Not so recently, I requested a book.  The person offering the book took a long time to accept the request, then took a LONG time to mail it.  The "official" mailed by date is 2 days later than the time limit for mailing it.  It's now a over month since I requested the book, and three weeks since it was allegedly mailed.  I say allegedly because I simply don't believe that the person actually  mailed the book on that date.  Edit: Also, this person marked the book as having been mailed at the EXACT time, to the minute, that they printed the label.

That's the background, now the question.  I wish I could "blacklist" this person, so that when I request a book, the request will never go to that person.  Otherwise, I'll have to check each request I make to ensure that it's not coming from the tardy person.  I don't think this is possible, is it?

Hi Lisa - Not possible. Sorry you are experiencing this problem - it is very frustrating.  I understand the delay in accepting because some people need to arrange so they are getting the latest possible mail date due their schedule.  Did she mark it mailed or did it time out?  If the book is coming from HI, PR, Alaska or a APO it can take 6-8 weeks - sometimes longer to arrive - been there done that!
 

I've got a couple questions for you:

First off, how do you know this person took a long time to mail it if A) you haven't seen the book yet so you can't check the postmark and B) she marked it mailed right after printing it?

And since you don't even know this person, what makes you distrust her so much?  I'm a bit stymied by your rather distrustful attitude that you're sure this person has done you wrong when the book hasn't even gone lost yet.

PBS give people a certain amount of time to accept the book. There is nothing wrong with them taking the alloted time. NOTHING at all.

You do understand that PER THE RULES (yes I saw your other post in the other thread) it is ALLOWED PER PBS to mail the book two days after marking it mailed. THAT IS PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE. No one is a liar (as you so blatantly said in your post in our long debated thread that you resurected) if they utilize this rule.

I repeat, do not call someone a liar because they utilize the rules as they are set forth by PBS. (For anyone interested in what I"m talking about go check out the thread that says something like "marking mailed two minutes after printing.")

I think you need to relax and enjoy the books that are sent to you and read the ones you have in the mean time. It will save you a lot of anguish worrying so incessantly about when someone mails a book and categorizing them before you even truly know what you're talking about.

Susan,

You pointed out what I was about to post in defense of the current system - sometimes a transaction leaves a bad taste because of a misunderstanding (or personality clash). I wouldn't mind the ability to block future transactions with specific members though.

John

May I just add that using the FIFO, you are very unlikely to get the same sender again.  If you need to know the person who is sending the book, you can click the PM button by the order on your account page to see who is mailing the book to you.  If you recognise the member and don't want to deal with them then just cancel the order.  However, in over 300 transactions, I've never come across the same member twice by using the FIFO.

Good question Lisa, there are many reasons to want to avoid a certain sender or a receiver for that matter.  Why don't you send that suggestion to PBS?

The problem with "blacklisting" people is that PBS is based primarily on FIFO. So if you have a book wishlisted and this "bad person" posts the book to you, are you going to decline it, thus removing yourself from the wishlist? If you have had a book on your shelf for a year and finally made it to the front of the FIFO line and this "bad person" requests it, are you going to cancel the request once you see who wants it--which removes the book from your shelf and if you repost it, you're at the back of the line again?

Truly, after many, many transactions in both directions over the four years I've been here, I can't think of anyone that's been enough of a pain that I would not want to deal with them again. FIFO works just great most of the time. Yes, it occasionally requires some patience, as you might request books from members who are now inactive and thus the request rolls over to the next person, but someone would have to REALLY tick me off such that I would refuse to deal with them at all.

I have occasionally gotten books from the same people (and posted books to the same people) via FIFO, but my tastes are kind of quirky, so it's natural that it might happen if you like some of the "less common" stuff. But that's never been a bad thing, IMO.

Cheryl

I've never tried to figure out if I've sent multiple books to the same person at different times, but I have had two times where just by random chance I ended up sending a WL book to someone at the same time she was sending a WL book to me. All four of the books were posted to FIFO.

The first time it was two mysteries by different, but similar, authors. Not a surprise that someone who had read book A would also have book B on her wish list.

The second time it was two wildly different authors, and I was surprised to find someone else who likes them both. Even Amazon doesn't have those two books on the "if you liked ... then you'll like..." list.

Wish that was an option PBS could offer Lisa.  Ocassionally there are members one just doesn't want to deal with again.

Hi Lisa, I feel your pain. I just got a book that had declared lost. It was  marked mailed September 9, meter postage shows mailed October 2. 

I wish I had that option as well.  And Susan I honestly dont know what your beef is with Lisa, ( who I do not know for the record)  but jeez louise, how bout taking it to pm's rather than stalking her posts and snarking?

Hence, the IGNORE button.

Lol Karen

 but jeez louise, how bout taking it to pm's rather than stalking her posts and snarking?

Um. Hmm. Stalking? A bit melo-dramatic, don't ya think? She resurrected a controversial thread (that I participated in) after four days of it lying dormant and called people liars - and then this thread pops up accusing some other member of lying about mailing a book. If you find THAT acceptable among PBS members, then well, OK. I don't.

I'm a regular on this and most of the other forums so does that mean if I post a comment to someone twice (it's been known to happen! lol) I'm stalking them too? Nah, I don't think so.

And my question still stands to the OP -- how do you know this person took a long time to mail it?

I don't think that people should be naive and overly trusting, but Lisa seems to be very suspicious of people whom she doesn't even know. She also thinks that it's a huge issue for people to mark the book mailed right after printing the label, which is exactly what I do. In fact, you can look at my Profile where I explain why I mark books mailed right away. Besides, three weeks is not that long a time to wait for a book. Regards to all, Elaine

That's a good idea Elaine, I don't know that I've heard of anyone doing that before (explaining why you mark mailed right away on your profile).

I print label, wrap book then go put it outside in the maibox. Total elapsed time from beginning to print to the time it is in the outbound mail: 5 minutes. And, I keep hearing in these forums that it is suspcious that people print and mark the book mailed immediately. I don't print the label until I have the book there, the  envelope, the tape all right in front of  me.

I agree with others - you don't have to mail within 2 days of accepting, the sender can chose to mail it later - up to 5 days later. Then, the sender  has two days to actually mail the book. So, until theOP can see the  postmark on the package, she might be jumping the gun with assumptions.

And, well, what if it was mailed late? Then, by all means fill out the form and include the post mark date. If it happens alot by the sender, the PTB will notice and take appropriate action - ie they can suspend the senders account.

So, just relax, fill out the form and let the system do its job. And, have a big, huge, overflowing TBR pile so you don't have to anxiously await one particular book.

Um. Hmm. Stalking? A bit melo-dramatic, don't ya think? She resurrected a controversial thread (that I participated in) after four days of it lying dormant and called people liars - and then this thread pops up accusing some other member of lying about mailing a book. If you find THAT acceptable among PBS members, then well, OK. I don't.

I'm a regular on this and most of the other forums so does that mean if I post a comment to someone twice (it's been known to happen! lol) I'm stalking them too? Nah, I don't think so.

So I went back and read what I wrote  today.  Yikes that sounded harsh.  I think what happened was at the time I was on the board those two threads were one right after the other and I'd had a particular trying day at work and it just struck me wrong.  Please accept my apologies.  I should wait an hour or so after those kinds of days to read the board I see. 

Lisa, if it turns out that the book was mailed very late, you can use the survey to put the postmark of the postage to report the late mailing. If it happens often enough, the member's actions will come to the attention of TPTB and action will likely be taken.

That's what the survey is for! (Also, to allow you to report superior transaction as well!)

Um. Hmm. Stalking? A bit melo-dramatic, don't ya think? She resurrected a controversial thread (that I participated in) after four days of it lying dormant and called people liars - and then this thread pops up accusing some other member of lying about mailing a book. If you find THAT acceptable among PBS members, then well, OK. I don't.

I'm a regular on this and most of the other forums so does that mean if I post a comment to someone twice (it's been known to happen! lol) I'm stalking them too? Nah, I don't think so.

And my question still stands to the OP -- how do you know this person took a long time to mail it?

Wow, posting in a thread after four whole days of inactivity!  That must mean I'm a real bad person, or maybe it just means that I'm busy and don't read the forums every day.   And I didn't call people liars, I said that it feels like lying to me when you say you've mailed a book but haven't yet.  You are, of course, entitled to feel differently, but the difference is that I won't get hostile because you feel differently than I do. 

Considering the rules (having 48 hours to mail the book after marking it mailed) and the many valid reasons for doing so that people posted in the other thread, I see that it is reasonable to mark a book mailed before actually dropping it off.  I won't do that, but won't look askance at people who do.

To everyone else who was nice enough to reply, thank you for your replies and suggestions :)