I tried to find an answer to this in the Help Documents, and I'm not sure if I missed it or if there really is nothing there.

I had ordered a book recently from a member that doesn't seem too active.  He/She still hasn't responded to my request, and I was debating if I should cancel my order or not (because I've read stories about members getting burned by inactive members).

What I was wondering is this:

If I cancel the order, would I get my credit back?  This person hasn't printed out anything yet and the option to cancel is still there.

Any help would be appreciated and thanks in advance. :-)

Yes, you would get your credit back for cancelling.  However, if you do cancel and then want to order the book again the request goes back to that same inactive member.  After a few days (I forget how many), your request will roll over to the next person that's got the book and the book's removed from the inactive member's shelf.

I know it's hard but just be patient and let the system work for you.

That sounds great, and I'll do that.  I'm glad they have something in place to help all of us with this.

It gives people 5days to accept a request. By letting it time out you are helping to weed out an inactive member.  Plus, like Sarah said-if you cancel before it times out, when you reorder it'll just give the request to the same person and you'll wait even longer.

something I've always wondered....if you let a book time out does that put their whole shelf on hold or just that book?

Depends on how many times it has happened but for just one book it deletes just that book. If its a pattern the account will be held.

I'm not sure how many it takes to put an account on hold.  But it does send up a red flag and if they see some other ignored requests, WL offers or can see that they haven't logged on in a long time-they hold the account and send them an email.

Everything posted here makes a lot of sense, especially about PBS putting accounts on hold if this happens a lot or deleting the book off the shelf if the request isn't met.  A huge thanks to all of you in this thread!