I requested a book 7 days ago, got an email saying request had been accepted, but then last few days it said "awaiting member response" again.  Now today it suddenly  has a new request date--TODAY!  What's up?  I check my account daily and it never said "cancelled" order.

Sounds like the person that accepted it canceled the request and it went to the next person.

OK,,,,,, now there is a "cancelled request" in my transaction archive for the poster so request must have been passed to another poster.  BUT still, how did it go 7 days without being cancelled?????

Well, if the first person got the request on day 1, they had 5 days to accept it.  If they accepted it on Day 5, they had 5 days to mail.  They could have then cancelled the request on the 7th day total, which would then show one canceled request.

First of all, the "Request Accepted" email means that the system received your request and assigned it to a sender. It does not mean anything like "the sender accepted your request and has agreed to mail the book". You can reread the actual email from your Club Communications page to see what it said.

As for the 7 days, go to your Transaction Archive, and click on Request Details on the canceled transaction.

If your request was never accepted, then you'll see this:

Request Date: 9/13/2010 X:XX XM ET
Date Canceled: 9/19/2010 3:XX AM ET

This would be less than 6 days, not 7 days, and it's how the system always works. 5 full days plus the extra portion of the first day.

If you are sure you requested the book a week ago (last Sunday the 12th), then one explanation is your request was accepted and the sender chose I can mail later, and picked 9/16/2010. If that was what happened, you'll see this in your Transaction Archive details:

Request Date: 9/12/2010 XX:XX XM ET
Alternate Date: 9/16/2010 12:00 AM ET
Date Canceled: 9/19/2010 3:XX AM ET

If the sender picks a date, he has 2 days past that date to mark the book mailed, and it's canceled early in the morning of the 3rd day.

If you see a timestamp other than 3 AM on the cancellation, then the sender is the one who actually clicked the Cancel button. The transaction was not canceled by the system.

Once of the clearest explanations I've seen, Cathy.

You can follow the progress of your order in your credit registry (on the horizontal yellow bar on your My Account page.)  You'll see the date & time cancelled, and the same date and time when your order was passed on to a new sender. 

When the order is passed to a new sender, you get a new request date.  The system doesn't send us an e-mail when an order is cancelled and passed to a new sender, and we don't have to take any action.

And as Cathy said, the 3:xx A.M. Eastern Time is the key that the server canceled the transactions.  That's when it does its business.