How many people are experiencing the problem of having more than one other boxer member requesting the same title?

I've only been a PBS member for about three weeks and this is the fourth time I've been involved in a swap where this has happened. The others I caught early, but this latest one I didn't catch until I printed the wrappers out and both the members who I accepted the swap with on this book show they have already mailed my book.

I feel HORRIBLE about this! One guy who I did catch this on quite early was downright rude about it and acted as if I was making it up.

Does anyone know if there are plans to address this problem? I asked Live Help about it the second time it happened and the person I talked with said they've only had it happen twice in two years. Am I truly this unlucky that I am the oddball when it is happening to me more than once a WEEK?!

As more members join PBS I foresee this becoming even more of an issue.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Rhonda

I actually have it happen every couple months or so. Since you are fairly new it is worse, because your name is on the front page, and many boxers monitor the new boxers and try to eat them like wolves, hence you will have duplications because of the volume of boxes you are doing right now. In a week or two it will slow down to a normal box or three a week, and a lot less duplicate requests.

I just had a book requested in two boxes, AND it was credit ordered and the book has been on my shelf for nearly a year! hahahaha How's that for ganging up on a book!

Sorry the one guy was rude, maybe he's new too and just hasn't had it happen yet. There's no excuse for not realizing it can happen if he's been a boxer more than a couple weeks.

I don't believe anything has been said about any kind of a fix for this, even tho one has been asked for. I would wish for a book to be indicated when it is already part of another trade, they could add it, but it would be with the knowledge that if the other box goes thru, they won't be getting the book.

I don't believe it will become a bigger problem than it is, as I say, it really is only during the early weeks that you have a huge problem with it, and after that it calms down, and after it happens to you once, you learn to expect it from others in future boxes. So, it really isn't has horrible as it sounds. Just a bit more frustrating in the beginning :)

Oh, and welcome to Boxing, I'll have to go check your shelf out. I'm not one of the wolves that gangs up on the new Boxers, so I sometimes miss out on the "goodies" hahahahaha

You ordered the same book from more than one person, or they ordered the same book from you? Because a book from your shelf cannot end up in two finalized boxes. Once one box in accepted by both sides of one BoB, it will be removed from any other unaccepted box. If someone is mailing the books to you before both sides of the box is accepted, it is their error, not yours. Ignore the rude ones, most people around here are not that way. 

Thanks for the posts. I have quickly learned that once both parties accept a boxer swap the book becomes unavailable. However, if one member of the swap doesn't check back often (I do right now because I'm soooo addicted to this place!!) then the book can be requested by someone else.

I've caught the others but yesterday I screwed up and didn't watch them as closely because I'm sick and my brain isn't as sharp as it normally is. And, my books are downstairs so I didn't get my sick butt out of bed to go separate them out like I normally do. Moral of the story...it really doesn't pay to be sick! :-)

It would be nice if there was a flag or SOME type of identification mark on books that have been requested but NOT accepted for boxer swaps. That way people would know up front that there is a possibility that they may not get the book. And, as a new boxer, this isn't something I was made aware could happen so I wasn't watching for it. Maybe I just missed something that is already listed somewhere on the site.

LOL And, I know all about the wolves. How sad, I became one fairly quickly. :-) My name is long gone from that list but I'm still busy as a bee with boxing requests. But, as soon as my husband realizes how much I'm paying in postage each week he's going to hit the roof. LOL That's why I have a stack of book accumulating for him too. So I can point out it isn't ALL for me. :-)

Rhonda

It would be nice if there was a flag or SOME type of identification mark on books that have been requested but NOT accepted for boxer swaps. That way people would know up front that there is a possibility that they may not get the book.

But they (should) already know that.  Until both sides accept the trade, the book is available to be requested in other trades, or for a credit. 

The technique I usually use to avoid trouble is to physically put together the requested books for a trade before pressing accept. 

My question is, are new boxers made aware of this glitch when they become boxers? I became a boxer about three weeks ago and had no clue to watch for this. If I had been forewarned then maybe it wouldn't have frustrated me quite as much. Then again, maybe there was something and I missed it. Not sure which happened.

Rhonda

Well, if by glitch you mean you hit some PBS bug that allowed the same book to stay in two boxes after it was accepted for one of them, I don't think there would be any notification of that.  Until it was reported, the site wouldn't be aware of the bug, and once reported bugs are usually fixed quickly.  But they generally aren't announced in any official way.

If you mean the behavior that books remain on your shelf until the trade is accepted on both sides and automatically removed from any other pending offers when a trade containing them is accepted (or the book is requested for a credit), that isn't a glitch, it is expected behavior.

The help center does have a BOB tutorial (help center / Getting and Sending Books at PBS / Box of Books Swapping)  which does include this information:

Rhonda-  the tutorial for BoB and the Help doc on when a book is removed from your shelf do state that the books will remain on your shelf, available to other boxers and orders until both Boxers accept a request.

It will be very frustrating at first with a lot of boxing requests, but after a while you will see why this is like this. As you go along you will not be accepting as many of your boxing requests. I went from all to about 50% after the first month. (I have put my BoB on hold for now, couldn't keep up with all the mailing for both orders and boxers). I really wouldn't have wanted books to be removed from other offers just because I had been offered a box with someone I wasn't going to trade with. 

Thanks for pointing that out to me in the tutorial. Believe it or not, I did actually do the tutorial. Obviously my brain was on overload or something at that time. :-)

I don't want books to be removed, but it would be nice to have a flag or something like that to distinguish that that particular title has actually been requested.

Thanks again!

Rhonda