I just had a request canceled by the system because the sender had not marked the book mailed in the time allowed.  It was a book I was really looking forward to receiving and I was very surprised when it was offered through my wish list.   Anyway, the member who was supposed to send it seems to be an active member, having recently posted several books, as late as 1/5/10.  I realize no one is under any obligation to send a book, but why would someone go to the trouble of accepting an offer, printing the label, and then not mail the book?  I hope I don't sound snarky.  I really enjoy the site and have had only positive experiences but I was just curious. 

Perhaps they forgot to mark it mailed, or perhaps there has been some sort of event in their family, such as a death, etc., that suddenly takes precedence over mailing a book. If that is the case, I think you will find that the book is offered again soon.

There has also been bad weather this past week in different parts of the country that could have resulted in loss of power/computer access.

Why not send a nice PM asking if the book was mailed, and maybe they forgotten to come back in and mark it?

It does happen. And it'd be better for both of you if you knew the book was on it's way so you wouldn't order another. (Although I don't know that I'd cancel a second WL offer until I had at least one in hand.) And the sender would know you were looking for it and would mark it received, giving them their credit, once it arrived.

Then if they really haven't mailed it, you'll know not to wait on it's arrival.

Sometimes people get busy and think it's all marked mailed and good-to-go when it's actually timed off their shelf and they don't realize they didn't hit the button.

On the very first book I ordered through the site, the sender did send the book but forgot to mark it as mailed.  I agree with Cindy--you might want to send them a friendly PM to see if that's the case.

Good luck--I hope you get your book!  I can understand the frustration of waiting for a long time to get a wishlist book posted, then end up having it time out on the senders end.

Once, I had the exact situation that Cindy mentioned. Before I even realized that the one book was cancelled, I opened a pm from a member. She was frantic and wanted to know why her book was cancelled when she had already mailed it. When I asked her if she had marked it 'mailed' , she realized then that she had not done that and profusely apolized. It all worked out. So, if this did happen in your case, you will probably receive a pm from the member.

Sometimes something happens to the book, such as the dog chewed it (has happened to me), they spilled coffee,etc. on it while they were wrapping it, etc.

I know it's disappointing, but things do happen. Hopefully, you will get your wishlist book soon from another member.

One thing I do in cases like this is to go to my Wishlist and put that particular book "On Hold" (PBS should have put you back in the "front" of the line):

You can also put individual items on hold if you are not ready to accept those items when they are offered to you

• to do this, check the box to the left of the item and click Hold Checked. 
• This will preserve your "place in line" for the book but make the wish INACTIVE
• Note: items on hold still count toward the 200-item limit on the Wish List.

This way, you can keep your spot while you try to find out what happened with the first request.

Comes in handy for heavily posted books and helps keep you from having to decide whether or not to accept another offer and risk getting 2 copies.

I had one come in this summer 32 days after I requested it. PBS had e-mailed me twice about giving sender a few more days. I wanted this particular book,l though, and had just about given up on it.

I accidentally timed out a book last week - my kids had strep and I had bronchitis. Felt like a heel, but sometimes life is like that. Hope you get your book soon.

I had several WL requests time out some weeks ago (and twice on the same book).  I, too, could not figure out why someone would post a WL book and then not send it -- why bother posting if you aren't going to follow through when the WL request is accepted? 

And then it almost happened to me.  I bring WL books and some mailers when I travel, so that I can mail the books when I finish them and free up suitcase space.  Well, one book took longer to read than I thought it would, so I posted it just a few days before I started my 3-day journey back home.  The first person in line did not respond to the request (losing their place in the 600+ WL!)  and the request rolled to the next person.  If they hadn't accepted it right away, I would not have been able to mail the book, since I was without computer and printer access for several days.  (Fortunately, they accepted within a few hours, so I marked the book mailed and put it in a blue box on my way out of town.) 

Long story, but that's how it can happen -- maybe the book was actually posted several days ago, and in the meantime, life happened, and either they couldn't mail the book, or they didn't get to a computer to mark the book mailed.   

I've never let one time out but I can see how it can happen.  Last Feb we had a big storm and I lost power for 4 days.  I finally made it to the library on day 3 and was just in time to hand write some address', pm the recipients what was going on and markign them mailed.  But I had like 5 requests that were goign to time out then next day and a couple WL offers that were almost to the 48hr mark. 

The other day I forgot to mark a book mailed.  NOrmally it's the 1st thing I do when I get home from teh post office.  But I got distracted and forgot until the next day.  I had mailed before the mail by date so it wasn't near to timing out. But the kicker is that I was on my main page several times that day.  And I still didn't remember to mark it mailed until it popped into my head sometime later. 

Also you may not have been the 1st person this book ws offered too.  I no longer post WL books right before a vacation unless there's only 1 wisher.  Then I put my shelf on hold so it can't be ordered.   It's always the book you need to mail in a hurry that times out on 5 wishers before it gets accepted. And by then you no longer have time to mail it or you've just gone to the post office.

I was offered the book again from the same member this morning.  Guess it was just a case of "life happens."  The offer has been accepted, so I feel sure I'll get the book this time.   Thanks to everyone for your input and advice. 

 I received the book today.  Plus a bonus book that turned out to be a WL book when I decided to post it.  All's well that ends well, I suppose.