A member requested a book and then said it was never recieved so I lost the credit or book per say. Ok whatever I have sent out 50 or so so just once I'll say ok. Now I have had another member request a book and they have not marked it recieved. I pm'ed once no response. It has till June 9 before I can say but, Im guessing if they never repond I will once again loose my book - credit? Does anyone know? Now I am scared to send books ...

I think that that's just part of mailing books.  I requested a book once that never came so the sender lost his/her book and the credit.  I'm about to experience that on the other side now.  I sent a book to a city within 2 hours of me and two weeks later it still hasn't arrived.  Doesn't bode well.  I'm probably going to lose the book, postage costs and the credit I would have received.  C'est la vie. 

If you pm'd the receiver and they don't respond, I would contact The Powers That Be.   The receiver should at least respond to the pm.  If they don't then you might have a case for getting your credit. 

darn it :( I have to wait till teh 9th to contact them. I'll keep waiting. Just makes me leary to send books out now. What can I do to prevent that? Get delivery confirmation?

I use delivery confirmation and the extra expense is worth it to me. Some don't feel it's worth it though. I have been trading since December and have had one receiver get the book damaged by PO and I am waiting for a book bazaar deal that is lost in the mail.I did not lose a credit either way. Probably the DC isn't really necessary but I like it!

Denise

Delivery Confirmation would probably do the trick.  I do that sometimes.  I send out so many books it's just not economical for me to DC all of them.  I'll do it if I'm mailing more than one book (to one address) or sending it to an APO (because it takes so long) or if I just want to get my credits right away.  I've sent out a lot of books in a short period of time and this will be my first book that gets lost.

The question of whether DC is worth it or not is up to the person buying it.  All that really matters is whether or not you're willing to spend the money for credit assurance, or you can accept the risk of losing a credit here & there.  Some people say that they lose so few credits to situations like this, it's not worth the additional expense, and others say they'd rather spend the money & not have to worry.  To me, it's basically like buying insurance or AAA coverage - just not as cost effective:P

If the book isn't due to go lost until June 9th then you pm'd this person way too early. Especially if it was sent media mail. There is a reason that PBS gives 26 days before marking a book lost. It's because they frequently take that long.  I've had books go media mail and take a month to one state over and I've sent other books mm and they went cross county in 2 days.  Someone mailed me a book within my state last week and it still took 3 days to travel only a few hours.  I don't normally pay attention to DC scans but I do check them sometimes. I've seen books scanned at my local post office and not show up in my mail box for a week. I've seen books spend a week or two at my local PO and get multiple scans there before finally being moved on down the road.  And books do sometimes go lost. I've had 3 enroute to me go lost and 1 that I've sent.  That's 4 out of over 1,000 trades.

If you are going to stress over every book that takes more than a week to arrive-then the PBS DC might be worth it to you.  For me, since I have time to go to the PO-it's a waste of money.  I've sent out over 500 books and the PBS DC fee on 500 would have been $230.  More than enough to cover a lost credit.  But I don't monitor my transactions all that closely once they're in the mail.

I just stressed about this recently too, and then they answered my PM and marked the book rec'd, I would wait another week before you worry too much, but I know what you mean, it is stressful when the date is coming and you worry that if you don't do anything it will just go lost.  But most of the time it seems to work out.  You just never know, I got a book yesterday that was mailed Monday and I have another out there that was mailed 5/7.............

PBS does require patience! I've been waiting for two books (different senders) which will go lost in the next couple of days...but 2 days ago one member PMd me to say she'd received hers back damaged.

I sent a BOB w/DC which showed delivered. After a week or 10 days, I PMd the member to please check with her PO if she hadn't received it as there might be a problem. She went to the PO and asked...and it was there, but she had never received the pick up slip. She was happy to hear from me.

Also, ensure that you are packaging very carefully. I've received several books lately with wrapping damage...so much so that if they'd remained in the postal system a few days more I doubt I would have received them at all, as all of the wrappers/manila envelopes were torn and hanging on by threads or a bit of tape. :-) 

I just asked because I sent 10 books that day all over the us and all were recived except this one which was only one state over. I'll wait until the 9th. It was a friendly ask I didnt badger this person it was 1 pm. They didnt reply. I dont think thats abnormal? Thanks for the advice.

Don't forget, the system also sends out reminder e-mails to the person who is receiving the book, asking them if they've gotten their books in the mail.  So, there's really no need for you to PM the person, the system is already taking care of that for you.

Deanna, I did the exact same thing.  I mailed 18 books out in one day.  Only two haven't made it to their destination yet.  One is across country so I'm not worried yet on that one.  The other is within 2 hours away.  I pm'd the close one to see if it arrived yet and he/she said not yet.  Still waiting.  The eta is June 8th so see?  You're not alone.  I'm glad you posted this because now I feel a little better.  I'll give it some more time.  Thanks.  : )

Thanks everyone.... The book was marked recieved today! Hope all who are waiting get yours marked soon as well :)

The reminder emails will only be sent if the person has not opted out of receiving them in their settings. And since we have no way of knowing if the person on the other side of our swap gets them or not, it's perfectly acceptable to PM about the order. I did this with an order a few weeks ago because she used DC, but there were no scans. She was happy I PM'd, because her daughter had taken the books out of her mail bag, and this was the case with a few other people's orders as well.

This is exactly why DC is worth it to me. 

I always use it now .... actually I use PBS postage. Put it in the box, the credit is already mine and I'm not relying on someone else to mark the book received.

But that is an individual decision for sure. 

Over the years I've only had about 2 or 3 books that I sent out go lost, so it probably isn't cost effective for me to use PBS postage and DC but I use it anyway just for the peace of mind. I don't have to stress waiting  for someone to mark the book received and better yet, I get my credit right away.

The last is more important to me anyway as I am member number 1 or 2 waiting for about 3 dozen wishlisted books. For all I know I could get 10 of them offered to me on the same day (wishful thinking!) and I would hate to have to buy credits, or worse, turn down the offer. So I like to always have a nice little stockpile of credits. Also, I don't have to add standing in line at the post office to my already long list of Saturday chores. I send out a lot of hardcovers and heavy trade sized paperbacks and with PBS DC I can just drop them into the blue box. 

Just thought I'd say the person could be away on vacation.  I just got back myself and I know that this last week was a popular vacation week.

Good luck!

Deanna lives just south of me where my DD lives.  Depending on where she mailed that book, it might well have gone lost - my PO is the absolute worst in the state.

OTOH - mail within state takes longer if there is no airport nearby the requester.  If that's the case - and it's common = then the mail will go by truck and remember this is Media Mail.  So who knows how long it's trucking around the state or how long it sits in the Distribution Center before it goes out to the Delivery Unit??  TX is a huge state and there aren't that many airports that move mail so if it has to go across TX it can take a long time.

Some of the longest waits I've had is right here in (and from within) VA.  They've gone lost and they've taken forever.  There aren't highways everywhere here.  There are lots of "round about" ways to get where you need to go!

Ruth

I learned a long time ago when mailing packages on another site that DC is worth it to me. I ended up having to refund a book for a lady that claimed she never got the book she ordered from me, and of course, I didn't use DC. Turned out a few weeks later, she emailed me saying that oh I did get the book, it was "misplaced" so I was out the book and shipping and she had a brand new book to enjoy and repost. Ever since that transaction, I send all packages with DC. I have been able to get a couple of transactions resolved in my favor because of buying it.

You think you could stop resurrecting old threads for no reason? There are enough current conversations you can contribute to. kthx

Some of the longest waits I've had is right here in (and from within) VA.  They've gone lost and they've taken forever.  There aren't highways everywhere here.  There are lots of "round about" ways to get where you need to go!

So true! I live in a rural area here in VA and it takes some packages I mail longer to get to another city in VA than it has to get to CA!  Frustrating, to say the least. I can drive to the other cities here faster than mail goes.