Why is there both 2 day and 5 day mailing options?  What is this point? Do rquesters get to decline if it will take 5 days? If not, why have a 2 day options?

We hear in the threads of requestors cancelling orders cause the sender has marked the 5 day mailing option. 

It's really irritating as some of us just mark the furthest day (5 day option) so that if life happens and you don't make it to PO  in 2 days, you don't miss the mail by date.  I almost always mail in 2-3 days, but have recently made it a habit to select the 5 day option.  I try to make just one run a week to the PO (cause nearest one is  out of the way, 8 miles away in the countryside village we share a zip code with) so marking the 5 day option gives me the chance to get another order sent out at the same time.

We hear in the threads of requestors cancelling orders cause the sender has marked the 5 day mailing option. 

I don't actually think that is true, as canceling an order just puts the sender you don't want, back in the #1 spot in the sending line. And you cannot order a second copy of the same ISBN before the first one is marked mailed.

The only way that someone could cancel an order is if multiple ISBNs are available of the same title and the book requestor ordered a different ISBN and then canceled the first order.

Which, only an idiot would do, as they then would have to wait some unknown number of days for the next sender to respond, when they had a perfectly good sender the first time who already said they were going to mail it.

I think this is one of those things that happened to someone once, and then the story lives on in infamy.

I only mail once a week, so completely irrelevant when the order comes in, sometimes books get mailed same day, and sometimes 7 days later, just depends on how quick the order comes in relative to my mailing day. I've never had a book order canceled becuase I hit 5 days to mail (and I often wait a day or 2 before I even hit 5 days to mail).

I never thought about the 2 button options though ... you are right, it's all the same difference and PBS ought to just get rid of the 2 day option as they give you 7 days to mail before they cancel the order, no matter which button you click.

Easy enough to prevent casual cancelation by immediately printing the label - even if you don't print it and just download the image.

Not everything takes 5 days to mail.

I logged on to my e-mail a few minutes ago and saw a book on my WL was accepted. That PBS e-mail was time-stamped at 12:20 pm today. The next message, time stamped 12:24 pm, stated the books was mailed. Wow!  The member who mailed the book should get a job wrapping for Amazon. Compared to this member, Amazon's emphasis on speed is verrrry slooooooooow.

It takes me longer than that to print off the mailing label. Of course, I keep my printer turned off until I need it, but still...... 

Actually, I wonder not only if the book is even wrapped yet, but if the member has even printed off the label.  Can you mark something mailed if you haven't printed off the label?

@Thomas - no, you cannot mark it mailed until the label is printed. Your sender may be like me. I wrap books just before I'm going out to mail them, so I first collect up the books I'm sending and verify their condition, then I print labels and mark mailed all at once. Then I wrap and drop in the blue box within the next 5 to 10 minutes after that.

Thomas, if you have auto-accept on your WL, what is likely is that the sender was looking to get a credit quickly, and posted the book they had to someone with aito-accept turned on so that they could offer the book and print the label with PBS postage (instant credit) all within minutes.

I've done that a time or 2 when I needed creidts immediately.

I have had situations where a request has taken 9 days to mail. I guess they let 4 days do by and then got another 5 days until they had to mail. I don't usually wait that long. If a request goes 3 or 4 days with no action of any kind on the other end I cancel on my end. If you are going to wait 7 days before mailing at least have the decency to send a message to let me know what is happening.

I received two very nice books today, which the PBS site has "mailed on 9 April."   However, the date on the label was 20 April.

of course, this thread has jinxed me. A book request I made  for 2 in a series on 20 April was finally accepted 1 hour before the '5 day rule' was set to expire. Now I'm waiting hoping they mail on time...... sender hasn't even printed the label yet.

LOL, Jeanne.  I have a vision of this person reading like mad to finish by mailing deadline!

Haha, Anna.  I never post any book til I’m done!

I choose the five day option automatically too.  I usually mail the next day but there can be exceptions with weather, illness, etc.  Also, gives me more time to remember to mark books mailed especially since there are frequently issues with the site.

Anna, there was a post a few years ago where the sender posted the book and then told the receiver that they still needed to finish the book before they sent it. Then several years ago someone posted some books and told the receivers that they needed to send the book back once they finished reading it. The person actually thought that PBS meant that you just loaned the books out and then got them back.

I have had people cancel after I accept the request but before I print. (I don't print til I'm ready to pack. I know I can but it helps me remember I haven't if the mail button isn't available).   I don't know if they changed their mind, were impatient, had sudden WL influx, or what.   Hopefully they spent a credit on something else and kept it moving.   I think usually whatever they requested gets requested sometime after so it's just a delay to me.

When I first joined PBS I used the 2 day option. At that time our near-by grocery store had a 'mini-post office' and I only lived a few blocks away so it wasn't a problem. Then something happened and either I had computer problems or PBS was down and I couldn't mark the books mailed in the 2 day window (and then eventually the PO closed the 'mini PO', so I started automatically using the 5 day mail option, even though I mail twice a week. This gives me some breathing room in case 'life happens'. Pat

I choose five days to mail just in case something comes up after I accept someone's request. I usually get books wrapped and mailed in two days, but I have to hit the post office window on my lunch hour, or on Saturday the window is open from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. 

When I first joined PBS, I was an overachiever and always marked the 2-day option. Then, I realized that it really didn't matter. I usually mail books within two to four days depending on how my week is going. I drive right by a post office on my way home from work. I also use the PBS postage option sometimes, but the fee does add up. 

So far (knock on wood), no one has cancelled a request because of my mailing schedule. Actually, no one has cancelled a request at all. 

I've had books arrive in two days, which is amazingly fast to me. I've also had books arrive a week after the sender says it's been mailed. I don't usually fret over such things.

I just had to contact Amazon because it's been almost two weeks since a used book was mailed. That's unusual also. The chat person (or was it a robot?) offered to re-send a new book at the same price. I'm happy with that.

I also pick the 5 day option. I go by the PO every day I work or seeing as I use the preopaid postage I just drop it in the blue box at work on my way inside. Simple!