I scrolled down quite a few headings but came across nothing that seemed to fit.

A book I requested was accepted by Mary 04/05/10. When several weeks had passed I emailed her requesting information. That was 04/27/10. On 05/01/10 Mary replied, saying she'd just found the book behind the seat of her husband's vehicle all wrapped and ready to go and did I still want it? I answered yes I would.  No word, no book. Emailed Mary again asking her to let me in on what was going on.

Has anyone else been so crudely treated? What do you do?

Pondering...

Colleen

It does occasionally happen. The first part, I would have had no problem with, she was upfront with you, tho she should have already been the one to send the PM letting you know that it accidentlally didn't get mailed when she thought it did. But, then to not respond again when you;ve waited some more time, is wrong for certain. She could at least veryify that this time it did make it to the mail box. As it is, you have no way of knowing if she gave it to her irresponsible hubby again.

Write her again, and tell her you need to hear from her within the next 5 days or you are going to go to PBS directly for lack of communication, which they highly frown on. It wouldn't surprise me if the book is actually on its way to you now, and now you have the normal 2-3 wks wait on media mail, but she needs to let you know that it has indeed actually been mailed this time. Tell her to give you that answer or you are going to go directly  to PBS.

Hope this helps you in someway. And seriously, if she doesn't respond within 5 business days, use the feedback form found on the contact us page listed at the bottom of all pgs under the COMPANY column. They really do want to know when members are unresponsive.

Maybe I'm just too trusting (although it has gotten me through 65 years so far - 40 of them in the rough and tumble graphics business), but I would consider the matter closed with an admission that "I made a mistake" and a response that the book was still wanted.

I don't consider it a necessity to PM someone after I mark a book mailed that yes, indeed it was really mailed. I suppose that a response that "this time I mailed it myself" would be nice, but far be it from me with my lapses of social judgement to say if she doesn't respond she is just out to get me. I assume she wants the credit and the only way to get it is to mail the book!

wc

Wayne, it becomes nessisary to provide such information when a book is mailed late. It says so in the help documents. It is also against the rules to not reply to PMs about a transaction in a timely matter (five days). 

To be fair, the sender said the book was mailed when it wasn't once already, so I don't think the OP is out of line to wonder if it was really sent this time. It also isn't out of line for her to ask for conformation that it was really mailed now that it has been another two weeks since the book was supposedly actually mailed.

I actually had a similar thing happen to me not that long ago - where about a week after the book I ordered had been marked sent, the sender PM'd me (very nicely) to say she was so sorry, she thought she had mailed the book but just found it, did I still want it, etc.  I said yes please, and continued to wait for the book.  Well, three weeks later, the book went lost, so I PM'd the sender (very nicely, I thought) saying that the book had gone lost in the system, that I would mark it received when I received it, and asking to confirm it had been mailed.  I never got another reply and, as you may guess, I also never got the book.  Now, I should have reported her for not responding to my PM, but it wasn't a WL book so I eventually ordered another copy.  Still annoying, though, especially because the sender went to the trouble of getting in touch with me about the mistake.  I hope your book gets to you soon.

I am not saying that it isn't necessary to respond. I know that if I screwed up that way, I would deluge the person with PMs (with ccs to the world if I could) and probably be accused of harassment!  I am just saying that no respose does not mean the book wasn't sent.  I have waited a few days for a response to a PM I sent and I always assumed the person could not get on line and would answer if a couple of days. I certainly wouldn't assume that they are trying to cheat me and send them a PM with a cut and paste from the Rules - that would only pixx them off and I would lose the sale/book.

How about a PM like "No problem for the mixup. I assume the book is in the mail now and am anxiously awaiting it. PM me if you have any problems with the mailing." and leave it at that - ASSUME THE BEST OF PEOPLE AND THEY WILL RISE TO THE CHALLENGE.

WC

At this point the book should have already gone lost and you should have gotten your credit back by the system. If it's a WL book then it's already back on your WL.  If it isn't WL then I would PM and say since you haven't heard anything and still don't have this book that you are going to use the refunded credit to order the book from someone else if you don't hear from her by x date.  She did the right thing in PMing to ask if you still wanted the book before resending it and it's possible that it's just taking the scenic route to get to you.  (if I was the sender, I would have sprung for DC so give the requestor a # to track it with-but that's just me).  She may have just assumed that she didn't need to PM you again that she had indeed mailed the book out.  I had a book returned to me for some unknown reason. I pm'd the sender the day I found it in the mail box and told them I would take it to the post office the next day. I did not PM them again.  If it looks like it might go lost then I'll PM again and let them know that I did indeed mail the book like I said I would. 

If she doesn't respond to another PM then I would reorder the book. You would not have to mark the 2nd book as received if it showed up with a really late mailing date and she hadn't responded to your last PM.  But I would give them the benefit of the doubt because she did PM in the first place.  She probably thought her husband had mailed the book out on time.

I'm not sure I would consider you being "crudely treated." Unless she was rude? But I'm not sure what the person did was wrong.

Someone thought a book was mailed. You PM'd them, they PM'd back about the status of a book. End of subject, in my opinion. And it could be that it was mailed so the person feels no need to respond. I'm sure they will be rather surprised to be reported to PBS for not answering you but the rules here do say you can report the person if they don't respond. 

For me, who knows what happened to the book but the bottom line is that by now the book has gone lost, you've gotten your credit back so you can order another one. Or you can wait to see if the original book shows up.

While on here I've learned that it's much easier to let lost books go instead of trying to figure out if someone ripped you off, if the packaging was inadequate and ripped or what have you.  I've now had four sets of lost books coming to me. Two of those were WL books. It was a disappointment but it happens. C'est la vie.

Just let it go lost and re-order. 

Also I just wanted to point out that not everyone has computer access everyday. Some people only have access to it limited at work, the library or friends house.  Others travel a lot for work and may not get on everyday. So that may account for the lag time in a respose. 

You can report them to PBS if you want - you can pretty much do that for any reason, but they may not respond or act on it if they don't feel any action is necessary.  The rule about responding to a PM within a set period of time is regarding RWAP transactions and not late mailings.  What the help docs say about late mailings is that you must PM the requestor if the mailing will be or has been delayed - which this sender did.  As far as maintaining correspondence beyond that goes, there's nothing that says they must do that.  If the book has been declared lost in the system & you've waited a reasonable period of time for it to arrive (at least 2 weeks), you should reorder the book.  The rules state that as long as the book was mailed the week before the book was declared lost or later, and you got no notification from the sender that the book would be/was mailed late you do not have to mark it received.  In this case, she did notify you that it was being mailed late & this was acceptable to you at the time, but if it arrives really late, like the postmark indicates that she didn't mail it for a week or more after she notified you that she would, I'd contact PBS before I did anything because they may not expect you to mark it received under those circumstances - especially if you have, or will end up with, two copies of this same book.