This has happened to me twice in two weeks.  I don’t print the labels the second I accept the book, but I usually don’t wait until the deadline, either; I’ll print it a couple of days later.  I figure two days is long enough if they want to browse my shelf (obviously I’m wrong).  In these cases, I’ve printed the labels after the initial request (books ordered by two different people).  Just to be clear, they were not auto-requests, they were books that I had recently posted.  Both times the requestor has ordered another book AFTER I’ve printed the label - so now I have to pay twice the amount of postage. Since I use PBS postage, it would be almost $7 for both books (or, $14 for 4).  Would you accept these requests or decline them?  Or should I just wait until the very last day to print the postage and mail, which means they will be waiting a lot longer for their books.  If I order from someone, I always take time to look at their bookshelf right away, even if it’s a wish list book (guess I’m just that way).  If you’re just browsing books, isn’t it just as easy to look at someone’s shelf when you order?  The screen pops up that asks you to do so.  Just curious, do you order the book and then browse the shelf later, or look while you’re already ordering?  

I always look at their bookshelf right away. Or try to.

Well ... what might be happening is that people are waiting to see if you accept the book request before ordering more from your list.

Are you accepting the request and then printing fairly quickly?

Maybe try accepting the book order and then waiting a few days after that before you print ...

For example, I ordered 2 books form a member just a couple of days ago, but they haven;t accepted the order yet. They DO have the additional books in the series on their shelf, and if there is time after (IF) they accept the order, I may add some of them to my order. On the ohter hand, if they don't accept and my order get split up, I wouldn't even nexessarily know that my order was split up unless I happened to notice that the request dates had changed on my order page ... and then I would have to go look at new bookshelves, which I might do after the new senders accept the order ... but probably not worth my time if it is going to roll over again.

So, in other words, ordering mroe from the same bookshelf is only owrth my time if:

1. I want to ask for a deal, or
2. I know the sender is going to mail, either because they already accepted the first book request, or if I know them from trading already.

Would you accept these requests or decline them? 

Well, it is annoying ... but same difference if the same person orders them but not in time to mail together, or if 2 different people order them, either way it is 2 packages.

The only reason not to mail is to punish the person for not using PBS correctly (which in this case means in the way that saves you money).

If you haven’t actually physically mailed the first book there’s no need to pay full postage on the second even if you’ve marked the first one mailed. Print the second label without postage and if you packaged the first one and can’t open it without salvaging the label you CAN reprint that PDF label too. It doesn’t recharge you for postage if you use printable postage. Then just reweigh the books together and add whatever amount of postage is needed to bring it up to the right amount. You can use stamps, the automated postage machine or go in to the counter.

JoAnne, 

Once you've printed a shipping label using printable postage...if another book is ordered you only have to come up with the difference in postage.

Meaning if the 1st book was under 1 pound then the max postage would have been $2.75, if adding a 2nd book brought the 'package up to but not over 2 pounds the price then would be $3.27 - you would only need to add an extra $0.52 worth of self sticky stamps to the shipping label - that would be one forever stamp and perhaps two 1 cent stamps....the post office would do the same if you took in into a USPO.//but you could do the same as well at  home...two forever staps would be overkill but acceptable. 

I accept the book immediately, but don’t print the label until a few days after that, because I want them to know I’ve seen and accepted their request. I received a note from PBS telling me that because I’ve already printed the label, it will cost me another postage charge to mail the second book.  Obviously, I didn’t want to do that.

Thanks, everyone.  I’ve never encountered this before now, and twice in two weeks kind of threw me, so it didn’t even occur to me that I could reprint the first label.  I feel awfully sheepish right now!  You’ve been helpful.

I always wait to print the label the night before I'm going to mail the books. I recently had an incident where a book was ordered. I looked at the person's WL and found I had a book I hadn't posted on their list, so I posted directly to them. Unfortunately, they waited a couple of days after I posted the book to order it and I'd already sent off the first book, so it did cost me for that one, but usually it's not a problem, but I seldom use PBS postage. 

Then just reweigh the books together and add whatever amount of postage is needed to bring it up to the right amount. You can use stamps, the automated postage machine or go in to the counter.

I may be remembering this incorrectly, or misunderstood, or the US Postal employee may have been mistaken, but a few months ago I had a book package that I was concerned may not have enough postage on it.  When I said something to the postal employee, he replied "We aren't able to add more postage to a package that has prepaid postage.  If it's not enough, the shortage will be taken out of your account."

Has anyone else encountered this type of response?  In a way, it makes sense for users of stamps.com and other online postage sites, but I don't see how the USPS could find its way to my postage account here at PBS to extract less than $1 for postage.

The PO can sell you the stamps at the counter or you can use the APM to increase the postage and just stick it on the package. There is no way to add additional printed postage here at PBS though if you’ve already printed the label. Of course the PO can’t access the postage account; I don’t think they can do that for anyone. And yes you could use an endicia account & stamps.com to simply print the extra postage at home/office too. Another way would be to use a paypal printed postage label. I’ll have to look up if they allow user-entered postage amounts.

ETA - No Paypal does not.

The paypal website is PayPal.com/shipnow

You can login and set up various types of USPS postage & print a mailing label here, but it calculates postage for you and does not allow you to simply type in an amount to be purchased. As far as I know only the APM can do that. You set the package on it to start the process and then back up to the screen that allows you to enter a specific postage amount.

Val is right.  For those who don't know me, I've worked at the PO for over 30 years, and I've been a window clerk for most of the last 25.  There is a way for the PO to charge your postage account for a shortage when you use PC postage. 

I don't know how it works, but I had a customer come in last week with a letter from USPS explaining they had done just that.  It's something very new.  A lot of PC postage doesn't show the amount paid, and in that case there is no way for the retail clerk to add postage to a package.  There are varying amounts of discounts out there, depending on the volume of mail sent, and other various things, and no way for the clerk to be able to tell the amount actually paid.

I don't know how it would work here.  I'm guessing that PBS has 1 account for all the members to use.  If that is the case, then the "parent" account would be charged the shortage and it would be up to them to figure out which member needed to pay for it.  I'm pretty sure that it works in the reverse also.  If you overpay, the overage is credited to the account.

Hi Cindy,

are you saying that they can't just stick an additional stamp on it? (As long as the printed label shows how much postage you already paid?)

I've done that before, myself, as I knew how much the postage was that I already paid. Is that not allowed?

I request the book I'm looking for, then look thru the sender's list when the system prompts me by asking if I wish to order more from that person.

So, yes, I think the only way for you to prevent this is to wait til you are ready to mail to print the label.

Thanks so much for the responses.  You people are the best.

On a couple of occasions, I've printed a label for an incorrect (lesser) amount when I didn't have a good digi scale - took it to the PO to mail and they added the necessary postage.  Took them about a minute!  That was on a single book, but if I had added a book to it, that would have worked the same way...