I browsed books yesterday (Sunday) & requested a book from another member. Within a few hours I received messages that my request had been received AND that the book had been mailed. Really? How can anything go out through the Post Office on a Sunday? Maybe this is nit-picking, but PaperBackSwap and the member should not be able to say that the book has been mailed until Monday.

I mailed 18 wish listed books yesterday (Sunday).

I printed the wrappers with printable postage, walked over to the Post Office and dropped the packages in the blue boxes outside.

Why do you say I didn't mail them? Do you think I should have to wait until Monday to click the Book Has Been Mailed buttons even though I left the books on USPS property on Sunday?

The member may have dropped the book into a blue mail box. No need for the post office to be open.  If PBS allows the selection of a Sunday (or a holiday) in the list of mail dates, the member did nothing wrong.

I mail lots of books on Sunday...put some stamps on them and drop them in a big blue box. If I had to wait to mark it mailed on a Monday when I mailed it Sunday morning I could easily forget.

It does make you wonder, but then again some of the large city offices are open on Sundays, thus I suppose PBS does need to have that option available for folks in those areas.  I suppose for most of us it just really means we got the package ready, applied postage and put it in our box for the carrier to pick up during Monday deliveries.

Post Office - Main Ofc Dallas Hours
Mon		8:00am - 10:00pm
Tue		8:00am - 10:00pm
Wed		8:00am - 10:00pm
Thu		8:00am - 10:00pm
Fri		8:00am - 10:00pm
Sat		9:00am - 9:30pm
Sun		11:00am - 7:00pm

Post Office - Cardiss Collins Hours
Mon		8:30am - 11:59pm
Tue		8:30am - 11:59pm
Wed		8:30am - 11:59pm
Thu		8:30am - 11:59pm
Fri		8:30am - 11:59pm
Sat		9:00am - 11:00pm
Sun		10:00am - 9:00pm

I mail a lot of packages out on Sunday. Some of which are books some that are not. I use printable postage for PBS so if the book is too big for my carrier to pick up I put it in the box inside the post office. If I am mailing something else I can use the APC machine in the post office 24/7. Whether these items are sorted or not on Sunday I'm not sure but they were mailed.

Even if the Post Office is closed, you can still use the "Self Service Kiosk" (formerly APC machine) on Sunday.

I place a lot of books in the blue box on Sundays and promptly mark them mailed. In my opinion, once they are in the blue box, it is mailed. Even if the next day is a holiday (such as Memorial Day or Labor Day) and the mail doesn't move that day, it is sill mailed once it is in the blue box. I see nothing wrong with this.

They may well have turned the book over to USPS possession (their mail box, a blue box, or a box at the post office or other USPS center such as grocery stores).

But PBS does also allow people to mark the book mailed as long as they will have it to USPS within 48 hours. Some people do this after preparing the book for mailing for a number of reasons - they have limited access to the internet and will not be back on again to mark it mailed within the allotted time, their PO will scan it before they get back on so they need to mark it mailed now in order to trigger Quick Credit properly, they have a lot of books to print labels for and to make sure they don't accidentally print the same label twice they mark them mailed as they get them wrapped. All very good reasons to have marked the book mailed before actually doing so. As long as someone mails the book within 48 hours PBS does not find fault.

I've taken numerous books to the post office on Sunday.  If it's out of my hands & officially in the post office, then in my opinion, it's been mailed.

I didn't mean to offend anyone. But if I drop a book into a mail slot on a Sunday, I notify Paperbackswap that the book has been mailed on Monday. Because it will not be going anywhere until Monday!

How do you know?

Where I used to work, our boxes were not marked for Sunday pickup, but when we went in to do Express Mail on Sundays and Holidays, we would collect whatever was in the blue boxes and send it on its way.  So it did go somewhere before Monday.  Or Tuesday if it was a holiday. 

And I know this sounds weird, but I have noticed that sometimes when I mail other packages (not necessarily books on here), if I have the tracking #, sometimes they are scanned at odd times, even on Sundays.

In fact, here is part of a scan of something I mailed on ebay last month & yes, May 26 was a Sunday:

DISPATCHED FROM SORT FACILITY

May-26-13, 04:43 AM, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73107

I mark books mailed when I drop them in the box, so Sundays, after hours, etc. are all fair game.  I'd never remember to mark it mailed if I didn't do it right away.

I consider my books mailed as soon as they go in the blue box.  They are no longer in my posession, I've done all that was required of me to complete the mailing.  Doesn't make sense to me to wait until the next day before marking a book mailed.  In fact, I'd be liable to forget to mark the book mailed at all if I waited a day--and that would bring on a whole host of other problems LOL.

Dropping a letter/package in the mailbox = mailed, regardless of what day it is. That's about the limit of the general public's responsibility as far as "mailing" something goes. 

I also often drop a package in the box after the final daily pickup. Am I supposed to wait until I'm sure the carrier has been by to collect it the next morning before marking it mailed? Not happening. :)

Not to mention, it COULD have been mailed officially on Saturday but not been marked shipped until Sunday. 

(I realize this isn't your situation but in some situations this could be true anyway)

I don't know where everyone lives, but in my town you can mail on Sunday because many of our grocery stores also have the capability to print the postage, etc.  Mine can't do DC, but if I mail on a Sunday with DC, I just tell them to charge the extra money, as it will get scanned somewhere along the line.

Also there's a town in Southern California (can't remember the name of it right now), but it was settled by 7th Day Adventists (if memory serves), and their post office isn't open on Saturday, but is on Sunday, and when we lived there we'd often mail Christmas packages from that PO.

Pat

My post office has a self service kiosk that is open 24/7. I have mailed things on Sunday and will mark it mailed that day. I'm a busy mom of 3 kids and only go online every few days. The option is to mark it mailed, not mark it when the post office picks it up. Things I mail through the kiosk seem to get to their destination faster than when I use the window service. No idea why! But if I had to mail it first and then wait to mark it, I might not remember to. The 48 hour window that PBS allows is there for a reason. ;)

Blue boxes may not get picked up from on Sunday but if I take a package inside the PO and drop it off in the slot in the lobby, there's always someone in the back sorting out mail to go.  Even on holidays when the counter's closed, there's always someone in the back sorting and getting stuff ready to go out on the trucks.

Look at all the things you learned by posting this thread!

If I take stuff to the the PO, the one I use is also the sorting center so they are processing mail 24/7. If I bluebox something who knows when they will get around to picking it up these days. I'm not waiting to mark it mailed to guess that.

In the town I used to live had a post office in the mall so it was required to be open mall hours. I miss that post office as it was so convenient.

I don't get waiting until Monday if you put it in the blue box on Sunday.  It's not like you can go back and retrieve the book.  It's in teh POs hand and mailed. 

I'll mark a book mailed if I put it in my mail box on Sunday before a Monday holiday.  It's wrapped, stamped and waiting for the mail man, it's mailed. I've had multiple power outages that lasted for multiple days since I've joined PBS. So it's markedmailed as soon as it's stamped, wrapped and ready.

Most post offices that have more than a couple of people working in front where you can see them have a much larger number of people who work out of sight in the back, in at least three shifts, pretty much 24/7. The ratio was about 5 window clerks to nearly 100 mail sorters. I worked the graveyard shift for five and a half years, always including Sundays, which was a favorite day for many of us as there were fewer supervisors hanging around, getting in the way when we were trying to work, and also we could usually  persude one of the Sunday substitute supervisors to go out for donuts if we'd pay. Daytime is when there are fewer postal workers, at least of the mail-sorting kind, on the job. Activity really picks up in midafternoon, when the night shift starts to come in; they mostly sort the outgoing mail, till about 11:30. Big long-distance trucks carrying that mail would leave about 6 PM.  The daytime portion of the night shift also provided pickup from the blue boxes around town and sorted that mail according to whether it was for out of or within our delivery area. .  By 11:30, the night shift has mostly departed and the graveyard shift starts to arrive. We sorted the in-city mail according to which carrier would deliver it, and also sacked up the mail for several dozen smaller cities and outlying communities within a few hours of here. The trucks carrying that out-of-town mail would leave about 6 AM. There you have it: more than you ever wanted to know about the behind-the-scenes working of the post office.