Should I do anything after PBS marks a book lost in the mail? I have not contacted the member who mailed me the book - I just let the system run its course and the book never showed up.

Is there a rule of courtesy in this case (should I email the sender?). I wouldn't know what to say.

I usually send a PM saying "gosh I wonder what happened to this book, I'll be sure to mark it received if it shows up". So far I haven't gotten a single response and none of my lost books has shown up either.  Which leads me to believe that they were never mailed.  But you never know.

You can send a PM if you want to. I might say something like, "I noticed the book you sent __________________(name) just went lost.  In case you were wondering, I wanted to confirm that I have not received the book yet, and also wanted to verify that you did mail it when it was marked mailed. If it was mailed later than that, I will wait awhile longer for it to arrive before ordering another copy. Thanks!"

Or something like that. You might get growled at, but oh well! At least you tried. :)

Cheryl

I would do what Cheryl suggested. I like to try to get a sense of whether or not I should re-order the book right away, or wait.

I've usually gotten an answer to my PMs. Sometimes they say they mailed it, and they are pretty sure I will recieve it, and sometime they say ... 'I gave it to my (sister, husband, mother, ex-boyfriend) to mail and I don't know what happened". I can take a hint!

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I am with the camp of PM the sender and let them know.  I just sent to a APO and I want to say 2 months ago - it was just marked received.   It won't hurt to send a PM and who knows - it may show up yet ;)

Personally, I don't think it's safe to assume people read the help documents. What I would do is PM the sender and let them know about what the help documents say about filing a report with the PO, since you can both fill one out. 

When I send a book and it goes lost (fortunately not too often) as soon as PBS notifies me that they've officially marked it lost, I send a PM to the requester saying I'm sorry that it never was received.  Usually, I get a PM back from them saying that if it shows up they'll mark it received.  This has happened on two occasions (once it took 6 weeks for the book to get from KS to OK).  Pat

I would be in favour of a PM - I am in Hawaii and my books often get 'lost' but so far all have evenually shown up.  If I was the sender I would appreciate a PM so at least I know that you just haven't been to busy/lazy/etc to mark it recieved. 

After I mail the book(s), I send a PM letting the reciever know that it may go lost and that the slow boat across the pacific takes 2-3 weeks and then the usual 5-10 days cross country.  So at least they know not to expect it for a while.  

I PM but I usually don't hear back.  One person didn't PM me back and ended up mailing me the book about 2 weeks after it went lost.  I was a little peeved at having to give her the credit for it but I had to since I had not gotten another copy and was still sitting as #1 on the WL.  I do admit I took an extra couple of days to mark it received, just to see if she was wondering if it had gotten to me.  Never did get a PM and I made sure I filled out the survey when I marked it received that the package had a clear postmark on it with the mailng date--about 6 weeks after it was marked mailed--and that I'd never heard from the sender about it.

Although certainly not required, something along the lines suggested by Cheryl and others would be nice.   My even improve member harmony if the requester isn't thinking nasty (but erroneous) thoughts about you not sending the book.

"Personally, I don't think it's safe to assume people read the help documents."

Liesl, I would definitely have to agree with you there!

I can't tell you the number of times that another member has said to me, "Oh, I didn't know"  or "Well, someone sent it to me like that, so..."

Some people will get quite snarky to you if you ask them to re-read through the rules they've violated or cut & paste to them, though... happened to me last week :(     Can't win them all, I guess.  You just have to try and follow the rules & move on.

I had one book that got marked lost... never got a response from the member until about a month & a half later.  She said she received a torn-up manilla envelope  back in the mail & "couldn't remember" sending me anything??   I told her about the transaction archive, but I never did hear back from her after that...  

I decided to PM the sender and express my "condolences" over the lost book and I assured her that I would mark it received if it should show up in the future. She didn't use PBS delivery confirmation or postage, so it looks like she is out a book/credit.