Is PBS having problems getting DC information from USPS? I mailed 3 books 2 days ago using DC Quick Credit and I still have not received my credits and no details are showing. All books were scanned at the post office when I dropped them off and if I go to the USPS website it gives details of where the book is at. Any ideas on why there is such a delay?

Is it possible that the scans were transmitted before you marked the books mailed in the PBS system? I have never had this happen myself, but I have heard that can happen. I think that info is in the help docs. If that's the case, then the next scan will trigger the credit.

This question has come up with live help questions today.  Feedback has been sent in about this.  One of our great tour guides, Sherry N. has given us this information"

PBS has stated that this problem could be that the PO is either:

1. too fast, and gets scanned before you get back home to mark the book mailed, so then PBS isn't rad to receive it, and will not give ou your credit until the NEXT time it is scanned, which could be at delivery.   or

2. Even though you saw them scan it, they may not upload their scans until late tonight or even tomorrow morning even, some systems are very slow.

I would advise the following, wait a day or two before assuming it won't come. And in the case of #1, you may still not see anything until delivery.

I'll let you know if the PBS Team has any other input on this.   Hope this helps!

I have a similar question, as this is my first time opting to do the Quick Credit with PBS DC. My books were scanned when I dropped them off to the po today as well, however, my receipt shows an entire different DC#.  It also appears as if I paid an additonal .18 for the dc# that's on my receipt.  Is this suspose to happen, or did the post office clerk inadvertently charge me for an additional delivery confirmation?

They were marked mailed before I left for the post office so that shouldn't be the problem. I'll wait till tomorrow and see what happens.

Natasha - you are supposed to pay .18 postage on eDCs. That's reduced from the .75 on regular DC. Not sure why the receipt shows a different number if the scanned it. I've never looked at my receipt that close.

I posted this in the "USPS Postal Regulations" section of the forums yesterday:

"I have had a problem this week also with delivery confirmation scans. I usually mail on Friday before work around 5 PM. Every other time within a couple of hours, I will see an Acceptance scan from the PO I mailed from. This week I mailed on Wednesday. There is still not an acceptance scan as reported to this website, therefore I still have not recieved my Quick credits for them. :(

I have checked each DC number at USPS website and they all only have one scan so far. Maybe USPS has changed the way it handles media mail in the past week or 2? I'm just getting a little worried since this is out of the ordinary for my mailings.....that and I mailed out 7 pkgs. and need to mail more this weekend. I am going to try a different PO tomorrow and see if I get scans reported like I used to.

I was also thinking, maybe USPS is having some computer problems, upgrades, backups or something going on which would slow down DC reporting.

It's making me nervous since I have always been able to track the packages better before."

 Mike

Some other thoughts.....maybe PaperBackSwap is having some kind of connection issues with the USPS servers? Also, seems to me that most people were having problems with books mailed on Wednesday???

I did recieve one quick credit at 10PM yesterday from North Carolina after I made the 1st post. Scan happened at 10AM and I did not recieve the quick credit until 10PM??? Not sure what, but something is definitely going on...

One of my books is showing I mailed it from NC. lol I live in Michigan.

I was so glad to see your original post, Diane.  I, too, have been having problems with getting my DC credit.  One book I mailed on Wednesday (9/24) and still haven't gotten a credit; two books I mailed yesterday and haven't gotten credit.  Up until now, my DC credit usually arrives within 24 hours.  I'll be eager to hear any further information on what's going on.

I'm using printable postage, and I noticed that the last group of books I mailed out are not showing with "Electronic Postage Info Submitted", just a DC#, so there seems to be a communication issue between PBS and the USPS.

The whole DC system was down a couple of weekends ago for maintenance; perhaps they're doing some more?

Cheers,
Catt

I still have nothing - thanks to everything that responded.

There's obviously been something wrong with the DC scans getting to PBS lately. The book I just got had 2 scans after it was marked mailed, yet none showed on the PBS tracking. I also just received the first quick credit from a scan on books I mailed last week so hopefully it is going to be working right again. Unfortunately that doesn't help people waiting for credits on books that are in transit. 

USPS has been doing maintenance and they've stated that there would be delays with DC information coming through.  I'm sure that's a large part of the problem.

Before Preprinted Postage was available from PBS, I always used the PBS DC, and I rarely ever got a "Quick Credit".  The post offices out here just didn't record the scan to PBS until the final "delivery" scan and that often came through and got recorded on the site about the same time as the requestor was marking the book received.  The PBS DC was always about tracking and guaranteed credit if book went lost for me, and not about getting a quicker credit.    However, now I exclusively use Preprinted Postage, and I -LOVE- the instant credit!!!!

I sent feedback to PBS and got the following reply:  "The USPS Delivery Confirmation system is undergoing maintenance. Scan records are coming through slowly, and we expect them to catch up within a week or so."  I think I'll just not use DC for the next couple weeks, since so far I've had to wait until the book was received to get my credit.  I'm glad I know what's going on, however.

This is good to know.  Thanks for posting an update.  I had been wondering why I haven't received most of my quick credit from last week.  I've had several marked received today so at least I'm getting some credits.

I had the same issue.  I mailed two books on Thursday or Friday.  I marked them mailed when I put them in my mailing bag so it wouldn't cause any problems with the PBS servers.

They were scanned at the post office.  But I look at my receipt and go to www.usps.com to track them and it says there is nothing in the system for them, and I haven't received my credits.  One was an audiobook, so I was thinking "Cool.  Three credits".  So hopefully there won't be a problem with them arriving or anything.  I've had a couple books never show to me lately.

Funny, I check these at usps.com and they all show up, but when I check details here at pbs no scans show - kinda defeats the purpose.  Apparently it has been down since at least 9/24.

Bobbi

Looks like I got ALL of my outstanding quick credits today. Hopefully everything is back to the way it was! Yay!!!