I have a problem, which may not be that unusual, but am wondering if there is any way to turn it off in select instances.

I made a deal on the Book Bazaar with someone who was offering buy 1 get 2 free off their list. I ordered I think 18-20 items, while only legitimately requesting 6 with my credits.

Well, this person marked just one mailed and let the others lapse, which I didn't realize. I woke up this morning to find my orders for the other books are now being filled by other people! I was able to cancel two of them,  One was automatically cancelled, don't know how/why. And I have written to the two other people begging and pleading to please cancel, although I doubt that this will happen.

I certainly don't need two copies of this book if and when they show up, and don't really relish the thought of being out that many credits (these are all audiobooks at 2 credits each).

Is there any way to turn that auto request feature off in cases such as this? Had I known the original person was going to let them lapse I wouldn't have ordered them again as I wanted the 3 for 1 deal they offered. I have already written to the original person, but haven't heard back. I am sure that I will, although I don't know the logic for letting the items lapse. They appear to be a seasoned PBS'er with many items sent under their belt.

Thanks for any advice!
Melissa

Wow, what a complex situation!  I am wondering if you have any more info from the original sender as to why she didn't accept all of your requests and then box up all your books to mail at once.  That seems odd.  It's worth PMing her to find out. 

Here's something I was thinking:  Are you SURE you requested all your books from her shelf?  Sometimes people think they are getting a book from someone's shelf only to find that they accidentally requested it through the FIFO system.  That's really easy to do if you are navigating away from a person's bookshelf (which is easy to do when you are requesting multiple books). 

I don't think you'll receive 2 copies of any of the books, unless I am misunderstanding.  IF the request was originally made to the person who you did the deal with and she let it lapse, the transaction is taken away from her account page so she won't be able to send the books to you (unless she just hand writes the address or something).  The request rolled on to the next person in line, so you should only get one copy of each book.  Your only real loss should be all the freebies you wanted to get. 

If it were me, I'd investigate further with the original sender to find out what happened on her end.

Unfortunately, no.  It would be a nice addition ("Do not forward this request" option or such on the shelf).  Maybe you should submit it as a suggestion?

It sounds to me like the sender thought she only needed to mark one book sent instead of all the books she was sending to you.  The orders then went to the next in line in the FIFO.  It probably was a good idea to cancel from the next in line senders so you won't get duplicates.  The good news is you can repost doubles immediately.  :)

Hi all -- thanks for the suggestions, but now I have more problems.

One person from the two orders I wasn't able to cancel wrote and said is trying to cancel on her end so she can get her Delivery Confirmation fee back (of course!), but she has no way to cancel. She says I should still be able to see the "cancel" button on my end, but I'm not.

PLEASE --- how can I cancel these orders so these innocent senders can get their Delivery Confirmation fees back??? I feel so awful about this.

I don't have enough credits to pay back the original sender for the ones I got back from him, and then in addition to the ones that have been automatically ordered for me.

WHAT A HORRID MESS!

<<how can I cancel these orders so these innocent senders can get their Delivery Confirmation fees back>>

Melissa--

What a frustrating situation.  Unfortunately, if they've already printed the labels with DC, your only option is to use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of every PBS page and tell the site owners what has happened.  Since Bazaar deals are not official transactions, they may decline to get involved, but it is the only option you really have in this situation.

Presumably you have also already PMed the original sender to alert her to the problem too.

Unfortunately, the onus is on members to monitor and track deal transactions, since this kind of thing can happen, but that's part of the trade-off for getting deals. Good luck :-)

Cheers,

Catt

THANKS Catt & ALL others -- I will try to use the "contact us" link ...

It seems as though these additional orders happened around 3 AM, not sure of what time zone, but obviously I was asleep at that time, and being on the west coast, many east coast people were able to accept the order before I got my email this morning!

Melissa

Here are some tips and scenarios from the Help Center:

These are the possibilities:

1. You submitted one request, and the first sender did not mark the book mailed, but did mail the book.

2. You submitted one request, and the first sender canceled it by mistake, but still mailed it.

3. You submitted two requests for the book, to two different senders

Scenario #1 (the most common scenario):

• You submit a request, which goes to Sender #1

• Sender #1 does not mark the book mailed before the deadline, but still mails the book.

• Then the request cancels and gets passed to Sender #2, who also sends the book.

• You end up with two copies.

  This situation (the requestor ending up with 2 copies of the book) is part of why marking a book mailed before the deadline is such an important part of the swapping process. 

  The bottom line here: always mark your books mailed, so you don't become Sender #1!

Scenario #2:

• You submit a request, which goes to Sender #1

• Sender #1 clicks on the transaction by mistake after (or before) Mailing the book.
• When she does that, the request cancels and gets passed to Sender #2, who also sends the book.

• You end up with two copies.

In both Scenarios #1 and #2: When you receive 2 copies for a book after submitting only one request, you are not obligated to give a credit for the extra (canceled) copy.  You are obligated to mark the properly sent copy received.

• When you mark the book received from the active transaction on your En Route to Me tab on your My Account page, Sender #2 will get credit. 

• Sender #2's transaction is the only active transaction for the book on your account page.
• The transaction with Sender #1 moved into your Transaction Archive when it was canceled, as a canceled transaction.

• You are not obligated to give a second credit for a canceled copy of a book when you submitted only one request
  • You are also not obligated to send the book back (although this is a nice thing to do if the sender is a new member).
  • You are obligated to mark the book received that is on your En Route to Me tab on My Account.

• If you do wish to give credit to Sender #1, you can mark that copy of the book received from the canceled transaction:
  • Go to  your Transaction Archive:
  • place your cursor over My Account in the toolbar at the top of the site
  • Click Transaction Archive in the menu that drops down
  • you can also click the link 'Transaction Archive" from the My Account page

• Scroll down to see the canceled transaction for this book.
  • Check the sender name and Details to be sure it is the correct transaction
  • There are sometimes several canceled transactions for one title
• Click on the transaction
• The usual Book Received screens will come up from there.
• When you mark a canceled book received, the credit is taken from your account and given to that sender.

• Again,  you do not have to mark the canceled copy received.
  • If you like, you may Post the extra copy of the book into the system for others to request.

Scenario #3:  If you requested a book from one sender, and then another copy from another sender, you must mark both copies received when you get them. *see the one exception to this below

• How this happens:

  • You order a book, and then submit another order for it.
  • You re-order a book that was declared lost in the Mail, and both copies arrive
    • Because "lost" can sometimes mean "delayed en route to you", we recommend not re-requesting a Lost book until it has been Lost at PBS for 2 weeks.
    • You must mark a "lost" book received when it arrives.  To do this:
      • Go to  your Transaction Archive:
  • place your cursor over My Account in the toolbar at the top of the site
  • Click Transaction Archive in the menu that drops down
  • you can also click the link 'Transaction Archive" from the My Account page
  • Scroll down to see the Lost transaction for this book.
    • Check the sender name and Details to be sure it is the correct transaction
    • There are sometimes several canceled transactions for one title
  • Click on the transaction
  • The usual Book Received screens will come up from there.
  • When you mark the copy received, the credit is taken from your account and given to that sender.
  • You order a Wish List book, and you are offered another version from your Wish List while the first version is still en route to you:
    • This is an individual choice: members will often request the second version, because they don't have the first one yet, and they want to be sure to get at least one copy of the book
    • If you do this, you must mark both copies received when they arrive; just repost the extra copy.
  • You request a book through both Box-O-Books and using a credit.
    • In this case, of course, you must mark both transactions received.
• *If the book was mailed late and had already been declared Lost at PBS before it was mailed (and you re-requested the book and got it from someone else), this is an exception:
  • If a sender wants to mail a book that has been declared Lost at PBS already she needs to contact you with a Personal Message asking you to confirm that you still want the book from her, and
  • You would need to have confirmed that you still wanted her copy of the book in a Personal Message in reply to hers before she mailed it.
  • If a sender sends a book this late without getting confirmation from you that you have not gotten another copy in the meantime, the sender has made the mistake here; in this case,  you are not obligated to mark the lost book received nor are you obligated to return the extra copy.