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Help Center - How do I direct my request for a book to a specific member?

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Requests at PaperBackSwap are submitted in FIFO order, unless the button on the member's Bookshelf is used to order the book. 

To direct your request to a specific member:

  • Go to the member's Bookshelf
    • Locate the book on her Bookshelf.
    • To get to a member's Bookshelf:
      • from a forum Post or a PBS Profile: click the button
      • from a Personal Message: click her highlighted name in the To:field.  This will take you to her profile (if she has one)  or Bookshelf
  • Click the button  ON HER BOOKSHELF (and nowhere else) in order to be sure the request goes to that member.
    • Do not click the button in the "popup" information about the book that comes up when you put your cursor over the book cover image (even if you do this while on the Bookshelf page)
      • If you click the Order This Book button in the popup book information this will send the request into the general system, and it will not be submitted to that specific member whose Bookshelf you are on.
    • If you have clicked the book cover/title on the Bookshelf to read more about the book:
      • you will be on the Book Details page (which also has an "Order this Book" button on it). GO BACK to the member's Bookshelf to click the "Order this Book" button there--use your browser's "back" button.
      • Tip: Before you click the button, look at the page you are on. If "[member]'s Bookshelf" does NOT appear at the top of this page, you are ordering from the Book Details page, and your request may go to someone else.
    • You can confirm from whom you are ordering DURING the process of requesting the book:
      • by clicking "Order More Books from this member" and confirming that you are taken to the intended member's Bookshelf.  Simply complete your order from there, if it is the correct Bookshelf.  If it is not the correct Bookshelf, navigate away from the request process try again.
    • You can confirm from whom you have requested the book AFTER completing the request process:
      • by clicking   on the transaction on your account page, and seeing whose name "pops up" in the To: field of the empty PM. If it is not the intended member's name, cancel this request and try again. Don't send a Personal Message unless it is the correct sender, though--if a requestor sends a PM to a sender during the one hour "waiting period" (see below), the waiting period will be terminated, and the request will be submitted to the sender immediately.
      • You can cancel at any point up until the wrapper is printed by the sender. Once that has happened, the requestor can no longer cancel, and should not ask the sender to cancel either.