Has anyone one else been having this problem more than usual lately ? I have had 3 books that I have requested go lost in mail in the last 2 months. This seems unusually high to me as I've always gotten them in a timely manner before. They are from 3 different senders and none used the PBS labels with DC. It bothers me that that many has gone missing in such a short amount of time. Is this happening to anyone else ?

The mail does seem to get more unpredictable this time of year. There's a book en route to me from VA that was mailed on 11/30 and still has not been scanned. One that was mailed a couple of days later from NJ arrived yesterday though.

I've had the same problem, to the point where PBS held my account briefly.  Very frustrating, but there's not much we can do about it. I did file loss reports with the post office, but they say everything is fine on their end.

I always use PBS DC with postage and have had one book from this site and two from another, which were scanned delivered,  go lost in the last month. Another book that I sent first class on 11/28 has not been scanned at all nor has it been marked received. At least if that one goes lost I'll know how to fill out the mail theft report, since I am getting a lot of recent experience at it. LOL Seriously though, I am very bummed out about it. I know I got my credits but these people didn't get the books they wanted. And to me this site is all about giving and receiving  books.

I'm also noticing fewer scans on DC - many of my books mailed in Nov have yet to be scanned. 

Tis the season for patience

They are definitely taking longer to be scanned.  The postal hubs near me are usually super scan happy, so when I had a book out for over a week with no scan I feared it was lost.  But it just cropped up in CA. 

Looking at my outgoing packages, the ones that just had to travel up or down the Eastern seaboard are moving quickly, but the ones travlling cross country?  Not so much.

I haven't had any problems with lost books.  I have noticed it's taking much longer to get credits and scans to show when using DC. I only use DC for bulk orders, audiobooks and game books (which require DC).  I go to the PO to get postage and have the DC scanned.  It took almost a week for me to get my credits for a bulk order and an auidobook I sent out because the USPO is slow to update with PBS.  I've also noticed when I go on my custom DC list it shows books I had scanned at the PO as being "Accepted" instead of enroute and I mailed them over a week ago. Once was delivered and it still just says "accepted". 

So the PO is backed up right now.  They probably started getting super busy around October when all the early  shoppers (like my MIL) starting doing their online shopping and gift sending.

I've had 2 books I ordered from different people and 1 book I mailed (a brand new never-been-read HC) go lost in the last couple of months.  I currently have a 3 book order I mailed that's about a week away from going lost and if it does I'm going to be pissed.  I don't used DC because I've never needed to in the past but if this keeps up I may have to start.

I used to use DC, but with never a problem and needing to cut back on extra expenses, I pretty much quit. Now I've either got a big batch of people  s  l  o  w   to mark them received (which I believe because some have paypal dc and were at least shown as delivered a week to 10 days ago), or the po is being more lackidaisical. I am tempted to put my shelf on hold, because if people don't have time to check in and mark them received now, it will only get worse as Christmas nears, and I don't want it to appear as if I'm the one that's the slacker or have the books go "lost" because people can't be bothered.  

They closed a bunch of sorting hubs a few months back. Now everything I mail from Atlanta goes to Memphis first. They usually get scanned there the next day. When the hub in Atlanta was open, often they never were scanned. So at least to Memphis, they are doing better. Nothing lost on my account, knock wood. It is always a wonder to me that my books get delivered at all. That they are usually delivered within a week is amazing!

I agree with Cathy when she said "The mail does seem to get more unpredictable this time of year..." 

Like others have mentioned, I've had recent books go coast to coast in 48 hours, and others mailed at the same time are still enroute 10 days later...tis the season :-)

I've had three books I had requested in the last month or so go missing in the mail and one of them I was really looking forward to.  None of them used PBS postage or DC that I can tell.   I keep hoping that they will show up.

I use DC on all my shipments, just not PBS postage.  I had one book go missing I sent in October, and it was adjudged a lost book.  Lo and behold, it showed up last week at the swappers house!!  So lost may not mean really "lost".

I've had one gone lost and another about to go lost. The one about to go lost showed up Priority Mail as it was mailed three weeks late. It did arrive before it went lost.

  My husband recently retired and the ceremony was held after we had already packed up so over $1000 in retirement gifts had to mailed to our new home. The box has never made it and we can't get his old office staff to respond to us about when it was mailed, was it insured, etc.  Many of those items are irreplaceable.

I had 3 books go "lost" in one 6 week period last spring, but all eventually showed up so don't give up hope!

I just had a book I sent out go "lost".  I know now that my distribution hub has moved to another state, and my postal clerk said that "their numbers are getting worse" which I take to mean that they aren't doing things well.   I know it takes a much longer time to get even thefirstscan now.

This is the "Details" of the book just declared Lost:

Request Date: 11/10/2009 12:53 PM ET
Alternate Date: 11/15/2009 11:00 PM ET
Wrapper Printing(s):

• 11/10/2009 11:19 PM ET

Date Mailed: 11/12/2009 8:49 AM ET
Date Canceled: 12/8/2009 3:12 AM ET
USPS DC#: 9102165561353012180430

Delivery Confirmation Events

1. 11/11/2009 1:00 AM ET - Electronic Shipping Info Received - STAFFORD, VA
2. 11/14/2009 10:11 AM ET - Enroute - GREENSBORO, NC
3. 11/14/2009 9:16 PM ET - Enroute - GREENSBORO, NC
4. 11/16/2009 11:47 AM ET - Enroute - JACKSONVILLE, FL
5. 11/16/2009 12:06 PM ET - Enroute - JACKSONVILLE, FL
6. 11/17/2009 7:50 AM ET - Arrival at Unit - BRADENTON, FL
7. 11/17/2009 10:21 AM ET - - BRADENTON, FL
8. 11/17/2009 10:51 AM ET - - BRADENTON, FL
9. 11/17/2009 3:25 PM ET - Delivered - BRADENTON, FL

I can say that all the books I've sent out in the last few weeks are taking forever to have any scans show up.

Ruth