Hi everyone.  I am a new member.  I have sent out 4 books already, and have 3 more ready to go.

I have requested 3 books and have cancelled each order because I haven't gotten any response (after 48 hours) from the members I'm requesting from.  It's a little discouraging!  I mean, don't they want their credits?  Maybe I'm doing something wrong.  I request the book and then it just says 'Waiting for member' for 2-3 days.  And nothing.  No emails, no PMs, nothing.

I just want to get a book, and I can't seem to even do that.

Angela, I'm sorry the requests aren't getting accepted right away for you!  But when you request a book, the member has 5 days to respond.  If you cancel the request and then request it again, it's probably just going to the same person!  So I know it's hard, but be patient.  Most likely, the person will accept the request and send it out to you within a few days.

If they don't accept the request within the 5 days, the system will automatically take the request to the next person in line with that book on their shelf.

Hi Angela - Welcome to PBS!  Okay, so my advice to you is to never, ever cancel when you have requested a book.  There are a couple reasons.  One - the person may not check their emails daily, and therefore may just take awhile to respond to your request.  Remember, this is holiday time, so not everyone is near a computer every day.  The other reason is that if the member does not respond to your request after a certain period of time, your request will automatically go to the next person in line who has your book.  If you cancel the request yourself, and then re-request it, you are re-requesting from the same person from whom you just cancelled!  So, let the PBS system do it's thing and you'll get your book..it might just take longer than you'd like.

I guess I'm just being impatient.  :o)  I want my books!  I'll learn to wait though.

And here's some information about how the process works (from the Help Center):

• If there is another copy of the book available:
  • your request will automatically be passed along to a new sender. 
  • This will happen at the end of the 5th day  (in the middle of the night)
  • You will not get an email notifying you if this happens.
• If there is not another copy of the book available:
  • the request will be canceled
  • you will get your credit back
  • the book will go onto your Wish List automatically. 
  • You will get an email notifying you if this happens. 

And also, I just thought of something else - many times, a person might not accept the request and print the wrapper until the day they plan to mail it - so say someone gets a request Friday and doesn't plan to go to the post office until Monday, they might not even accept it until Monday.

Also letting the system time out helps weed out the non-active PBS members. Many people just abandon their account.  If book requests time-out it sends a red flag to PBS letting them know the person is not watching their account anymore.  Then they can take steps to close an inactive account and get the books out of the FIFO system.

Also, keep in mind, we don't all have a internet access at home.

So for example, if you requested a book from me on a Friday, I won't be able to respond by Monday.

Welcome to the club!