I don't know if it the holiday season to blame, but, I'm having a bad run with PBS right now.

*I ordered a book, the member accepted, I assume they never marked it mailed, because it moved on to another member, they didn't respond and it timed out, I am now into the second day of waiting for the third person to respond. More frustrating becasue it is only a mass market paperback, with many copie sin the system.

* I ordered another book, first member "timed out" , second member replied, 5 days later and book still isn't marked mailed

*I posted a wishlisted book, 5 days later it is still not requested - waiting for the third (or fourth) member to accept or decline.

*Today someone requested one of my books, I accepted the request and had it mailed within two hours (it just worjed out that way) - why can't I order from someone with that type or response ;-)

I just needed to vent.

I completely relate to your frustration. :-) If I currently had anything on your WL, I'd be happy to mail it out to you immediately. I always use postage and DC from PBS and mail the same day in most situations.

I hope your luck improves!

I know it's frustrating!  Especially this time of year when people are on vacation and/or away from the computer.  Hopefully you'll get your books soon!

It is frustrating!!   I posted 2 WL books about a week ago and 1 finally got ordered yesterday from the fourth person to get it and the other is rolling over to its fourth person in a couple hours.   Four must be my lucky number..LOL

Me too!  I have had several deals never show up and have not been able to get the people to answer PM's.  I want to order books from someone else but want to wait a while longer if the person really mailed them in case they still show up.  I PM'd and asked them very nicely if the books were returned to them or still out in the postal abyss or if some other problem occurred and explained that I still wanted the books but didn't want to order again from someone else BLAHBLAH.  But have not received a response.  Oh well thanks for the vent.

I'm mailing tomorrow, unfortunately don't have any of your wishlisted books either 

Hope your luck improves soon!!

Yeah, it seems to run in streaks. First there will be a couple of weeks where every wishlisted book I post is on auto request or the person accepts within just a few hours. Then there will be a run where every WL book I post cycles through a few people to find one who really wants it. I don't request a lot of books out of the 'existing stock' these days, just the occasional series mystery where I need the next one, and almost inevitably will end up waiting through 2 or 3 people to find a copy that's actually available and gets sent.

What I've been having a run on lately is people who post a wishlisted book (my account is all autorequest) and then it either times out or they cancel the order just before timing out. These are almost all new people who post books before reading how the site works and what they need to do, I think. None of them have profiles and all the books on their shelves were posted within the last few days. *sigh*

I know that PBS is supposedly putting accounts on hold (and thus removing their shelves from circulation) if a person doesn't respond to so many requests, but it doesn't really seem like the number of inactive accounts has diminished much--of course, the PBS membership has grown too, so I suppose the number of people who abandon accounts or just lose interest increases exponentially too.

One thing PBS does is teach you patience! LOL

Cheryl

I really wish they would put some sort of log in requirement to keep your account open.  I mean it wouldn't be hard to log in once a month for 2 mintues even for someone with limited computer access.  Even if you had no transactions to deal with-just log in and out as a simple-I still want this account.  It might even inspire some people to come and spend some credits if they haven't been doing much with their PBS account lately.  Any accounts that were intentionally put on vacation by their owners could be exempt. So people who are on long vacations or in the middle of long moves wouldn't have to worry.   But it sure would remove a lot of dead accounts freeing up a lot of WL and FIFO slots.  A form email could be sent out a few months ahead of time to warn people that this might happen.  Anyone who wants to preserve their credits but just hasn't had many transactions could just log in and then log out once a month.

My daughter has free kids gaming sites she uses and if she doesn't log in after a certain amoutn of time they just close her account.  I don't see why PBS couldn't do that and just keep any credits that they had in reserve in case the person comes back.  A form email could be sent saying the credits will be held for x # of months if they want to reopen the account. 

I'm frustrated, too.  I have a boxobooks deal that I sent out six weeks ago, and still haven't received.  After my books were received, the person gave excuses/reasons why she hadn't shipped yet, promised to ship Monday, and then marked them shipped during the weekend.  Two weeks later, no books, sent PM just to check status. TWO WEEKS later I get  PM with more blah blah, and promise to ship.  If I didn't want those books so badly, I'd just say "screw it".

If I didn't want those books so badly, I'd just say "screw it".

Seems to me you are getting screwed.   I will be v. surprised if you ever get those books, but maybe that other person will actually follow through.

I think Mary has a great suggestion to send in a Feedback to the PBS team. There are way too many inactive accounts still on board.

All my posted WL books have been cycling through several responders (non-responders, lol?). I figured maybe people had spent their credits before the holidays...or just haven't gotten their act together with PBS again after the holidays. I think a lot of people had their shelves on hold during the holidays because mine stayed really busy, and I don't think my books got "more exciting" than they had been.

I believe after a couple unanswered requests (WL or to send) a shelf is put on hold.   So when you are watching a book just sit there--know you are helping clean the library!

I am in the same boat.  I ordered a book thru FIFO and it's about to time out on the second person.  Now I've waited almost 10 days for the request to get accepted. 

If anyone has "No Second Chance" by Harlan Coben (paperback) I'll order it directly from your shelf!  I don't care about the ISBN as long as it's a paperback.

Update:  The third person accepted quickly and the book is on its way!  Yay!

I am glad I have a healthy TBR pile. I need it in times like this. I too typically experience a series of unfortunate "Timed Outs," but the older I get on PBS, the more patient I become. The other option is to get frustrated and angry and well, that'sdoesn't help.