Do you ever get the feeling that a book you mailed and it went lost in the mail that maybe it was received and they didn't mark as received?  I don't know why but I have a strange feeling..?

I guess I'll start getting DC confirmation on all that I send.
 

I've only had 2 book never get marked received, and I thought 1 of those was probably really received. The other ... who knows?

But I still do not think that paying more in order to get the guaranteed credit makes sense. I've mailed more than 1500 books out ... if I had paid for DC on all of those it would have been about $400 or $500 dollars ... crazy when you can buy a new credit for 2 bucks in the Book Bazaar. I would have paid $400 to get $4 bucks worth of lost credits back.

Now that there is no separate DC anymore, you would have to use printable postage from PBS and pay the 50 cent postage fee to get the guaranteed credit from PBS. So, for every 4 books you mail, you could have bought a credit instead. Unless 25% of the books you mail out are going lost in the mail ... it's not worth it.

Now, there are lots of other good reasons to buy postage from PBS, but the guaranteed credit by itself isn't one of them, as it's not cost effective. If the other benefits are something you enjoy, then the guaranteed credit is just a bonus.

Yes ,that makes sense Sara .

I think there are some things hat don't mark books and received. I have had 9 I sent out go lost in mail yet the dc shows delivered. 

Well, I once sent a book and it was marked lost in the mail.  I contacted recipient and told her it should have been delivered.  She said it must have been delivered to another house because she never got it.  So I PM'd her back, told her I used PBS tracking and that it showed it was delivered a while ago.  The very next day she PM'd me and guess what?  It had been delivered!  Just showed up on her doorstep that night!  I'm not saying she was trying to get the book and her credit back, too, but...I've never regretted using PBS postage since.

a couple of years ago, I had a book scanned as delivered to me, that actually appeared in my mailbox 16 days later. The PO does mess up.

Now tracking comes free with your media mail packages........I have a 'friend' here who ordered a WL book from me.  Tracking shows it was delivered last Friday, but when I PM'd her and asked if she got it, she replied that yeah she got some packages Friday but wouldn't get around to opening that mail til today!  Just looked, and it's still not marked received!

My neighbors have brought packages to my door that were mis-delivered to them.

There have been many times when tracking shows delivered but I did not get the package until a day or more later.  

It's wonderful that tracking is now free with Media Mail packages sent at a post office.  I send the tracking number to the recipient via PM so he/she can watch the package progress if desired (and so they know I'm watching it, too).  I'm "nosy" and want to know what's happening to the packages I send.  I realize the scan info isn't completely accurate, but it's better than just dropping a book in a blue box and hoping for the best.

If a book isn't marked received a week after tracking says it was delivered, I send a brief friendly PM ("The book I sent you shows it was delivered on XX/XX/XXXX per US Postal Service tracking - I hope it was delivered to you!  Thanks for checking.")  100 percent of the time the book is quickly marked received with a brief note of explanation for the delay (illness, travel, internet issues, etc.).

a couple of years ago, I had a book scanned as delivered to me, that actually appeared in my mailbox 16 days later. The PO does mess up.

Yup. Just recently, I had a wish list book offered to me. I requested it. She mailed it and while her tracking showed it as delivered not long after, it was not. So, eventually, the system showed it as lost in the mail. I went back to the top of the list, another copy was offered and I requested it. She mailed it and her tracking showed it as having been delivered less than a week later, but no. A few days after that, both copies, mailed more than a month apart, showed up on the same day.

I exchanged PMs with both members about what their tracking said had happened and what had actually come to pass. Both were gracious and very understanding. I saw no indication that they though I was trying to put one over on anybody. Considering the number of books I've sent and received without incident compared to the rarity of problems, I tend to just assume the best of the people here in swapping. 

Yes, tracking is now free. However, if you want the instant credit (or the credit guarantee) from PBS, you have to pay the postage fee to PBS.