My husband's account is on hold because of excessive denials.  I've been denying them for him while he is out of town.  I get it (now) that I should have put it on hold or cleared it for him.  He was planning to close the account when he came back as his books are mostly gone and he doesn't have time for it anymore.  But he wanted to buddy his credits to my account before he closed it and I certainly want that too. 

Anyway it says to contact the PBS librarian about what we want to do.  The email won't go through so this is my method of contact to let you know what we would like to do.

Thanks, Bronwyn

Oh wow, so they are holding accounts with too many denials. How many denials does your hubby have? This is news to me. I know there was talk about it at one point, but I didn't know if they'd ever do it. I hope it works out for you.

I just found this in the help center. I'm glad I know this now.

Why use the Vacation/Hold feature?

• To prevent receiving requests for your books when you cannot respond
• To prevent receiving requests for your books when you cannot send books out for any reason
• Excessive cancellations of book requests will jeopardize PBS membership.
• The Vacation/Hold feature also puts your Wish List on Hold
  • You can keep selected items (or all items) on your Wish List active by setting them to auto-request.

Bronwyn...copy your post and send it via "Contact Us" at the bottom of any page. R&R do not always see forum postings and may not answer you posting it this way.

Thank you, Charlie!! You beat me to it!

I denied four books that were requested at one time by the same person.  Before that, before he left I think he denied 2 or maybe 3 when he tried to post a set of history books to one person on their wish list and the system sent them to different people.  He had to cancel and finally just sent them and they transferred credits to him. 

All my books at my account are regular size and can be wrapped in the club wrapper, so I just shoot them out.  But his are the big books mostly and wrapping challenges.  He did all that when he had time, but I hate struggling with it so I just denied. 

Anyway, I will try contacting R & R.  I did not realize that you could reach them personally.  I don't have a clue how to copy, but surely I can just retype it.  Thank you for the suggestion.  I really want the 12 credits my husband still has.

Good gravy Bronwyn you've sent out a lot of books.  Hopefully your activity at this site will help to persuade the powers that be to transfer those 12 credits.  They seem like reasonable folks, so I'm sure it'll all work out.

I'm a little worried now that they might take my account too.  I denied six books in one day.  I had six really nice trade size and I HATE wrapping those.  So I contacted a person that wanted them all and posted to her Wish List so I only had to wrap once.  Again the system sent them to six different people.  Again, I ended up just mailing them to her and she transferred credits.  But I have over 80 credits that I don't want to lose.  I LOVE books  --getting them and hunting for them so I can mail them.

Bronwyn, they will not completely close either one of your accounts without giving you an opportunity to talk with them via email or maybe even phone. You can use the feedback button and they will get your msg. You don't have to copy anything to them, just tell them they have permission to read your PMs and they can check what you've been doing. They will probably want you to agree to close his account or make sure you put it on hold every time he's out of town, there's no penalty for doing it frequently!

If seen and heard of other situations that were worse than yours and the member worked it out just fine. They will work with anybody as long as they can see the person really is trying. Just send a PM right away and talk to them. I'm sure it will all be ok. :)

Sherry is right, communication is the key.  I would recommend not listing any books that your don't want to send out if requested.  It isn't fair to people for the book to be available and ready to be ordered, but because of whatever reason you decide that you don't want to send it.  It is frustrating and I can understand why people who do this frequently lose their priviledges with PBS.

If you posted to their wishlist, I wonder why it went to different people. I hope things work out.

No, I don't have trade size or hardcover books sitting on my bookshelf.  I just let them pile up at home until my husband is available to wrap.  They are all Wish List books that go immediately or within a few days.  I have a pile of them now, but I won't post them until he is around.

I found the place where you can send feedback and emailed R&R.  I had looked for that before and for some reason didn't find it.  I thought that feature was lost in the reorganization and now you had to email the PBS Librarian. 

I was thinking about reasons for cancelling books.  Quite a few times I have found paperbacks that are perfect except for the cover.  For example, the cover has been bent back and has that ugly crease in it then that you can never get out. It's just not attractive.  But it's a collectible old book that's in demand.  So I post it and P.M. the person about the cover.  Almost always they want it and are glad to get it.  But I always offer to cancel on my end if they don't want it so that they don't lose their place in the Wish List line.  I'm rethinking the wisdom of posting those golden oldies.

The Wish List thing was during the last month or so when apparently other people were having the same problem posting to people's Wish Lists.  (I discovered this after the fact)  At first I thought it was just me because I am not the most able computer user.

I agree with Sherry, communicate with R&R.  Based on what they've started here I'm sure they would love any opportunity to keep you active at PBS. 

 In reference to Bronwyn's problem posting a book directly to another member's wishlist, I experienced the same thing recently when posting directly to a member's wish list.  After posting directly to her wishlist, I clicked Print Wrapper and, lo and behold, there was someone else's name and address instead of the Buddy I was supposed to be sending to.  Never had that happen before.  I was shocked!  I immediately cancelled the transaction.  Then I posted again directly to my Buddy's wishlist, and that time it was her name/address that came up on Print Wrapper.  Whew!  So ........it does happen; rarely, I hope.

If you are posting to someone's WL and you don't make sure the ISBN of the WL book matches correctly it won't go to them. If they are WL'ng an edition with a different ISBN they need to put your ISBN on their WL as well in order to post it to them.

Also, Bronwyn, the occasional cancel because someone doesn't want your particular book, by itself, would not have put you in danger, but the added cancellations just because you can't/won't wrap them is what got you into the jam. An occasional cancellation isn't going to cause a problem. I've had mixups, and discovered problem books before sending, etc, and had to cancel, but not enough to cause a problem. It's the extras you are doing that causes the problem.

some places will wrap books for you, they'll wrap anything for you.  of course you have to pay for it and that may make it too expensive for this site, but I just thought I'd throw that out here.

Just wanted to say "thank you" for all the help and suggestions here.  I was totally amazed how quickly you can get answers.  I'm going to come over here and read this stuff more often.  Very helpful.  I even got a P.M. with good wrapping tips!

I found the feedback button and that went through just fine.  Got a reply.  Though it was just to say that they couldn't close the account for me since it wasn't my account, though I'm the wife.  I see their point though.  Anyway the DH is back and he took care of it and all is well.

Thanks again, Bronwyn

Glad it all worked out in the end, Bronwyn, altho I know it was frustrating, I'm glad it had some positive results besides.

I don't like wrapping larger books either.  I always wait to list those until I have a box or padded envelope the right size.  That way, I'm not scrambling to wrap something with no packing materials.

I don't wrap any books, I buy bubble envelopes to mail y books. Walmart sells small boxes if it is for several books. I set my husband up with an account so he can keep a TBR list, but he isn't the one who will be handling it.

Edit: For some reason the last 2 pages of this thread didn't show up for me and now my advice is redundant.  Sorry.