I am new to the site and have only been able to get about half of the books I request.  Some no responses and one unable to send.  Is this typical of have I just been particularly unlucky?  

Hi Susan, I've only been around a few months but your situation seems out of the ordinary.  So far I've received every book I've requested.  That's what I like about this site.  So far I've not seen any deadbeats, unlike another swap site I belong to!

Wecome!

-Teresa

Like many other aspects of the Swap these sorts of things have an ebb and flow, where you'll have a run of bad luck for a time and then smooth sailing for others.  No responses can be the bad fortune of requesting from someone who still has an account but isn't actually an active participant.  After so many non-responses over a period of time their accounts will be closed.  If you request a book of which there are quite a few in the system, due to the FIFO (first in first out) order it's easy to run into one or two people like this.  Eventually your request will roll over to an truly active member and you'll get your book.  It's an isolated incident for me, but one book I requested had to go through 3 members before the fourth was finally an active member and I got my book.  I just had a Wish List book pop up and the member cancelled saying he didn't realize people would actually request his books right away.  It takes all kinds, and over enough time you'll run into most if not all of them.  Stick with it, though, the rough spots aren't nearly so bad and the smooth patches are well worth it. 

This happens rarely, sounds like you've just had a run of bad luck!  I want to reiterate what James is saying - I wonder if this might be the problem. Are you cancelling your book requests after a few days?  Don't do that!  The PBS system does all the work for you.  As he said, the sender has a few days to respond to your request and if they don't, the request just goes onto the next member in line with the book.  You literally just sit back and do nothing.  Sometimes, the request might go through two or even three people, but you'll get it!  You just have to be sorta patient.  It's tough to do when you are used to instant gratificaiton with books the way I was before I joined.  But it's worth it - you save a ton of money on books with this site, the trade-off being you don't get your books as quickly.

No,  I haven't been cancelling the requests, but several of the books only had one copy available.  And one that had 2 copies went through both people.   Right now I have 2 books listed as "waiting for member" for about 48 hours.   I don't hold out much hope.  So far either it seems to be accepted in the first 24 or I'm out of luck.   Thanks for responding,  I won't give up yet!

I'm having a run of bad luck right now, as well. 

I think maybe a lot of people went on vacation and forgot to put their accounts on hold. 

Last month, every book I ordered went through with no issues at all. Same for the previous 2 months since I joined.

Hopefully both our luck will change soon!

          Susan H.

I have only had it happen once for me . And I have been on here since 2007 , no complaints .

                                Dolores H.

Could it be that you are trying to get a series?  I joined here to get rid of books I had read and to find books of a series I had accidently bought books 7 of.. For 3 of the books I got rolled over to the 3 third person because the first two were the same people for each of the same books because they were getting rid of a series of books.

Just be patient and have a look in the book bazaar to see if someon has an unpostable copy of any of the books you are looking for..(if you dont mind those kind of books).  AND by them posting about it, you will know they are active..You could also put a post there saying you are looking for certain books and someone might have one.

Susan, have you checked for other versions of the book? If there's a particular ISBN you're looking for, that's one thing. But you might do a search with title and author, or check the description page to see if there are associated versions listed in green. (Like, paperback or hardback.) Some versions of a book have very few copies, but if you check another version you might find hundreds of copies.

If you request a book and it's not filled, your book will go to your wish list, so just leave it there and the next person to post that particular book will have it automatically offered to you.

As for my experience, I've only had very good success when ordering books through here.  

Welcome to PBS!

I too have been frustrated by non-responses to my book requests.  My current request is now waiting for the third member to respond.  The first one never responded, the second one said she'd send the book but never marked it mailed, and now I'm waiting for the third.  It's been over two weeks since I requested the book, and I want to read it before my book club meets!  This is the second request in a row of mine that has taken this long to process.  I don't want to try to order a different ISBN of the same book, because that's just starting over again.  I love the idea of PBS, but I have to say I've been a little disappointed.  Too often the books I want are not available, and then when they are it seems I wait forever for them.  I'm sure I've spent more money mailing books out than I've saved in getting them sent to me.  I'm hanging in there, but losing patience.

When it rains it pours.  I'm having about a 30-50% request rollover thing recently myself, but I think if you get to the point where you're requesting titles that have fewer copies in the system, that probably does something to increase your odds of requesting a book from inactive or rarely active PBS members.

I've had fairly good luck.  A few have flaked out on me.  I love it here.  Of course I read scifi/fantasy mostly and there are lots of those with quick turn-over.  I've looked at the top sellers and watched to see how fast they seem to go through the system.  There are many books with huge WL's, but they also seem to be going out pretty fast.  I get mesmerized watching "Under the hood" especially when there are about 2000 member on the site!  ;D

Ruth