gotten the books. It makes me wonder if e-mails aren't going through?

At any rate, I asked them to forward the tracking information from the senders so I could follow up with the post office so hopefully we'll find the books!