in the past several months I've gotten WL offers, then after I accept the book, the sender never responds and the order is cancelled.  This has happened on three different occasions, the latest being yesterday.  They'll list books, then allow it to just time out - even when I order more from their shelf.  Why would people do this?  It's quite frustrating. 

I have no idea but appreciate your frustration. My observation is since the 2/15 debacle creating different membership polite behavior has been sacrificed. Perhaps this is just another manifestation of the behavioral changes in the membership. There are so many examples of behavioral changes  since the division in membership classes.The bond of a membership sharing books was broken and it is today more like amazon/ ebay. There are sellers and buyers and the whole expectation is different.

The sad thing is that this member - who I ordered 8 books from, including the WL books - is a standard member.  So they paid for membership, listed WL books, I ordered more, and then they ignore it.  I would like to ask them why they would that.  Who would willingly give up 8 credits, especially if you paid for membership? 

Yes, I've had this happen to me more than once.  I've also have had a similar situation in which someone listed a book and I requested it the same day that they listed it.

A couple of people sent me an apology email a few days after the request timed out.  The reasons, IIRC, were for unexpected emergencies that required immediate travel out of town for a relative's illness or death.

I have started sending a PM on the last few that have timed out.  Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.

ETA:  This has happened to me long before the paid memberships began, but has probably happened more times since then.

I also send the occasional PM just before a book is to time out gently reminding the sender of the time out possibility. It usually works.

Yes, had it happen once within past few weeks, but another copy was soon posted so I got that offer.

doesn't pbs send a reminder when a request is about to time out?

Just a suggestion, someone mentioned in another thread (I think it was on SaDVD though) that it could potentially be that the book/DVD had been offered and then timed out on (or been declined by) another user (or multiple) and then "real life" problems pop up (it would progress the same if they go on hold for vacation during the process). By "real life" I don't mean that whatever issues might pop would inherently be more or less important than PBS, just that they could be distracting enough that a person could forget to check their e-mail/account. Anyway, it could tentatively be some days between them posting it and the offer that they let time out. That said, I think it takes 5 days for it to time out on the sender's end. That doesn't make it okay, but it made me feel better to think that perhaps they didn't just post it and wander off ^.^()

Renee beat me to it. I've posted books that cycled through 5-8 Wishers before being accepted--so that book you were offered could've been posted 10-16 days ago. 

I was sent notice - after days awaiting acceptance of the request- that the requested book was enroute to me.  Its a day later now, and I received a pm from the sender that the book is not enroute and won't be---- mesage to me was: "I'm not going to be able to mail this book after all. I'm really sorry for the confusion..."   

Not sure what the confusion is  :  (      

Sandra, if the transaction is still showing book enroute you need to forward that message to PBS so your place in line can be restored. If the sender marked it mailed but then reneged you're basically in limbo for the time it would take to be declared lost in the mail.  The transaction needs to be cancelled and it's up to the sender to do the right thing so you can get the next book offered. The PM is evidence that the sender isn't going to mail the book.

thank you, Linda.   I did send a message to PBS.  have not yet heard anything back, but it said up to so many hours (maybe 48?)  I forget. 

Sandra, the best thing to do is contact the sender and ask them to send a message to PBS to cancel the transaction.

It is PBS's policy, as far as I know, to cancel transactions ONLY at the request of the sender. Regardless of having PMs from the sender.

when does a request time out and stop being a request? I made a request at 4:00PM August 27 and it is still showing as a request after midnight Sep 2. There has been no response from the person I requested from. So it has been way more than 5 days.

Put your cursor over the circled ! in Status: Waiting for member and it will tell you the hour and day it rolls over. It may have already rolled over once and is now on the next member who will have 5 days. I do not believe the system notifies you if the request is not fulfilled but you can see if in your transaction archives.