I swapped a box o books with another member..their box of books to me was never received...they accepted my offer 3-24-12; printed address 4-6-12; mailed 4-12-12...I still haven't received the box o books.  They received my books in good time...is it too soon for me to ask PBS for help in resolving the matter?  If not, what should I do first???

Have you PMd the other member to ensure that they mailed it on the day they marked it mailed?

PO could have held this up, ours got 2 huge boxes today that were mailed media mail and turned out to be fancy tire rims.  Hence, more boxes being inspected these days thanks to dishonest people (this one was from Ebay).

Did they put DC on the mailing?  You could trace and see if it's stuck somewhere.  They would put that box of books on the truck last last last, when they had room for it.

Don't give up.  I mailed a book last December and the requestor just recieved it this week...

TPTB suggest membesr attempt resolution first.  I'm not a boxer, but the first step would probably be to politely inquire if the mailing was delayed (or the date showing is correct).  Also ask if DC was used, if so they can probably check to see if it appears to be stuck enroute or mis-delivered.  If the package was actually mailed (with DC) they can request USPS search for the missing package.  Without DC, USPS will probably not have enough information to conduct a search.

After those steps are finished, check PBS Boxer guidelines as there's probably a suggested solution.

Having looked through the PBS boxer guidelines there really isn't any guideline on what to do other than contacting the other boxer member.

So really what do you do when a boxing deal goes bad? I sent mine out on 2/21 with DC and it arrived

Status: Delivered

Your item was delivered at 11:07 am on February 25, 2012.

He never marked it received. He did not answer my pm to him about the box. He accepted the deal and that was it. His status here at PBS is now closed or suspended account. No big loss since it was only 2 books.

2nd deal is only a few weeks old but I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't going to end up like the one above. I mailed on 5/31/12 she has yet to mark it received. Every other box mailed on that day has reached its destination so "maybe" it will take a little longer for mine to get to her. I've PM'd her on the status of my box to her and while she printed a DC to me on 6/3 all it shows is electronic shipping info received. So I don't think the box has been mailed yet. So here we are 2 weeks into waiting to see if she is going to mark her box mailed to me and mine received.

I like the boxing program but I think the rules aren't strict enough on accountability there.  I think that is the reason I quit using it last time and may quit using it again after this.  No length of time to accept a deal, send, or acknowledge received. No real idea of what to do when things go wrong beyond pm's.

I'm really new to the boxing ... but I already have a couple of problems.  I sent out one box of books almost 6 weeks ago. It shows the box was delivered 6 days after I sent it, but it's never been mark as received.  I  have sent 2 PMs to sender asking they they verify receipt and mark it as mailed to get it off my list on incomplete deliveries..... no response whatsoever.  I received my books in the trade, so I'm not out anything.  Its just frustrating when the other party wont do what they should do, and then ignore you.

I guess my other complaint is that I have had to cancel several trades only because no one responded to my request for a trade.  If they dont want to trade or they don't like my book showing, that's okay.  But it would be nice to send me PM saying No thanks ... or cancel the order themselves.  But sometimes my requests will sit there for a week with no response.  I couldn't find any rules, so I make my own.  I figure 5 days is long enough.  If I get no response, I cancel the trade.

I don't think I will renew this option next year.

I like the boxing program but I think the rules aren't strict enough on accountability there.  I think that is the reason I quit using it last time and may quit using it again after this.  No length of time to accept a deal, send, or acknowledge received. No real idea of what to do when things go wrong beyond pm's.  

I agree with you on this, Southernmaw. I quit BOB after losing a box of 8 books to someone. They never marked it received or acknowledged me in any way beyond the initial deal/acceptance. Neither did I get my requested books from them. Now their account is closed/suspended. For whatever reason. It isn't worth it to me. I can't afford to make a deal and lose that many books without some kind of compensation. I get a better deal letting them go to FIFO. At least I get a credit most of the time.

I think BOB is a great concept. But I think it needs more structure and maybe regulations to truly be worth it.

Pam

Don't give up. I mailed a book last December and the requestor just received it this week.

Sounds more like someone did some spring cleaning and found your book, lol. If so,  at least they took the time and marked it as received.

To the OP, I hope you get your box of books soon, but after reading all the complaints from other posters, I'm glad I changed my mind about signing up for the program.

Update on my situation. I received a reply to my pm and it seems she had misplaced several of the books while getting the order together. Heck I do that all the time and enlist hubby to help me find them.   So my situation should be resolved in a short amount of time.

I still hope some of the issues I stated can be worked out by PBS at some point  to make the boxing program more efficient and fun rather than a long drawn out process. I still enjoy being a boxer overall.

You have some good suggestions -- be sure to send them in to the PBS Team  (Bottom of the page on the right, under Company: click on Contact Us then use the Feedback option.)  They usually don't monitor the forums.

Thanks Patty I did. 

When I was a new member I also joined BOB.  I had a lot of books and since I was trying to collect entire series to read, I thought it would be a good fit.

If my first BOB trade had not been with Sherry (royaltech), I probably would have given up on it at the start.  I received a lot of BOB trade requests from people with next to nothing on their shelves - most often if there was anything it was nothing I was interested in.  Some trades I was able to find books by new (to me) authors that sounded interesting. 

I had many requests that came in after Sherry's.  She took a lot of my books, so I had to remove the ones already taken from their requested box.  It was a bit tedious to do that for several different requests.

The trade that turned me off completely was the one where the person really really wanted to trade for a single book they really wanted.  I found something marginally interesting off their shelf.  Box was accepted on both sides, so I packaged the book and mailed it out.  It got marked received and then I get a PM 2 weeks after the boxes were accepted saying "Can't find the book you requested.  Can you choose another?"  I'm sitting there going .  I picked something random from her shelf.  I've never opened it.

After that, I refused future requests where nothing interested me.  If they really wanted the books, they could order them normally off of my shelf.  When my BOB subscription expired, I didn't renew it.  Most of my shelf was gone by that point anyway and I didn't feel like dealing with it anymore.