I've heard people talking about getting in trouble with PBS.  What types of things would cause this?  Do they ever kick anyone off completely? 

What might get you in trouble would be:

1. Consistently sending out books that don't meet PBS standards

2. Too many lost books (i.e marking them mailed but not sending them, or never marking books received)

3.  Not answering PMs (R&R have stated that if a member contacts you about a transaction and you ignore them they will "intervene")

4.  Posting fake books, or illegal items

5.  Cancelling a lot of requests in a short amount of time

6. Not playing nice in the forums....

That's just what I can think of off the top of my head..... and yes there have been a few folks whom after repeatedly being warned about things suddenly become......"No Longer An Account Holder" but in all the time I have been here I have never heard of someone just getting the boot without any warning.  The owners of the site are unbelievably fair and just in their handling of the site, and they literally give their members every opportunity to fix mistakes and make things right before making permanent decisions. 

7. Having more than 2 accounts in a household/address

8. Being underage. Minimum age is 18. Doesn't matter if Mom helps sign you up, and is always there when you're on.

I've seen several times when an account was marked "No Longer An Account Holder" but the person was given a second chance. I've even heard of people that were given 3rd chances!

I've even heard of people that were given 3rd chances!

Now, there's a sign of hands-on, case by case reviewing!  Good for them.

9 - Using PBS to stock your bookstore (online or B&M)!

7. Having more than 2 accounts in a household/address

so if you had 3+ people sharing a house they each couldn't have an account?  seems kinda unfair but I'm sure this is a special situation and not the norm.

Never mind because I can't read correctly! :)

Well, then never mind me, either!  lol

Also failing to respond to requests to send books but I'm not sure if this is based on a certain number of books or an amount of time. And I think your account gets closed automatically if you don't log into it for a certain number of months. I know at least one person here whose account was closed after she was in a car accident and didn't respond to books being ordered from her shelf for over a month.

I also think an account might be closed if the game moderators determined that someone wasn't "playing fair" in the game forums. But I don't know if it's ever actually happened.

One of the things that I have noticed, is that typically for a person to get kicked off, they have to be deliberately violating the rules.  I have seen people get their accounts temporarily suspended and not know why right away, but once they found out the reason and straightened out the problem they were allowed to come back.  I think it's good that R&R don't feel the need to beat people over the head with their mistakes.

Another thing that could get you in trouble is failing to follow PBS guidelines....i.e. asking money for books, trying to trade DVD's, etc.  It may not get your account shut down, but you will be suspended and hvae to contact them to get things straightened out.  (Read:  been there,done that!)  So you can get in 'trouble' for lots of things....but if you play by the rules, you should be fine.

And when in doubt, go to the Live Help and PM a Tour Guide....we're here to help answer those questions about what is okay and what is not.

>> so if you had 3+ people sharing a house they each couldn't have an account?  seems kinda unfair

Yeah, others have thought it wasn't fair, but that is the rule. Case in point, that I can remember, someone lives in the guest house on their parent's property, but they have never applied to the PO for a separate address for the guest house, hence, her mail comes to her parent's address. Mom & Dad both have an account, daughter can't.

I think too, that it's pretty hard to get your account closed permanently, they have been really good at giving extra chances and trying to help iron out misunderstandings, miscommunications, or whatevers, in the past and I think they are really sincere when they say they want the site to be built on the honesty and integrity of their members and always try to believe the best of their members until they are solidly proven wrong.

Case in point, that I can remember, someone lives in the guest house on their parent's property, but they have never applied to the PO for a separate address for the guest house, hence, her mail comes to her parent's address.

Well, now, that makes for an interesting situation.  Now, I'd assume that if my address were 1313 Mockingbird Lane 1st floor and my husband was the same, but another person's was 1313 Mockingbird Lane 2nd floor.... well, PBS SHOULD assume that these are not the same address.  Like, what if an entire apartment building joined? 

Sooo.. following that logic, if the daughter were to apply with an "apartment" number - or 1313 Mockingbird Lane, Rear - she ought to be able to have an account.  No?  It makes sense to me!  Unless PBS is looking at the same last name.  Which, I should add, is no indicator.  My husband has his last name, I have mine, my son has his and NONE of them are the same! 

If 6 people lived in a 6-plex-assuming they were seperate familys, all 6 could join, but you better make sure you put apartment mumbers on with the address. The key words are same family and same adress.  My daughter and I both belong and we live at the same address, My other daughter, who also lived at the same address, can't join....however, if she sees something she wants, she can order it through either her sister or I.

I think the PBS label printing system has to recognize your address as legitimate.  In the case of the girl who lived in her parent's backyard apartment, one of the things they could have done was:

1)she could have applied for an address at the backyard apartment

2)her parents could have combined their accounts and closed one, freeing one up for her, or

3) she could have opened up a PO box for her mail

So she wasn't completely without options.  The rule is to keep people from abusing the system, either by setting up accounts to get free credits, setting up account and abandoning them, etc.