I'm new to this site and recently posted some books.  The first day on, I had three books requested.  I've sent out two and have another one is pending (waiting on member reply).  I was so excited to use my 2 credits (the ones you get for listing your first 10 books) so I carefully choose my books from the posted list and requested them, but the members who posted them haven't responded.  Is this a normal problem that you send out books, but can't get books sent to you?  I've got a few really popular books that have waiting lists, but I heistiate to list them until my investment starts to pay off!

Welcome to PBS!

It could be a number of reasons.  The person may be out of town.  The account may be on the verge of going dormant.  The person may be waiting to make sure she still has the book in good condition.  The person may be waiting until the last minute because it's more convenient for them to mail at that time.  They may only have limited internet access.  And a bunch more reasons I can't think of right now.

For any swapping site, the first rule of business is patience.  Others have different schedules and can't always accept/mail right away.

This is a great site for getting books, I think you'll love it.

Welcome.

When you request a book, the member has 5 days to respond.   I don't have it in front of me, but I think you can hold your mouse over the (!) to see how much time they have left to respond.  

If they decline, (or just don't answer at all), and there is another copy in the system, it will roll over to the next sender.  And then they have 5 days to respond. 

The guidelines are 5 days to accept the request, plus 7 days to mail ( 5 to mail plus a 2 days grace period.)  It could take as long as 12 days from the time of your request until the time it is mailed, if the sender takes all of the time allowed. 

Hi Christine,

Members have 5 days to respond to a request for one of their books. Don't cancel and request the same book because the request will go to the same person and the 5 day request period will restart. The system does have controls in place to automatically roll your request to the next person who listed the book if the first person doesn't respond. If there are no other copies in the system, the book will be put on your wishlist and you'll be offered the book when it's posted again. Like any site, there are inactive members. But the site automatically handles those members as well - by removing the book from their bookshelf or putting their acount on hold.

Thank you for your responses!  You have given me some great information!  I'm feeling a bit better now and will practice more patience and trust.  Thanks again!

Another thing to keep in mind - with the Labor Day holiday, the Jewish holidays, school starting, etc. people might be a little slower to respond than usual. Hang in there and I'm sure it will work out. Welcome to PBS!

Welcome Christine.  Be sure to check out the Book Bazaar forum also.  You can find all kinds of deals there, where you can get more than 1 book per credit.  There's some ongoing threads there as well, like the wishlist multiples thread.  You can list your wishlisted books there and send them out 2 or 3 at a time, saving yourself on postage.  Happy swapping!

If you ordered really popular books with loads of copies in the system, they are more likely to time out once or twice before being accepted. Simply because they can take so long to be requested that sometimes abandon accounts collect at the top.  You can tell how many copies of a book are in the system by putting it on your reminder list. 

While what Mary said is a pain to endure, it is really good for PBS.  Members are removed based on how many times they failed to respond.

On the other side of this, it is really bad to request a book and cancel because it took too long.  We WANT those roll overs.  If you cancel and reorder the same book, you will get the same inactive member.  You just gave them extra time.  And yourself extra frustration. 

After a certain number of non-responses, the member will be put on Hold and contacted, then removed.  But we need those statistical non-responses so we can get a high enough count to flag them for removal.

Thank you for all your help, I'm learning so much!