Ok we have snow and more snow on its way, I have marked that I will mail books by Thursday, I can't even get to my car to get to the post office ( not sure I would drive if I could get to it) My Street is still so bad that 4 wheel drives are getting stuck. If I can't get them mailed by Thursday what will happen????

In this instance, and no other, I would PM the receiver, explaining the situation (which everyone knows about), and give them a choice of waiting to the last minute, you marking the book mailed so the system doesn't cancel the order, then sending it at the first opportunity

OR

giving the receiver a chance to cancel the order (you remain in the same FIFO place) and having the 'system' order it from someone else if they cannot wait for you to send the book.

If the receiver chooses option 1, you may want to save the PMs so you can let the site owners know what happened if necessary.

Kathy,

All the books are wrapped and ready to go. I guess I will just have to pm all the requestors so they know what is happening and get the books mailed as soon as I can. 

We are suppose to get another 12 inches starting tomorrow, so I will just pray that we see out road soon 

I think as long as you PM the requestor to let them know you are marking it mailed a couple of days earlier than you can send, and why, they should be fine with that. I know I would be! It's when people wait 2 weeks after marking mailed and don't bother to let me know via PM that I get peeved. Communication is the key!

Cheryl

I agree with Cheryl.  Most people are fine with a small delay if they have an explanation.  It is the no-explanation delays that usually cause the problems!  I'm all for communication between members. =)

You also have two days to mark the books mailed.  Like the others said, in this situation, if the books are ready to mail,  I would mark them mailed before the requests time out and PM the requestors if you haven't been able to mail by then.  (Personally, I just want to know that the book is on its way; I'd rather wait a few days for you  than take my chances with the next sender, who may or may not accept the request.)   

I'm ditto with what Kathy said - option #1.  I had the same situation come up during last year's ice storm.  I had said I'd mail by a certain day & then the whole city basically was frozen overnight.  Our power was out for ten days & I had to take the kids & stay with my sister, and I had enough things to lug over there without taking my books & shipping materials too - plus my DH stayed at the house, with the only vehicle we had that could manage the roads, so I couldn't get to the PO anyway.  Seems like I had to contact several people, but everyone was very understanding, told me to mark them mailed & then gave me an extra week or two to actually get the books mailed out.  I think I managed to get it taken care of in less than a week, but I had to get my DH to bring me the books, and then gave them to my nephew who works for the USPS to mail.  Anyway, these things happen.  I didn't bother PBS with it, since my receivers were all cool with the delays, but if it had looked like it would be taking me more than a week, I might have contacted them & told them - hard to say.  I hate to bug them with anything I can resolve on my own.

thanks everyone for all the input, I feel a little better now, knowing I am not the only one this has happened to.  Hubby is going to TRY to get to the post office on Wednesday if the other 12 inches hold off that long.

I'm near you although the weather report said we're only due for 1-3" tomorrow.  I'm hoping I can get to the PO in the morning before it starts. But if it doesn't I'm just going to mail them when I can.   I would just PM people and let them know. I doubt anyone would ask you to cancel. 

Also if Thursday is the mail by date then you have until Sat 11pm to mark them mailed. So if they get in a mail box of some kind by then you are good.

I have books that I marked mailed early because I was worried about the power going out. Well I made it out today with the books but the PO closed early.  If I can't get them mailed tomorrow oh well.  The mail by date was 2/9. So really if I mail them by 2/11 I'm within the time frame. Last year around this time we lost power for 4days so I  just wanted to get them marked so I don't have to try and get to the library-and what if the library has no power either?  So I marked them.  I'll bump them up to first class.  If I can't get out tomorrow I'll put stamps on the smaller ones, stick them in my mail box and hope we get mail service.  We had mail delivery Fri and today.  So I think we'll have mail tomorrow unless the storm starts earlier than expected. 

According to the Help Center, if you're not able to mail the books by the mailby date than you are indeed supposed to contact the requester(s) to see if they are alright with mailing the item(s) late.  From the Help Center:

• If you have accepted a request but know you will not be able to mail a book within 2 days of when you said you would mail it, you should ask the requestor's consent to mail the book late. 

  • You can contact the requestor by clicking the button on the request for the book on your My Account page--it will be on the Books to Mail tab after you accept it, and before you have marked it mailed.

• If you accepted a request and something comes up unexpectedly, contact the sender to let him or her know that mailing was delayed, as soon as you have mailed the book. Most requestors don't mind a little delay, as long as they are kept informed of the situation. 

• If you do arrange late mailing with a requestor, you should mark the book mailed before the deadline to prevent the transaction from being canceled.

If you marked the book mailed but did not mail it and you want to mail it late (more than 4 days after the date you marked it as mailed),  you MUST contact the requestor using the PM button on the transaction, to be sure that the requestor still wants the book.  (If the book has already been declared "lost", the PM button is on the "lost in mail" transaction in your Transaction Archive.)

• If she replies that she does still want it you can mail it to her.  She can mark it received and you will get credit at that time.
  • If the book has already been declared "lost" she can mark it received from her Transaction Archive and you will get credit at that time.
• If she replies that she does NOT want it (she may have gotten a copy from someone else in the meantime), you should NOT MAIL - you should ask us to cancel the "en route" transaction and you can repost the book for someone else to request.
• If she does not respond to your PM, you should repost the book.  It will be offered to her automatically if she still wants a copy.
• You should not mail a "lost" book to the original requestor unless she has confirmed that she still wants it in a Personal Message.  If you mail it and she has already gotten another copy, she will NOT be obligated to mark the book received, or to return it to you.