I received a RWAP with a loose page and some water damage on 7/10.  A few days after I submitted the RWAP, I checked and noticed that their shelf is on hold.  So I am curious, how long is long enough, when the sender appears to be away, to wait before marking it as Unresolved?

I'm trying to be a tad extra patient as DC for the book had it delivered on the 2nd, but due to the fact it was left at the office, 4th of july weekend, some major work schedule upheaval, business trip, etc, it took nearly a week to "mesh" schedules enough that we weren't showing up at the front office at 6pm (closing time) in order to retrieve the book. 

FWIW, while the copy I received was readable, yet not in postable condition, I had forgotten to remove it off of my WL and I have another copy on the way.  At least this new copy I won't have to worry about losing a page...

Generally you should give people about a week to respond to a PM. In vacation season, it might be nice to send a 2nd PM after the first week, and see if you get a response to that one. If you don't, then you can report the transaction as Unresolved, and you may want to report the other member to PBS, for refusing to respond to PMs.

Having a shelf on Hold doesn't automatically mean that they aren't logging into the site. They could just not want to mail out books for a while.

If you simply do nothing, the swap shows up on the Transaction Archive as still being unresolved, I think.  This bit is from the Help Docs:

Before submitting follow-up on a problem swap:

• You must have sent a PM to the sender, clearly asking for a response (and a credit refund if that is desired)
  • You can send the PM during the process of marking the book received, OR using the PM button on the swap in your transaction archive as described in How do I contact another member?.
• You should allow the sender a week at least to respond to your PM and resolve the swap.
• You should check the member's bookshelf (by clicking his or her highlighted name on the swap, which will take you to his or her bookshelf or profile, where you can click the Books button) to see if his or her account is on vacation.  If the account continues to be on vacation for more than a week, you can contact us to find out when you might expect a response from the requestor.

So if their account has been held for at least a week, I would contact PBS just to see if they have an ending date on their hold so you would know when they might respond.

Cheryl

You might also check their profile; as Sara pointed out, just because the account is on hold doesn't really mean they're on "vacation".  Mine's on hold and I've got an explanation in my profile.

I wouldn't ask PBS for personal info like the end of hold date; just follow the Help Center instructions.  If folks really go to Tahiti for a month and don't let senders know, they'll have to deal with that when they get back.

Cheers,

Catt