I've just about had it with boxers disappearing after I send their books. ... suddenly these folks are no longer members and their shelves are removed....  WHAT"S UP ???      It appears I have no recourse and am out books that could have earned me credits..      The thing that really burns my  backside is that I paid $8 for the privilege !!

sorry to hear that you have been having such bad luck lately- hope it turns around soon.

I saw one boxer had a condition that s/he would not send a box until s/he received the other person's box with books in postable condtion. Granted it might cut down on offers but you might want to try that. Although I don't know what would happen if two folks with that condition decided to trade with one another.

Another option might be that you wait until the other person marks their box to you mailed before you mail yours. There aren't any deadlines with boxing (although I find most boxers usually mail similar to the regular for credit books).

I read this as boxers, as in mens underwear, being burned. HAHAHA! It was much funnier that way, haha.

That was just one of the reasons that I never renewed my boxer status--I was one of the beta testers when it first came out and never went beyond the free 6 month membership PBS gave me for testing it. I dunno if people figure because theres' no credit involved that they don't have to send postable books or follow through, or what?? I never had much in the way of problems that way, but after reading others' experiences I knew it was only a matter of time.I actually ended up putting my boxer status on hold about a month after it 'went live.' It still had some bugs at that time too and was frustrating just for the technical issues, which I think have been long sorted out. 

The main issue I had with boxing though was that I had a ton of offers but could rarely find anything I wanted on others' shelves--maybe partly it was that my books were indeed mostly books that didn't sit on my shelf long anyway, so would have been requested for a credit at any time. At that time I had about 150-200 books on my shelf most of the time and I'd get offers for 10-book trades from folks who only had 30 books and 80% of them romances, which I don't read. What was the point in participating in a program where I declined 95% of the trade offers?

Most of the books I did end up choosing from the few boxing trades I completed I lost interest in and ended up just re-listing on my shelf unread. My TBR is huge enough to be picking a bunch of books I'm only marginally interested in just for the sake of completing a trade! The books I really want are on my WL, or I order them when I need them in the case of series books that are often in the system.

Cheryl

I think I am too shy to be a boxer...and it's kinda like relationships. I'm just waiting to be approached, instead of the other way around.

Granted, I have only been a member for about a week, and have only had one offer. I was not interested in any of their books, their main genre being of no interest to me.

Am I afraid of rejection? Maybe so..although my bookshelf is relatively small, it is varied. I'm ready to give it a shot, though, and find more and more books to post.

Lisa, I hear you!  I had the exact same problem with a boxer and finally reported it to the owners.  I was told that *they* suspended the acccount of the boxer in question until they made good on all th eir outstanding box trades and *they* were going to take credits from the account and refund the people that were out books.  Maybe you want to go to the contact page and send a message through the feedback button.  That is what they told me to do next time.  This person you are having trouble with may be a repeat offender and PBS needs to be informed.

Hope this helps a little.

I went to a site and picked out a couple of books to swap  - 6 I think. When I do that does it send notice to the person I want to swap with?

I've only been "burned" once and I lost about 6 books!

This person requested them from me and I found 6 off her shelf. I let the kids do the picking since most of hers were kids books. I quickly got her out in the mail and she said she'll mail hers soon.

She marked them mailed and I waited and waited.

After about a month of so of messages and such she finally wrote back to me. I think it was me putting "I find it hard to believe that BOTH of our boxes were lost in the mail."

She told me the one she sent me came back saying it was the wrong address. I confirmed the address and she said she would mail it again. I thanked her. She still hadn't marked her box from me as recieved.

More waiting and one day it shows she is not a member of the Box o books anymore. I contact R&R yet hear nothing.

Months and months go buy and finally I get a message from her saying that she plans to rejoin in a week. No word on my box I mailed her or the box she mailed me.

Well after 6mts or so I have emailed R&R about it a few times and never heard a reply from them. She suddenly marks my box as recieved and says she is sorry she'll mail me the books.

I waited and waited and I think someone here on the boards suggest I mark mine recieved then give her negitive feedback. I did just that and finally the trade was off my list.

I have never gotten my books from her and never heard from since.

That is the only bad time I have had with BOBs. I love it.

I love it too.  I've recieved one ot two unpostables (out of 20 or so trades and 60+ books) but all in all it's been a wonderful experience.  It's nice to be able to go to the BOB area and search for book titles without using a credit since I find new stuff I want to read so often on this site!

I love BoB!  I've had many wonderful swaps and have met some great people!  I've had to "nudge" 1 person to get their books out to me (which they did), but other than that I really haven't had any problems.  I've received 2 unpostable books through the box swaps in all the time I've been boxing.  I did have 1 box enroute to me (with DC) get lost in the mail, and the person was nice enough to gift me 2 credits even though it wasn't her fault.    So overall I've really loved boxing!

It does seem to me that a fee-charging service, even a low fee, should come with some back-up and guarantee.  In normal one to one swaps you have to take the vagueries or peer to peer interaction, but these are people they have credit acrd info and a binding online agreement with.  Deadbeat boxers shouldn;t leave anyone out of pocket of their $8 is passed to the first person scammed and their account closed.

Could you explain a bit more about how you think such a guarantee could work in a fair way?

How would a person be determined to be a "deadbeat boxer"?
  (Note that it is as easy to scam by claiming non-receipt of a received box as claiming sending of an unsent box, mail does sometimes actually go missing, and a problem at a particular post office or distribution center could cause an apparent pattern of problems for a member - we had a case in Boulder many years ago where a postal carrier was caught with a garage full of undelivered mail. )  I don't think "no longer a member" is necessarily a great indicator - someone who kept getting scammed could well quit the site in disgust.

Why would only the first person deemed to be scammed be given money?

How would you define "not out of pocket"?  Some people here consider their books new and consider them quite valuable and so think they have lost a lot when a BOB box goes missing, for others it might only be valued at the cost of postage...

The system could require that some number of credits be put "in escrow" until the successful completion of each trade, but in the case of a scammer falsly claiming non-reciept, that damages the sender twice...

I saw one boxer had a condition that s/he would not send a box until s/he received the other person's box with books in postable condtion

Not only would I not trade with this person, as Cindy said, I wonder how the PBS Team would feel about this particular condition.  I could see it both ways, I suppose...on the one hand you have to agree, but on the other hand the Help Center says that if the box has not been marked mailed within a week, contact the sender.  So, really, PBS assumes books are being mailed fairly promptly. 

It's funny this should come up.  I was just pondering this whole "not mailing until they have my books" issue recently myself, as I just went through that.  I'm almost feeling like that is something worthy of mentioning in feedback.  I never have before, but  since there is no guarantee with BoB, then feedback IS what we have to make these things known.

I had a good first year with BoB, so I renewed.  This year has not been as good and I will not renew next month.  I have had a few instances of never getting my books (I don't do huge swaps, but that's still about 10 books I sent out and got nothing in return).  I have had other boxes mailed weeks after we agreed.  Sometimes they clearly waited for my books to arrive first, other times my books got there very quickly and still they waited.  I try to be patient, I really do, but there does come a point where it is clear some people are just being inconsiderate.

So, anyway, Lisa, I feel your frustration.  I don't think there is much to be done, though, other than decide if the benefits outweigh the risks for you.  With my TBR in the hundreds, I have decided they no longer do. 

Oh I'm in total agreement. When I saw the conditon, I immediately thought well there's a person I won't even offer a box too! I mean, I generally send out my box within a few days--mainly because I can only get to the post office on Saturdays. But I always stay in contact with the person and let them know if I get an offer on a Monday that the box won't go out til Saturday.  I've been fairly lucky with my boxes-I dont' know remember getting any unpostables although there were a few books that I would have classified on their last reads (and someone has to be the last read person!).

I've had pretty good luck with my BOB's.  I had one or two "slow mailers" , but I have always eventually received my books.  I had one I should have left negative feedback on, but she buddied me credits for my trouble, so I let it go.  I use DC on everything that leaves my house even if I don't always need it.  I know they can be delivered to the wrong house or still at the PO when marked delivered, but I think it deters some people from not marking them received.  I don't like the fact that a box can be complete without leaving feedback.  I think that each box should have to be marked Positive, Negative or Neutral. 

I try to be a good poster and focus on reading wished-for books on my TBR list first. Right now I'm waiting for two boxes to be marked "mailed" to me (and sent) from a March swap. We were getting ready to move and I wanted as many books as possible to come with me for the summer. So I ordered 8 boxes of books and received 6 of them. I've e-mailed the senders. People have lives and things happen. And that's the case of one of the boxers. Fine...no problem...I can e-mail her my summer address and receive the box here. The other person hasn't e-mailed me back. They've marked the box I sent as received. I'll have to check if they're still a boxer.

A smaller issue I have with boxing is the quality of my bookshelf. My inventory was always around 30 (before my summertime move). I'm pretty eclectic in my reading habits, so would order different things that sounded interesting. But then in reposting I end up with a bunch of books that nobody is wishing for. Not too many complaints, though, because I have enough credits.

Just ranting a wee bit.

I signed up to be a boxer right after I joined PBS.  I had pretty good luck with swaps.  I think I only had a couple of small swaps-one or two books each that didn't get to where they were suppose to go.  I sent my books, they got them, but I didn't et anything.  I figured when it came timeto renew, I would take a break from boxing.  I may or may not come back.  Got plenty of books now.

I have done 143 completed trades on BOB and have gotten burned once.  It was a long time ago.  I think there was one boxer that signed up, ordered a bunch of books from a lot of people and never mailed any.  R&R quickly booted them.

I did BoB for 1 year when it was first offered and was burned so many times I never bothered to pay for the service again.  It cost me too many books that I could've gotten credits for.