Twice in the last couple of months, books addressed to me have been returned to the sender with a notice that the address or street was not found.  My address in the PBS system is correct and I verified that I have the correct format and abbreviations on the usps.com website.  

The first sender took the book to her PO, explained the situation, and had the book resent as directed in the Help documents.  I noticed when the book arrived that the bar code added to the address was partially torn away.  I wonder if that might have been a problem?

The second sender is planning to cancel the order, which means he will be out the money for shipping the book.  I have sent him the information from the Help docs, but I'm not sure he will follow through.

What can I do on my end to make sure books reach me?  I get books in the mail regularly, so I don't understand why this problem has happened twice in a relatively short period of time.

Thanks,

Laura

This might be something going on at your local PO, if it's getting all the way to your town but then they say they cannot find  your street. Could it be the carrier (or sub?) is not familiar enough with the street/number? Is there another street with a similar name? Have  you recently moved to this location?  If the address on the package is correct then the book should get to you. You might talk with your local PO as it's happened more than once. Sometimes the local  POs need a little re-education, so you could take some mail that has made it to you and possibly that wrapper from the first package and show them so they can be on the alert.

The second sender needs to go to his PO and tell them the address is valid. He can even print the message from you verifying it's correct. The original amount of postage should be still valid and they should allow him to resend it with no additional cost, by scratching out any marks and the return to sender sticker/stamp.

Yep, this is just a PO screw-up.  It's not just books or media mail.........

I agree, sounds like a problem with your local PO.  Talk to your postmaster, verify that you are using the correct address and inquire as to why you are having this problem.    If the situation continues, you might consider going over their head to the county or regional postmaster and file a complaint.

USPS.com has a zip code locator... when you type your address in there, does the website change it in any way?

My mailbox was jam packed yesterday, including two PBS books.  I've lived here for 8 years and I haven't had this problem other than these two books.  I'm pretty sure they know who I am at my local PO because I get so many books from PBS, as well as magazines and other stuff.

I have verified my address with usps.com and have it entered in PBS exactly like the USPS website displays it.

The first sender printed her label.  The bar code that prints under the address was partially torn away. It was not clear from the wrapper how far the book made it before being returned. I don't have the wrapper any more since this was a couple of months ago.  I don't know what the label used by the second sender looks like.

This may be a coincidence, but both senders live in the same state. Maybe there's a processing center or PO along the way that doesn't like my address?  I have received one book in the interim from the same state without any problems.

The second book arrived today and the source of the problem is very clear.  The sender printed the PBS label with the correct zip code (27713).  He paid for postage at the counter and the postage sticker they attached had the wrong zip code (22713).  The book was routed to the wrong state and then returned to sender. That postage sticker is something I would never think to double check.

Thanks for the update Laura, interesting information.  Not your local PO at all