I love doing the Box O Books and thrilled to be a boxer, but I honestly get tired of people who seem dishonest.

I make a point to check peoples feedback and only trade from people with good feedback. But my past few swapss have not started out that great.

One trade started near the end of June. I requested from this one person and once it was accepted I mailed the 5 books off right away. She had great feedback of maybe around 15 or so. All positive. I had requested from her some books for my 12yr old who couldn't wait to get her books. Yet it took almost 2wks for this person to mark her books mailed. This was after 2 kind reminders. I just emailed her saying something like "Please don't forget to mail your box. I mailed your off (date)." She never answered and marked hers mailed 2 days ago.

Another trade was one requested from me. Just two books. I accepted the trade and mailed mine off right away. I've heard in the past that some people wait till the "person who requested the books" mail theirs then they mail their box. But I didn't do that this time. Since we are coming up on a week now I went ahead and sent a kind reminder to the woman just to not forget to mail her books. She sent me a short quick note at: 2:07 (according to PBS) saying "Don't worry I won't forget" & at 2:08  she marked them mailed.

I checked her feedback again and now there are 3 Neutral each one complaining about late mailings. Only one was there when I accept the trade and that one was at the very bottom. One of the most recent complaints was from someone saying they marked it mailed on one day yet the post mark clearly showed it was mailed weeks later.

I'm not saying that this person is lying or anything like that, but I'm just tired of Boxers who lie about when boxes are mailed, ignore emails and some never mail books.

I'm worried about being "taken" again. I have lost maybe a total of 10 books from Box o Books. Usually have had great trades, but these two people who are late mailing and may "fudge" on when they mailed the books . . . I'm just worried again.

The Box o Books has been a huge blessing to us as a homeschooling family. Last year I was able to stock our homeschooling shelf with WONDERFUL books for our school year. Some people even threw in FREE books after finding out we were homeschoolers. I was near tears opening the boxes of books. A huge blessing!

Sorry for my vent. Just worried how these trades will go and had to vent to someone.

Well, Ashley, I feel your pain!  LOL  I have one going right now that has not marked their books mailed, yet got mine and marked them rec'd on June 26th!  The box in question was started on June 19th!  Oy!

I hate to say this, but this is one reason I don't do BoB anymore.  I got taken on a couple of boxes, too, which added to my frustration.  We have the feedback system and that's a good thing.  if you had seen the 3 new neutrals you would have made a different choice, perhaps.  Also, the HC does say that if the books aren't mailed within a week to go ahead and send a PM.  If you get no response after an additional week, let them know.  I'd start doing that if you aren't already! 

Well, the good news for me is that she got back to me and said she just forgot to mark them mailed.  Hopefully they get to me soon. 

I have mailed many of  my BoBs 5-7 days after the acceptance date. Sometimes the other member will accept right after I've made a run to the PO, so that box has to wait until the next time. I'm reading more and more of "once-a-week" mailings being discussed by members that are feeling the pinch of driving to the PO just for books.

When the other member is fortunate to be able to mail any day they want with no financial concerns, it often makes me look like I'm doing the "wait till I get their books" when I absolutely am not, I"m only waiting for the next mail date. It's possible this is happening to your box trades as well (now I will agree that 2 weeks was too long) but in the lesser cases & numbers of days, it may just be a timing issue for the sender, and really nothing personal :)  Just some thoughts to ponder.

I'm more than happy to wait if the person lets me know. Honestly that is what bugs me.

What is worst though with these current trades is how this one person told me she had mailed the box, marked it mailed THEN she gets my box today, she marks it recieved & then tells me: Your's are going out tomorrow. I'm sorry this is taking so long. 

I just paid 2wks ago for another year of the BOB's but so not very happy. ; (

This is a reason I no longer do BOB either. It just started to become a real hassle. It was great when everything went smoothly but when you have to keep contacting the member to find out when they will mail your books, it just gets to be a pain. I never minded waiting as long as the member contacted me to let me know why and when.

Exactly. I have health issues that at times keep me offline for days but I always make a point to contact people to let them know I'm not ignoring and when to expect to hear back from me.

Sadly this seems to happen mostly when it is people who request books from me, so I think I'm going to start mailing their books only after they mail mine.

I'm likely not renewing my BoB subscription when it comes up next month. Most requests I get come from people with not much on their shelf that I wish to read, but I still try to search through it for something the kids may be interested in, or a cookbook, or something that just sounds somewhat interesting.

Then, after I mail out my box, they are not be able to find a book.    "Sorry, I think it is packed in a box and I just can't find it" or "I just don't know where it is" which forces me to find something -else- I don't really want from their shelf.  Or take weeks to mail out to me w/o any response.  Seriously.  I had this one that was requested from me mid August.  I didn't get a book from them until mid OCTOBER, and it wasn't even the book I had originally requested since she couldn't find that.  She kept me updated with various excuses the first few weeks, but...

I have less than 20 completed BoBs, but the ratio of troublesome/worried swaps to good ones has been too high.  Since the books are all supposed to be on your shelf and ready to go in the first place, I really think that there should be a mailing deadline.  Not "whenever" you get around to it.  Whenever I get a BoB request lately I just kinda sigh...

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear about these troubles.  I've had very very few problem swaps.  What's more, I've found some very good PBS friends through BoB.  Only once did I not receive my box, but it had DC, and it was proven lost by the PO.  I've found that the overwhelming majority of my books have come quickly with no reminders. 

I've had 6 incomplete BOBs, totaling about 20 books, since I first joined 2 years ago and I just renewed my membership last month.  Most of them are no longer members of this site.  While those 6 transactions were frustrating, I've had so many more positive BOB transactions that it still makes it worth my while to participate.  But I did notice the increase in the delay in which the other party mailed the books.  Like one of the other posts indicated, it might have to do with the rising cost of gas.  I mail everyday but not everyone is so lucky.  Good communication is the key and then there are those few shyster boxers, LOL.    

I renewed in the past couple of months and would not consider not being a BOBer. I've met so many great people who I exchange with and trade emails with all the time. I've been stung a few times, boxes show up missing books, not mailed when they said they were, but only usually by a couple of days. I've had boxes show up with wrong books, books missing, or just not show up.  I wish everyone would DC books, so nice to see where they are in the mail chain. Interesting how fast some books get here, yet others get hung up and sit there. Overall I've have much more positive than a couple of frustrations. I have been able to get hubby some complete sets of a favorite author, and as he reads them, pass them on. I've been able to read many of the most current books soon, I've just found it great. Not to say I haven't encountered some real characters along the way, but at this point can only think of two. I refuse to let a missing book, not mailed when it was supposed to, or missing box get me down, this is a great club, great people and I'm loving it.  OK for the most part.  giggle

For the past couple of months, I've not been able to mail out immediately, but I do mail out my BoBs within the week, just like normal/credit requests. It does suck when I do get a careless/slow/not-with-the-program boxer requests, but that's very few. Maybe I've gotten a handful (5 or 6) bad trades, but that's it. Most have been really great.

I have been wanting to become a BoB member, but after reading this post, I might have to reconsider.  I have had several experiences with people like you have mentioned and don't want any more.  I mail my books as quickly as I can (Mostly in 2 days or less).  Yet many times I have had to wait a long time for mine.  I have never yet knock on wood, not received the ones I asked for.