I'm just curious... I sent out a book over a month ago (end of June), and for exactly a month now, delivery confirmation says that this book was "delivered". However, being a month, PBS officially marked the book "lost in the mail" as of yesterday. If I call up the post office to see about the book, they are going to tell me the same thing that DC says, right?

I'm not worried about the credit (since using DC I already got the credit), but it seems unusual that a book marked "delivered" by DC would actually be lost in the mail. How does PBS handle those situations? Do they look at the DC?

The first thing you should do is check and see if the member is still an account holder.  If not, that could explain why the book is not marked received.  Another possibility is that the person is on vacation and just hasn't marked it yet.  The PO will tell you exactly what you already know, so don't waste your time!  PBS doesn't need to handle situations like this because when you buy DC, you get your credit instantly, so there are no complaints.  If you hadn't used DC, you'd be out of luck credit-wise, PBS won't step in unless the person no longer holds an account. 

If an account is inactive the system will automatically mark the book received.  Although I'm not sure how long it has to go w/o a member loggin in to be considerred inactive.  It might be set to mark books received if the member hasn't logged in for 2 wks or something.  Not sure how that works.  Have you checked their account or PM'd them?  They might be on vacation and haven't picked up their mail yet.  Or they might have forgotten to mark it received.  If it says the account is no longer active than you can contact PBS and ask them to mark it received.

I did PM the member, but no response as of yet (member is still active as far as I can tell). It's not really a problem (since I received my credit), I was just curious as to how that sort of situation is handled (and somewhat surprised they would mark a book lost when DC says otherwise).

Remember that delivered just means delivered SOMEwhere.   It is possible it was delivered to the wrong address.   Just another explanation.

I am at the other end of a similiar transaction, though not, to my knowledge, this exact one. 

I've been waiting for a very htf book to arrive, over a year or 2 on the wish list.  On the map, the little truck stopped at my town weeks ago, but no book!  I'm so bummed.  Does it do any good to ask at the post office if they have or will give up books that fall out of the packaging?  It kills me to think of is sitting somewhere, lost.

I guess it was scanned, as it has the little green check.

annie,

It doesn't hurt to check with the post office about it.  It is possible that they couldn't deliver it for some reason or even that they think you got a notice about it or something.  It could be at the post office waiting to be claimed or returned to sender.  You'll never know unless you ask!  The DC thing indicates that it *did* make it as far as your town, so it has gone missing somewhere there probably.

Annie - make sure you go by the details tab and not by that little truck. The truck is purely for fun and games - it's not accurate in the least. Check the details tab to see if it shows "delivered" to you.  That's a more comprehensive way to see what is going on. Take the DC # with you and file a lost claim at the PO if it shows delivered and get them to look into it. The DC # will be at the top of details tab after you click it.

I'd also contact the sender as well to see if they have an explanation.

I had one book that someone used PBS DC on and they never mailed the book to me.  The details tab showed the first line (created /post office notified of the DC # - can't remember exactly what it said) but never showed it scanned at the post office, never scanned period anywhere. Sender didn't e-mail me back and never got the book.  Oh well .... I did eventually get it somewhere else.

thanks Sue, thats very interesting.  I'll look into it.

It only shows the send date, but nothing on devlivery so theres still hope and I can take this number to the post office.  thanks

USPS DC#: 9102165561353003348184

• 8/4/2008 11:00 AM - Electronic Shipping Info Received - YOUNGSTOWN,OH

Update on my situation... right after I posted that I had not heard from the member, they PMed me explaining they had been on vacation and would pick up the books (though, it's been almost a week and they haven't been to the post office yet?). However, according to DC, the USPS has now marked the book "unclaimed" as of Saturday evening (8/23). What does that mean?

The book is being shipped back to me because it was unclaimed... since it's media mail, am I going to be charged postage due? How does that work with PBS? ... am I just out the extra postage and too bad for me?

I asked PBS about the situation via the feedback page, but haven't heard back yet and was wondering if anyone else had this experience?

I have a similar situration.  A book I mailed at the end of last month with DC has been marked Delivered in the correct town a week ago.  This delivery info is available on the USPS website, but on PBS, the details show it arriving "at pickup point" the day before in the correct town but does not show the delivered info found on the USPS site from the next day.  That is curious.  Why doesn't PBS get the latest info from USPS?

I sent a PM to the requestor that I have not received a response to.

I have since discovered their account is on hold. 

So this means it will be marked received, eventually?