I have two residences with books in both places; how can I manage my PBS account?

If you are a "snowbird" or college student or any person who has two residences, you may keep one set of books in one place and one set of books in another. Please keep in mind that Media mail is not routinely forwarded, so you have to submit each request to be sent to the address where you will be able to receive the shipment. That means that you should be careful about the use of auto-request on the Wish List, and be very careful to keep your mailing address updated in your Account Settings.

Managing the Bookshelf:

You can manage your Bookshelf using the Vacation/Hold feature, as described below.

First, let's call your two book-locations "A" and "B".

Call the location you are living in RIGHT NOW "A".

For example, if you summer in Colorado and winter in Florida, these are your A and B locations.

Post the books you have with you now that you want to offer for swapping.

These are your A books.

When you are preparing to move to your B location:

About 3 weeks before you move:
- Stop requesting books
- - You don't want books to arrive at A location when you have already moved to B
  - Media Mail packages can take a while in transit
  - Media Mail is NOT routinely forwarded
  - - You can arrange for special forwarding service that includes Media Mail with the PO
    - This may involve a cost (the difference between first-class and Media Mail postage) paid to your PO
    - BUT the sender has agreed to mail to the address provided, so if you request a book to be sent to the "wrong" address, you should mark the book received when it arrives at the address provided (and you forfeit the ability to record or claim problems with the swap).
- Take your Wish List books that are set to Auto-Request OFF auto-request about 3 weeks before you move
- - Auto-requested books are shipped to your account address automatically
  - If a Wish List book is offered to you the regular way (not auto-request), you can select an alternate ship-to address when you accept the offer
- If a book is requested to be sent to the "wrong" address
  - You can click on the submitted request up until the sender accepts the request.
1-2 weeks before you move:
- Put your account on Vacation Hold using the link at the top of your Bookshelf page:
- - this Hold might begin the week before you move and end on the date you plan to be BACK at your A location.
- - This Hold will HIDE your A books.
- - It will also HIDE your Wish List (those books that are not set to Auto-Request)
- Change your shipping address on your account to your B location

When you arrive at your B location:

Leave your account on Vacation Hold
On your Bookshelf page, click Mark All at the top of the list, and then click the Hold button at the top right of the page.
- This puts your A books on hold
Make sure your account Settings show the B location mailing address
Then remove the Vacation Hold from your account when you are ready to resume ordering and sending books (leave your A books on hold!)
Post the books you want to swap that are at your B location
- These are your B books

When you prepare to return to your A location:

Three weeks before you move:
- stop requesting books
- set Auto-Request to "off" for all your Wish List books
1-2 weeks before you move:
- Change your shipping address on your account to your A location
- Put your B books on hold on your Bookshelf by checking the boxes next to them on the list and clicking "Hold" at the top of the page.

When you arrive at your A location:

Take your A books off Hold by checking the boxes next to them on the list and clicking "UnHold" at the top of the page.

- This will make all of your A books available in the system again
- Leave your B books on Hold

Then remove the Vacation Hold from your account when you are ready to resume ordering books and swapping your A books!

Help Center - I have two residences with books in both places; how can I manage my PBS account?

Managing the Bookshelf:

Loading...