I'm sure this has come up before but I don't remember the answer.  Is there anything I can do about a late mailer?  Received a book today.  The sender marked this book mailed on 8/8/07.  The postmark says 8/20/07.

I considered not marking it as received.  Petty and against club rules, I know.  I even considered waiting a few days to mark it but, in the end, I marked it received and filled out all the info and added a note at the bottom about the sender marking it mailed 12 days before they actually did.

I always PM the sender a thank you when I receive a book.  I couldn't say anything to this person.  I would have understood mailing it late had they had the courtesy to PM me and let me know that there was going to be a delay.

Was it a metered stamp from the PO or were the stamps post marked on route? Sometimes I get books that have never even been post marked. I imagine sometimes they get post marked on route which would make it look like it was mailed late.

The right thing to do was what you did. That's why they have a place to fill in the post mark date. This way R&R have a way to track those who mail out late regularly. Not marking it received would be wrong and unfair. Who knows it may have been mailed on the 8th.

We've had members here who have posted that they received a notice from PBS about late postmarks and they swear they mailed their books on time, so I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Now a metered post mark would make me look at it differently. I agree if you can't mail on time just send out a pm as a courtesy.

It's a nice, clear metered poststrip from the PO counter.  Very easy to read, no mistaking the date of mailing.

Ahhh... then I agree with you. Annoying. I've only had it happen a time or two but I always pm if I'm mailing even a day late. Just a common courtesy.

You did the right thing, Sarah.

When I get those, I always say that I reported it and that if they had P.M.'d me about it, I wouldn't have minded. I always hope that the next time they do that, they P.M. the person!! No way to tell, though.

You did the right thing Sarah.  They will at least have a "ding" on their account now for late mailing, so if they do it a lot their account could be suspended.  What really stinks is when you think the book is lost and you order another copy.  Then you end up with 2 of the same book, which is really unfair.  It's happened to me before.  If people need to mail a book late, then they should pm the requestor and let them know that it was mailed late.  Would that be so hard?

I just had one mail TWENTY DAYS after the day they marked it mailed. And, yes, I could tell based on the fact that they bought the postage at the post office, and the strip shows the date purchased. A PM would have been appreciated. I wouldn't have minded.

I got another one today, that I should have checked over better. I marked it received, and it is coming apart at the spine. That is one mistake I will not make again.

Simply list the date that the book was actually mailed on the survey when you mark the book received.  That's what it is for.  That way, they can find those who are habitual late mailers and deal with them.

Although I sympathize with your frustration, you shouldn't ever fail to mark a book received.

In other words, you did the right thing.