I received confirmation of a swap on 18th Sept (read e-mail on the 19th), posted my book on the 22nd (21st was a Sunday) and got a 4 star rating from the swapper, the reason given being "The book was significantly delayed (took more than 7 days to arrive"..  I feel a bit miffed....would you?

Gill

That does seem quite harsh - personally I wouldn't mind waiting an extra day or two...  To be on the safe side though if I am ever a bit delayed I usually send an e-mail.

Yeah I would - because if they looked at the postmark they should be able to see that you posted it in good time. I think there's something up with RM at the moment as a couple of my swaps seem to have gone AWOL too - anyone else found this?

I am waiting for one swap to be confirmed after nearly 3 weeks?

I think its very harsh dropping you a star, the rules state that you should allow at least 7 days for a book to arrive, and this is only just a day over (if you include the Sunday as one of the days), as they have left the feedback on 26th.   I would be extremely miffed and wouldn't swap with that person again.  Have you thought of emailing them and asking them to reconsider their grading?

Thanks, I think I will actually

I have now e-mailed the swapper telling them I will send back their book to them on Monday (it is Sunday tomorrow) and have asked them to send my book back ..  I may sound petty, but I am an honest person, and the swapper has really upset me.

Boo hoo...

Gill

 Don't think I would have asked for the book back, nothing wrong with the swap,I would have just said that you posted in time and the postmark proved it,not your fault if RM was slow in sending.

I have just looked at the the ratings and the swapper is a newbie so is perhaps applying the letter of the law till they get used to the vagaries of RM

 a gentle email explaining that you posted within the guidelines may be all thats needed

I agree that it is probably because they're new that they're being a bit over-zealous in sticking to the guidelines.  I wouldn't have gone so far as to suggest swapping the books back - as the others have said, better to send a gentle email pointing out that you posted in good time and could reasonably have expected the book to arrive within the 7 days so it's somewhat unfair to hold you to account for the slowness of RM, and in any case, the book arrived only 1 day outside the limit. 

risi guidelines state

ReadItSwapIt 'Problem With a Swap' Policy

Problems with swaps are very rare, but can occasionally happen. If it does happen to you, here is our policy:

• If your book doesn't arrive within 7 days, contact the person you've agreed to swap with to double-check they've sent it. Royal Mail say you should allow a maximum of 10 working days for delivery, so please be polite, it may not be their fault. You can get the person's email address by going to your My Swaps page and clicking 'I'm having problems with this swap'.

• If you don't get a reply within 3 days and your book still hasn't arrived, email support@readitswapit.co.uk with details of when the swap was agreed, the display name of the person you're supposed to be swapping with and the name of the book.

• If you do get a reply from the user, and he/she says she will send it immediately, but the book doesn't arrive within 5 days, email support@readitswapit.co.uk

• When we receive details that a swap hasn't been completed and that the swapper has already tried to contact the other person, we will email the problem swapper to tell them to send it. If they don't respond, we will suspend their account. Suspending their account ensures that no-one else can swap with them.

• If you ever come across a new user who has lots of swaps but hardly any feedback, and has not sent you your book promptly, please email us immediately.

Please bear in mind when chasing swaps that sometimes people have good reasons for being late swapping - illness can prevent people from getting to the postbox!

However if you find you cannot post your book within 1-2 days, to maintain a good rating please let the other user know what is going on by clicking on 'There is a problem with this swap' on your My Swaps page.

Being punctual with your swaps is what makes people Super Swappers. We would like to encourage you to de-grade your feedback if your swap does not arrive promptly and you do not feel you are informed early on about the reason for the delay, or there wasn't a justifiable reason. Please detail what happened in the feedback comments box so that other users can learn from your experience.

I guess perhaps you should have mailed to say you were going to be late posting the book but the other person should have been asking you over 7 days what was up rather than giving you that feedback! Hope you get it sorted Gill

Thanks for your responses.

 I was silly in telling the swapper we should return our books to each other, and have e-mail her apologising for over reacting.

I had been a long and hard day at work, and that was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back.

And I fell over on the way home from work [:'(] - was entirely my own fault - the police were chasing some girls in the opposite direction and I was doing the usual "It's nothing to do with me I'll keep walking" but could not resist looking over my shoulder in a nosey way and just didn't see the broken paving slab until I fell over it