i have been getting several instances of altered request dates.  the latest involves a book i requested on 9-16 with no response.  when i checked the transaction details, i discovered that i was correct.  however the request date had been changed to 9-22.  how does this happen?  i don't understand.  if she couldn't get it out by the deadline, all she had to do was pm me and let me know that it would be late.  i would have agreed, but i don't like the highhanded way she just changed it.  i just pm'd her that if i hadn't received the book in 2 days i would consider cancelling the whole thing.  what do others do about this?  it has happened to me 3 times, so i have to presume others have had the same issue.  what do you do?  help.  thanks, linda

But i don't like the highhanded way she just changed it.

Once a person agrees on a mail by date for a book they can not "alter" it. They may cancel the order, but they can not change the date they agreed to mail by. If the person either cancelled the request or the book did not mail out in time, the request is cancelled by the system and it moves on to the next person in the FIFO line.  It appears that the 9/16 request was cancelled and you've moved on to the next one. You can check your transaction archive to verify this.

 i would have agreed, but i don't like the highhanded way she just changed it.  i just pm'd her that if i hadn't received the book in 2 days i would consider cancelling the whole thing.

If she has printed the mailer and marked it mailed, you can't cancel it anyways.

Look in your transaction archive and I bet you find that the original orders are NOT the same as the final orders. I haven't seen a way for the sender to alter request dates in the system. I bet FIFO moved your order down and this poor person just got the order. I suggest a kindly worded apology PM before you get your order cancelled and have to wait out FIFO some more.

if you order a book and the person you order it from doesn't respond within 5 days it goes to the next person who has that book to send to you. I have had this happen and it isn' t a problem until the book you wanted was the only one in the system.

Check your Club Communications. You may have something like this telling you what happened:

i just pm'd her that if i hadn't received the book in 2 days i would consider cancelling the whole thing. 

Nobody can change a request date. This is a new request that was generated after the first one was canceled. It could have been canceled by the first member, by yourself or by the system. You have probably PM'ed a totally innocent person who just got the new request on 9/22 and fully intends to send you the book.

You need to go to the Help Center and read this item: Why did the *Requested on:* date change on my request?

I was on the receiving end of a PM from a person confused about this.   I received a message chastising me for not mailing - I'd had the request for a total of about 2 hours at that point.    I was patient and managed to explain, but it was a little frustrating.

i just pm'd her that if i hadn't received the book in 2 days i would consider cancelling the whole thing.

You placed the original order on 9/16, you created this thread on 9/27, and you were expecting to receive the book by 9/29? That's not giving the post office enough time to do their job even if the book HAD been mailed by the first requester! PBS allows 30 days for a book to arrive after all - if we cancelled all requests where the book didn't arrive at the 10 day point, we'd have a real problem here.

thanks, everybody.  i will pm her again, and i am glad i was polite in the first one.  however, it is the 29th and she hasn't mailed it yet.  i am really glad for the education.  have a great weekend, y'all.  linda

If the second person got the request on the 22nd, they have 5 days to answer (the 27th), and then they can pick a date (help me people) 5 days out? from when they accept, which means that, potentially, the 2nd person has until Oct. 2 to mark it mailed, which means PBS will give it until at least mid-late october to get to you, so I think, if I'm reading your original post correctly, you're jumping the gun quite a bit. 

Do be sure you look again, Linda, as it could have gone to yet a 3rd person!