I joined PBS last Presidents? Day. How has my experience been? According to my Transaction Archive:

Of the 368 books I requested, 6 were lost in the mail. One person sent me the wrong book. I asked for no other refunds. 3 or 4 books I received were borderline iffy, but the condition of the rest were good to excellent.

Of the 417 books I sent, every single one of them made it to the right destination. I received no requests for refunds.

With a perfect record for sending, and a nearly-perfect record for receiving, I am, needless to say, a happy camper. I deserve some credit for mailing all the books properly, but PBS deserves most of it for designing such a great system. As I said earlier, I honestly don?t see how they can make it easier for you, unless they actually come to your house and wrap your packages for you.

So you won?t catch me bitching about PBS, my fellow swappers, or the U.S. Postal Service. Has your experience been as good?

As for improving PBS, I?m mainly waiting for them to allow us an unlimited number of items on our Wish Lists. They do it for DVDs, why not books? Is this ever going to happen?

Yay for PBS!!!! 

As for me in the last three years:

Requested by me:

1,082 completed successfully

6 lost in the mail (Four of these books are one transaction)

2 damaged by USPS

14 damaged by sender (believe it or not they were pretty much ALL in 2009!! It was a weird year!)

Requested from me:

1,050 completed successfuly

1 damaged by USPS

1 damaged by sender (nope!)

1 lost in the mail 

I can't say enough good stuff about PBS. My run of unpostable books this year was a very odd thing. 

Congrats on your one yar PBSiversary, Shavian! My fifth is coming up in August and I've had very similar experiences--few problems, most books getting where they should go, and an awful lot of really nice people, too. And yes, this system is really easy to use!

We used to have unlimited wishlist, a few years ago they put the cap on it. I screamed bloody murder at first, but I've adapted, and my TBR is so huge that really, the 200 is perfectly adequate for me now. I think if they ever do go back to unlimited wishlists, it will be when or if they put in the ranking system--but who knows when (or if) that is ever going to happen. Again, it's something they've talked about for ages.

Cheryl

It's my one year anniversary too!  

I've sent out 96 books with no problem transactions.  I've requested 106 books, with only a few problems - 1 ARC, 1 lost, 2 RWAP (liquid damage, with my credits promptly and politely refunded), and a few iffy books that I didn't mark RWAP but won't repost.  

My one wish would be to know my posted books' place in the FIFO line.  I really don't need to know how often each book is being requested -- I can estimate that myself.  If the books I posted a year ago are still near the end of the FIFO line, it's time for them to be donated!

I celebrated my 3rd anniversary on Saturday and I bless the day I found PBS and my reading horizons expanded wider than I ever imagined would be possible!

I have sent 2,357

I have received 1,854 (Of those, 401 were wishlisted books)

I don't have figures for lost in the mail, problem transactions, etc. but I would guess perhaps 1/2 of 1% -- so minimal that it is hardly worth talking about. If I didn't get another book sent to me, I probably have enough books in Mt. TBR to keep me going for several years! I have made friends here, I've enjoyed "talking" to other members and I look forward to logging in every day and seeing what's up on the forums.

Three cheers for PBS and all the wonderful members!

edited to add my wishlisted books received

Ahh thanks for this post, Shavian. :)

According to my TA, I've sent 99 books and received 76 but if I counted the books I've gotten from games, it would be double that.

Two books I've sent have gotten lost and I've never gotten a RWAP. I've received a few damaged books (and a few of them I noticed months after I got them so I couldn't RWAP them) but in general, my experience has been great.

I don't mind the WL capped at 200 either. IMHO, one of the most important improvements they've made since I'm a member, it's to be able to put individual books on hold on my WL. I like to control the books I got so I used to have my account on hold all the time so I didn't get that many books posted. But now, I can decide when I'm ready to get a book and be able to get books requested from my bookshelf.

I've discovered soo many new authors and made a lot of great friends...I  PBS. :)

I'll have been here 3 years in August. I have received 59 (soon 60) books. I have sent 58 books.

Of the 58 I have sent, I have never received an RWAP. The only time there was a problem was when I accidentally sent a book without enough postage. The sender was nice enough to let me know but didn't ask for reimbursement (I was so new at the time I didn't think about it either...now I would offer to send them the difference).

Of the 59 I have received only one is unpostable but that was due to damage from the USPS.
The only other issues have been from late mailings, which isn't a huge issue since I've never had to mark a book received from the Transaction Archive (almost though!). Otherwise I have nothing to complain about.

PBS is a great site that I'm glad to have found. :)