PBS: the saga
Oct. 6th, 2017 08:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyBecause at some point I might want to be able to look back and find all my PBS drama-llama stuff in one spot, I present to you the tale of Angela B, pain in my ass.
After getting yet another one of these:
We're sorry, but the book you requested on 9/30/2017 'Addys Short Story Collection (American Girls Collection (Hardcover))' by Connie Porter cannot be mailed at this time.
The member from whom this book was ordered had this to say...
I'm sorry, I just mailed 26 books and ran out of postage funds right now. I will repost when I am able to send the book again.
I got ticked and reported her to PBS. Again. Like I said yesterday. I also sent her a note telling her I was doing so (without mentioning that I'd done so last time she pulled this stunt because clearly it did no good) and she replied with a novel length response.
"I'm sorry you haven't received this book yet. We are on a budget and love using PBS, but need to make it work with limited funds. We just don't have unlimited funds to mail books. Though we would love to get rid of all the books that we have, it isn't feasible for us to spend more than we have in doing so. I mail the bulk orders I get first, to get more books out. Then I mail as many others as I can. This time I mailed out 26 books and spent $60. I put my PBS account on hold inbetween mailings, so that I don't get orders when I don't have funds. However, this also means that I get a ton of orders when I turn it off. I don't know how much other people would spend on something like this, but for us that is quite a lot of money and used all the funds we had available for it. I understand that it would be frustrating and I hope you get your book soon, but I don't think that I am breaking any rules and know that I don't have any rude intent to you or anybody else in PBS. Hopefully in the future I can accept your book request and mail it out to you... or you get it from somebody else even sooner!"
First of all, it's not MY fault you keep listing far too many books to possibly mail out at once. If it's just hitting the vacation on/off button over on the site, maybe prune your bookshelf before or right after so this doesn't keep happening? But no, that would imply you gave a damn. Also, telling me that you're sending the bulk orders out first and shafting anyone who doesn't order more than one book from you at a time is not helping your cause. Just... not. I think I'd respect her more if she said, "Oh, I'm so and so from whatever board and I just hate you so I'm going to keep this up until someone else puts that/those books in the system and my little game is over." Seriously, if this was some weird petty powerplay, I'd be fine with that. But her just being so oblivious is most vexing indeed.
So. I bite back the "that sounds like your problem, not mine, honey" and settled for telling her that if this keeps happening, maybe she shouldn't list so many books at once. And also that she should probably make a note of which people she's let down so she can bump them to the top of her next book dump. I mean, it stands to reason that someone who's been to this stupid rodeo before should get to cut in line.
Her reply:
FYI: When PBS sends out book requests, you can't see who is requesting it. So, as far as I know, there is no way to know from the sender's side who I've "let down".
Uh, FYI, there totally is, Princess. You go to your transaction archive and you look for the little red Xs. Make note of those people (seriously, ctrl f is what made me realize I'd been through this shit six times already) and cross check the next time you go on a book binge. It's not that difficult. Since this is the sixth goddamn time she's done this, obviously she's been letting other people down too and while I would hope I'm the only dumbass who keeps getting caught up in this repeatedly, I wouldn't bet on it. Pretty sure one of the rules is don't post what you can't send.
Anyway, I shortened that to basically being helpful because MAYBE she really didn't know you could look up the archive and see all the transactions, cancelled or otherwise. I was trying to be nice...
In return:
Yes, but when I get the new request, there is no way that I know of to know who that request is from.
OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE. No. There is no way to know when you hit the "yes, I can totally send this book!" button but the moment you do and you pick the time you can send it by, you can then go and see who it is. It'd be so much easier if PBS let you block people but they don't and so you work around. So if you're a person who just has no concept of other people's feelings, you could at least pretend and keep that list I mentioned and just cross reference it every once in awhile. It's not that difficult.
But no. No, you are being willfully obtuse so I wash my hands of you. Originally I was going to reply without the profanity of course but at this point why bother? I've long since given up on Angela B ever sending me any book we have in common, to the point that literally every time I get a "congrats, this book is available!" alert, I pray it's not her. I do wish PBS would let you know who was offering a book before making you accept or deny the book because I've had to buy credits at least three times for her to not send me my book but they don't, so I continue my little ritual. She doesn't get it, she won't get it, and I really wish they'd do something about her because she doesn't get what she's done wrong. I feel bad when I have to say, "sorry, can't mail" because it doesn't meet someone's conditions but she's over there just saying she'll send all the books knowing full well she can't. There's got to be somewhere in the middle.
Still, in closing may I present to you all her excuses:
For Kirsten's book back in August of last year:
I posted a bunch of books and then found that I had over 70 requests! Unfortunately, I cannot afford to send them all. I sent as many as I could (over 30 books) until I ran out of funds, but will have to cancel this request. You will not lose your place in line. I will repost it when I have more funds for shipping. Sorry!
For Addy's last November:
I'm sorry I can't mail this book right now. I had over 60 book requests and used up my postage funds sending more than 35 books. You won't lose your place in line.
Addy's in Feb this year:
Sorry, we ran out of funds in our mailing budget after mailing 15 books. Maybe next time.
Addy's in May this year:
I'm sorry, I had 34 book requests. I was able to send out over 20 of them, but then ran out of postage budget. Maybe next time
If you're counting and not getting to six, the second time for Kirsten's book was simply a time ran out: The sender did not mail the book within the allotted time and the request has been canceled.
The only good thing about this is that it gave me something to focus my annoyance on yesterday rather than my period from hell. Seriously got maybe two hours of sleep yesterday and that's if you stitched fifteen minutes here and there together.
eta: Around 6pm Oct 6th, I got this message from PBS:
Thanks for writing in about this. We discussed this with Angela, who otherwise is a really good sender, and had no idea that she had declined this request from the same person multiple times.
We gave her a suggestion about how to avoid declining a book again and again (we told her that she should apply a Book Note to a book if she has to decline it; then she'll see the Book Note on the book cover image on a request and know she's declined before), and we hope it helps!
Seriously. Was I the ONLY person she screwed over and over or the only one who bothered to complain? Because by her own admission, she's flaked out on other people and yet she's still "a really good member." I liked you better when you were free, PBS.
After getting yet another one of these:
We're sorry, but the book you requested on 9/30/2017 'Addys Short Story Collection (American Girls Collection (Hardcover))' by Connie Porter cannot be mailed at this time.
The member from whom this book was ordered had this to say...
I'm sorry, I just mailed 26 books and ran out of postage funds right now. I will repost when I am able to send the book again.
I got ticked and reported her to PBS. Again. Like I said yesterday. I also sent her a note telling her I was doing so (without mentioning that I'd done so last time she pulled this stunt because clearly it did no good) and she replied with a novel length response.
"I'm sorry you haven't received this book yet. We are on a budget and love using PBS, but need to make it work with limited funds. We just don't have unlimited funds to mail books. Though we would love to get rid of all the books that we have, it isn't feasible for us to spend more than we have in doing so. I mail the bulk orders I get first, to get more books out. Then I mail as many others as I can. This time I mailed out 26 books and spent $60. I put my PBS account on hold inbetween mailings, so that I don't get orders when I don't have funds. However, this also means that I get a ton of orders when I turn it off. I don't know how much other people would spend on something like this, but for us that is quite a lot of money and used all the funds we had available for it. I understand that it would be frustrating and I hope you get your book soon, but I don't think that I am breaking any rules and know that I don't have any rude intent to you or anybody else in PBS. Hopefully in the future I can accept your book request and mail it out to you... or you get it from somebody else even sooner!"
First of all, it's not MY fault you keep listing far too many books to possibly mail out at once. If it's just hitting the vacation on/off button over on the site, maybe prune your bookshelf before or right after so this doesn't keep happening? But no, that would imply you gave a damn. Also, telling me that you're sending the bulk orders out first and shafting anyone who doesn't order more than one book from you at a time is not helping your cause. Just... not. I think I'd respect her more if she said, "Oh, I'm so and so from whatever board and I just hate you so I'm going to keep this up until someone else puts that/those books in the system and my little game is over." Seriously, if this was some weird petty powerplay, I'd be fine with that. But her just being so oblivious is most vexing indeed.
So. I bite back the "that sounds like your problem, not mine, honey" and settled for telling her that if this keeps happening, maybe she shouldn't list so many books at once. And also that she should probably make a note of which people she's let down so she can bump them to the top of her next book dump. I mean, it stands to reason that someone who's been to this stupid rodeo before should get to cut in line.
Her reply:
FYI: When PBS sends out book requests, you can't see who is requesting it. So, as far as I know, there is no way to know from the sender's side who I've "let down".
Uh, FYI, there totally is, Princess. You go to your transaction archive and you look for the little red Xs. Make note of those people (seriously, ctrl f is what made me realize I'd been through this shit six times already) and cross check the next time you go on a book binge. It's not that difficult. Since this is the sixth goddamn time she's done this, obviously she's been letting other people down too and while I would hope I'm the only dumbass who keeps getting caught up in this repeatedly, I wouldn't bet on it. Pretty sure one of the rules is don't post what you can't send.
Anyway, I shortened that to basically being helpful because MAYBE she really didn't know you could look up the archive and see all the transactions, cancelled or otherwise. I was trying to be nice...
In return:
Yes, but when I get the new request, there is no way that I know of to know who that request is from.
OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE. No. There is no way to know when you hit the "yes, I can totally send this book!" button but the moment you do and you pick the time you can send it by, you can then go and see who it is. It'd be so much easier if PBS let you block people but they don't and so you work around. So if you're a person who just has no concept of other people's feelings, you could at least pretend and keep that list I mentioned and just cross reference it every once in awhile. It's not that difficult.
But no. No, you are being willfully obtuse so I wash my hands of you. Originally I was going to reply without the profanity of course but at this point why bother? I've long since given up on Angela B ever sending me any book we have in common, to the point that literally every time I get a "congrats, this book is available!" alert, I pray it's not her. I do wish PBS would let you know who was offering a book before making you accept or deny the book because I've had to buy credits at least three times for her to not send me my book but they don't, so I continue my little ritual. She doesn't get it, she won't get it, and I really wish they'd do something about her because she doesn't get what she's done wrong. I feel bad when I have to say, "sorry, can't mail" because it doesn't meet someone's conditions but she's over there just saying she'll send all the books knowing full well she can't. There's got to be somewhere in the middle.
Still, in closing may I present to you all her excuses:
For Kirsten's book back in August of last year:
I posted a bunch of books and then found that I had over 70 requests! Unfortunately, I cannot afford to send them all. I sent as many as I could (over 30 books) until I ran out of funds, but will have to cancel this request. You will not lose your place in line. I will repost it when I have more funds for shipping. Sorry!
For Addy's last November:
I'm sorry I can't mail this book right now. I had over 60 book requests and used up my postage funds sending more than 35 books. You won't lose your place in line.
Addy's in Feb this year:
Sorry, we ran out of funds in our mailing budget after mailing 15 books. Maybe next time.
Addy's in May this year:
I'm sorry, I had 34 book requests. I was able to send out over 20 of them, but then ran out of postage budget. Maybe next time
If you're counting and not getting to six, the second time for Kirsten's book was simply a time ran out: The sender did not mail the book within the allotted time and the request has been canceled.
The only good thing about this is that it gave me something to focus my annoyance on yesterday rather than my period from hell. Seriously got maybe two hours of sleep yesterday and that's if you stitched fifteen minutes here and there together.
eta: Around 6pm Oct 6th, I got this message from PBS:
Thanks for writing in about this. We discussed this with Angela, who otherwise is a really good sender, and had no idea that she had declined this request from the same person multiple times.
We gave her a suggestion about how to avoid declining a book again and again (we told her that she should apply a Book Note to a book if she has to decline it; then she'll see the Book Note on the book cover image on a request and know she's declined before), and we hope it helps!
Seriously. Was I the ONLY person she screwed over and over or the only one who bothered to complain? Because by her own admission, she's flaked out on other people and yet she's still "a really good member." I liked you better when you were free, PBS.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-06 01:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-07 10:48 pm (UTC)Still. That's bullshit. I'd take some screenshots and blast PBS because no doubt she's not only lying to you, but to them. (Seriously, what does it take to get an account suspended?!)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-08 12:56 pm (UTC)Truthfully, I was waiting for PBS to smack me for contacting her or something stupid before doing anything to her.