OK... back in the first few days of May I requested a book...   Here are the transaction details....

Book requested:5/5

Date accepted: 5/7

Label Printed:  5/7

Date mailed: 5/7

OK.... so then I wait and I wait and I wait and I wait..... and then on 5/26 I sent a PM to the sender just letting them know that I had still not received the book so they wouldn't think I just wasn't marking it received.... 

ON 6/4, the day after the system marked it LOST IN MAIL, I received a response from the sender (who I might add is only ONE STATE OVER FROM ME SO NOT LIKE IT HAD TO COME ACROSS THE COUNTRY) stating that they had been having this problem a lot lately but she assured me that she had put it in her mailbox on 5/8......

WELL WELL WELL..... today I received this book.....  which was POSTMARKED ON 6/5.... the day after swearing to me that she had mailed it on 5/8.............

So now what? I mark it received and yet she gets credit even though it was mailed a MONTH later than it was supposed to be....  and she totally LIED on top of that????????

I am just downright angry... not so much about it happening as that I was just blatantly lied to with such ease......  What do you guys do in this situation???  Do I now have to go to the transaction archive and mark it received????

Never quite had this situation before, so I don't know what to tell you to do.  But I do know that when you mark a book received, you have the option of putting in the postmark date (if there is one).  And if the postmark is after they said they'd mail it, PBS sends an email about not mailing it on time.  So I assume that means they also keep track of these things, and if it's a common occurrence they'd take action.

I'd mark it received, but in the notes after you mark it received, note that the postmark was 6/5/09.

If you want, mention in the 'is there anything else you want pbs to have on record' part that the sender promised it had been sent 5/8.

Jacqueline, was it a rubber stamp postmark, or the kind of stamp that you pay for at the counter?  If it was a rubber stamp, it IS possible that the book was sitting somewhere for a while and wasn't postmarked.  I know because it happened to me once with a book I sent--I got a message from PBS saying I had mailed the book after I said I did.  I was really peeved, because I NEVER mark a book mailed until I have mailed it.  So, there's a chance that she mailed it when she said she did.  I'm kind of cynical so I would think you reminded her that she never mailed the book, so she popped it in the mail right away.  Who knows?  But, you do have to mark it received, just do as suggested above and fill in the questions when you do.  (You didn't order a replacement copy of the book yet, did you?  If so, don't mark it received, check the help center instead--if the timing is right you don't have to mark it received under those circumstances.)

If it has an actual meter strip saying it was mailed after the lost date, you do not have to mark it received. The rules require us to mark books received unless we receive it after the lost date and they mailed it over 2 weeks late without communicating that that with the receiver.

If it is just stamps with the PO stamper cancelling them, then you run into a a grayer area where they could have mailed it on time and the PO lost it. I would lean towards following the help docs and not marking it with a postmark on it since I think it is very rare that the PO loses/holds on to books until the exact time that the receiver PMs about it, then miracles happen and the book happens to start travelling.

I think you should mark it received. Even though it is late and that is very annoying ... still she sent it, and still, you received it.  And, you haven't mentioned that you ordered another copy after it went lost, so...

You should be the nicer person and mark it received. Although, you should note for PBS that it was probably mailed very late.

As upsetting as it is, you did get the book and it is assumed it is a postable one.  So you could do her damage and it might be a wake-up call for her if this is a chronic problem.  OTOH, you might want to ask her (please don't hurt me for suggesting this!!) about it first.  I have a bad post office which routinely loses things - some permanently.    I've sent out books only to have them sit in that post office for a long while first.  So before you hurt her, you might want to ask.  She really should have owned  up to it's being late, but there might be a good reason for it.  I've had my son forget to mail something for me and he only had to drop it in the blue box!   You might want her to know you've noticed and that you can call her on it which might stop her from doing this again.  I don't like being lied to either, but I know some people will lie to avoid a confrontation.  If she had been more dishonest she could have just never sent the book and the system would have declared it lost and no one would have ever known.  That isn't a good thing at all.  But she did eventually send the book, and I hope she continues to do so.  Just stop and cool down before you do anything at all so that you are clear on what and why you are doing it.  She may deserve being dinged on this and she might not.

Ruth

OK.. thanks for all of the thoughts...  it was NOT a rubber stamp postmark...  it was the kind where you go into the post office, have them weigh it, and they print out the postage right there that says 2.38 and the date on it.....  so obviously she did not mail it until last Friday....  I had not ordered another copy of this book yet...    before I mark it received in the system, I am going to politely PM the sender and let her know that I did receive it and I also NOTICED the post mark.....  I will be calm and nice and see what she says....  more soon I hope... LOL