I have ordered a book that has hundreds in the system, and there has been no response from the member and I assume they are inactive.  I would love to cancel the order and not wait the whole 48hr but there is no way to do this without if going back to the same person right?  I tried ordering the book again, planning to go back and cancel the 1st order but the system won't let mw do that.  I know I am just being impatient but I was wondering if there is another way around this person clogging up the system. 

No, there is no way around waiting for FIFO...unless you go to the Bazaar and post a notice.  And who is to say that this person is inactive, just because they don't accept the request in a few minutes/hours does not mean they are inactive...many times I wait until the last day to accept so that I have longer to mail.

It's actually 5 days and the times outs help weed out inactive members. So you are helping PBS by waiting.  And it doesn't mean they are inactive. Many people wait the full 5 days to accept.  So you are making an assumption about this person just because they didn't immediately accept.

BTW it is 5 days, not 48 hours for a member to accept a request. Many members do not respond immediately since most are not on the site every day and know that they are given 5 days to respond. If you need the book that quickly, you should post in the Bazaar asking if anyone has it and can respond and mail quickly, or PBS might not be the best source.

No, there's no way around it, Margaret. If you cancel the transaction, the request will go to the same member and you'll have to start waiting from day one.

As Mary and Melanie mentioned, each member has 5 days to accept not 48 hrs. so if you haven't even waited 2 days, then there's a chance that this member is active and just haven't had time to accept the request. The only way to know is to wait it out. And if the member is inactive and they have missed several requests, this will help the PBS Team to weed them out.

Weeelllll....

You can request a different format / edition of the book if it is available in more than one ISBN. No guarantees that that person will be any faster, though.

But other than that, you can't skip FIFO for a book of the same ISBN.

What they said.  But don't give up hope yet. 

I had a recent book request, so I went to my box of posted books and pulled it out to double check condition before accepting.  And managed to misplace the book before I got to the computer.  Spent two more days looking for it *I feel so ditzy* and finally located the silly thing.  Was finally able to accept the request (several days later than planned) and will be mailing later today.

Thanks for all the replies.  I did know it is 5 days, I just misspoke, and the 5 days are up tonight – and it makes me feel better to think that this might flush the person out if they are inactive.  I DID admit that I knew I was being impatient,  I just wanted to know if there was something I wasn’t thinking of, like ordering the other format as Sara P. suggested, thank you Sara P.  And I have used the Bazar when I was in a real hurry - that can work great.  It is just that there are so many copies of this book in the system that someone is going to shocked and happy that their copy moves – and I hate I am wasting 5 days on that.  It’s not like I don’t have plenty in my TBR to keep me busy right now.

Probably part of the reason there are so many inactive members are because they post primarily those types of super-popular books, with hundreds in the system already when they post it. They get impatient waiting for someone to request a book so they can earn a credit to spend but it doesn't happen and doesn't happen...you can't blame people for not sticking around, really. Not everyone reads the forums and finds interesting ideas for getting some action on their bookshelf.

It would sure be nice if they would delete their bookshelves and wishlists before they decide to go away, but I think most of them tend to 'drift' away gradually rather than make an active decision about it--otherwise they could just have PBS close down their accounts.

Anyway, yes...PBS will teach you patience if nothing else! :)

Cheryl

You could go to the forum and see if an active member has the book on their shelf.  Then you could go straight to their shelf and order it.

Kellie

I have this situation now, a book that I requested timed out on the first person, and is now on the second person. When I click to "order more books from member", it says the member has no books listed in the system, no wish list books, etc. Looks like an inactive person. Why would the FIFO go to them with no books listed?

I actually came to the forum today to ask this question.

Oh-- since December I have tried to order 3 books that all had hundreds of copies posted, but they each went thru at least 3 people before my offer got accepted!  The 1 I wanted desperately to send to my daughter to help her with a work problem, took almost a month and got thru 5 people with no acceptances. By then I came to this forum and complained and someone who read my post had it on their shelf and friended it to me. I friended them back a credit so we bypassed the FifO system I know, but the "system" was broken for that book!  Seems we have too many people who post books and after a year disappear!

If you want to order a book that you know has many copies posted, here's one way to get around the FIFO list: go to Community / Box-O-Books. Search for the book there to see a list of the nicknames of the people who have it on their shelves. Open a new window and go to Community / Member Directory. Search by nickname and order directly from that person's shelf. Occasionally you'll find someone who has their bookshelf set to private, so then you just move on to the next person on the list. Assuming Boxers are less likely to be inactive than the general membership, you should have a better chance of getting the book on the first try.

Wow! I never realized you could put in a title under BOB and it would take you to those people who had it on their shelf.  I was a boxer for a year and never knew that. I probably would have used it much more if I had known.  Thanks Cathy.

Cathy, that is a great tip that I am going to use! I too have been in the situation where I am ordering a book with hundreds in the system, and go through 4 or 5 members, which quickly adds up to be weeks, before someone accepts it and by that time I am so frustrated that I start to wonder why I ever even wanted the darn book!!! Thanks so much for posting this work-around!!!

It didn't put a book to FIFO to someone with no books posted. They had that 1 book left and you ordered it.  The timeouts do help get rid of inactive accounts.  I don't order many heavily posted books anymore because I find my library usually has them.  But when I did and it went through 2 people, then I would start looking for either a different edition, boxer shelves or asking in the genre forum.  I figured I did my part to help by letting a couple time out already. 

There are lots of members who keep very small WL and Bookshelves. You can't always go by bookshelf to tell if they're inactive.  If they only post WL books then it might look inactive simply because everything post is ordered quickly.  If they're someone who buys credits and doesn't send out books then they might not have any posted. I know of a couple of members who buy credits and never send books out-either they keep everything they read or they're lives just don't cooperate with posting, wrapping and mailing books.

Charles, I had that exact same situation once, I ordered a book and the other person had nothing else on their shelf, no WL, etc.  I was sure I wasn't going to get the book, but it arrived just fine--so it's possible!

Diane

Great BOB tip!

BTW - I did get my book, it went to the 2nd person and she was super quick - so it all evens out I guess!

Searching BoB is also a good way to find people with multiple books in a series. Just search by author instead of title.