......before this date. That's the notice on the "Books I've sent"  regarding when to ask about lost mail.  Since I live in Hawaii, media mail is typically 6 weeks. (or more...). PBS notes they take no action until 35 days for mail from non-contiguous states.

But, I mailed on 5/16, the note says "Expect delivery by 6/20, don't contact us before that date...." and today, on 6/18-33 days-, they marked it lost in mail. Same thing happened with a book last month.

I find they usually arrive within a few days after going lost.....but still 33 days is not 35 days. I do use PBS edc for all media mail, due to the length of delivery time, so I got my credit, but I was told once by TPTB that my lost book ratio is high (thus, the reason I use edc on all media mail now) and my account could be in danger due to that.

Not sure if this is a question or just a vent....but any other "non-contiguous" out there have the same experience?

If I were you, I'd use the "contact us" at the bottom on the page and ask them this question.

I've heard that on the boards before.  I wonder why it does it early sometimes.

I would explain to them that you are in Hawaii and it takes longer.... perhaps they are somehow missing the giant HI in your address, or the notices you are getting are automated.  They ought to be able to fix it for you, though.  I had the same problem when we were overseas with the military AP system--from Europe about half my medial mail books would be marked lost, but from Japan it was pretty well all of them, media or not.  PBS was really nice about it though, and the vast majority of the wonderful book-lovers on PBS were very understanding about it too.  :)

For those who have also wondered, here is the answer I got from TPTB:  The system automatically marks books "lost in the mail" a day or two before the system action date. This is a normal part of the process here. It's done a little in advance of the date in the "don't contact us before..." message because the email notifying the requestor that a book is lost often triggers the book to be marked received if it really has gotten there

I have recently had a rather frustrating experience, though it is really no problem.  I ordered a much wished book which was to come from a sender in HI.  It ended up "lost" and the request went to the next person who listed the book who sent it right away, and the second one arrived shortly.  Then about a week later, well within the 6-7 week frame, the one from HI arrived.  I resurrected that one from the Transaction archive and the sender (on one of the out islands, not Oahu--maybe that takes a bit longer??)  I relisted one of them and it was requested right away, I sent it to someone and it has already gotten there.    I had already sent a note to the HI sender, just before it went "lost" teling her that I expected it, so really no problem.  I can see that senders who are "postage short" or some such, would be irritated by this, though.   There shouold be allowance in the system so the requests don't flow downhill quite so soon, I think.

Yes, I've also noticed the action date differs a bit from the posted date. 

Winston, that's exactly why PBS recommends waiting two weeks before re-ordering a 'lost' book. 

I recently had a similar transaction, a book coming to me from Hawaii (without e-DC).  Keeping that date difference in mind, I pm'd the sender close to the 'lost' date.  She answered and was aware of the MM delays.  When the book went lost and was returned to my wishlist I put it on hold.  A couple days later the book arrived and I marked it received.  33 days from Hawaii to me on the West Coast (Washington) ... I did wonder how much longer it might have taken to reach the East Coast or PR.

My only complaint, when logged in from my Transaction Archive there was no space for a postmark date and no comment box.  I REALLY wanted to note that the counter postage was dated exactly the date the sender marked it mailed.  It doesn't seem fair to have all those 'late' transactions on (AK, HI, PR) member accounts without some validation of their efforts to be good members.

Winston, that's exactly why PBS recommends waiting two weeks before re-ordering a 'lost' book.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Winston didn't manually order a second copy of the book.  Because the book from HI was a wishlisted book that went lost, a second was ordered automatically as soon as the first one was declared lost.  A conscientious (second) sender accepted and mailed it very quickly.  Because of the automatic (wishlist) processing, the "2 week wait" was not under Winston's control.

It doesn't seem fair to have all those 'late' transactions on (AK, HI, PR) member accounts without some validation of their efforts to be good members.

Exactly!  I once received a borderline snarky comment from TPTB stating my account has a high ratio of lost mail, and it could put my account at risk.  Thus, edc for all media mail now (interestingly, first class NEVER goes lost, and usually arrives in 2-3 days). 

But even tho I get the credit, if the media mail never arrives (or is never marked as arrived thru the TA-and some people aren't aware of how to do that-) I still have it on my record as "lost mail." And yes, I do now mail all receivers as the lost date approaches, asking them to mark it in the TA if/when it arrives.

When a book goes lost, the system places it on our reminder list if there are other copies available, and places it on our wish list if there aren't.  If it was originally on Winston's wish list, on auto-request, it would have been placed back on the wish list on auto-request.   So it's understandable that if someone posted the book shortly after it was marked lost, it was ordered for him without him realizing it.

The solution for me is to try to get to my wish list right after a book has been marked lost and place the book on wish list hold  while I wait for the first copy to arrive.  If someone posts the book, I'll be skipped, but I'll keep my spot in line.