i received a wishlist book in the mail today that the sender marked as mailed on the 23rd of February. The Postage label from the post office says that this book was actually mailed on the 11th of March. is there a way to mark this as a problem? I mean they marked the book mailed on the 23rd of February and then didn't mail until 14 days later. i got no pm from this member letting me know that there would be a delay in mailing. so what can i do? this book was due to go lost on 3/23/2015 12:00 AM ET according to the system.

i know that sometimes life and unforeseen things get in the way and delay mailing but that still doesn't excuse waiting 2 more full weeks to take it to the post office and mailing it.

i mean according to my calculations this member took 14 days to mail this book after marking it mailed with no communication to me letting me know that they would be doing so.  would you mark it mail with a problem for late post mark can you even do that? what are my options for this transaction?

March 17, 2015 , 11:37 am

Delivered, In/At Mailbox

SOUTH MILWAUKEE, WI 53172

Your item was delivered in or at the mailbox at 11:37 am on March 17, 2015 in SOUTH MILWAUKEE, WI 53172.

March 17, 2015 , 7:46 am

Out for Delivery

SOUTH MILWAUKEE, WI 53172

March 17, 2015 , 7:36 am

Sorting Complete

SOUTH MILWAUKEE, WI 53172

March 17, 2015 , 6:07 am

Arrived at Post Office

SOUTH MILWAUKEE, WI 53172

March 11, 2015 , 3:31 pm

Departed Post Office

MOTT, ND 58646

March 11, 2015 , 1:51 pm

Acceptance

MOTT, ND 58646

sorry it reads from the bottom.

There is now an option to mark the book as Received With A Problem, late postmark.

(You may also mark it as normal, but fill in the mailing date in the box. That also gets recorded.)

My requested book arrived with a late postmark!

Books that arrive with a late postmark should be marked "received with a problem" and the late postmark can be noted. 

• Providing the late postmark while marking the book received will generate an auto-email to the sender of the book, reminding him or her that late mailing is not acceptable at PBS.
  • The email includes the information that the late postmark could have been entered in error
  • The email includes the information that sometimes postmarks are delayed a few days, even if the book was mailed on time
  • The email includes the information that if the late mailing was agreed to by the requestor, this is not a problem
• You can contact the sender using the text box provided while marking the book received
  • Please be gentle!  You can't know what might have delayed this shipment.
• If the book was declared lost in the mail and you requested and received (or will receive) a second copy because you thought the first one was really lost:
  • If the postmark on the package was from the week before the book was declared lost (or later!), and you got no notification from the sender that the book would be/was mailed late: you do not have to mark this book received (this is the ONE case in which you don't have to mark a received book received: if a very late mailer without notice caused you to reorder the book and end up with two copies).  
  • OR: You can mark it received to note the late postmark, and ask for your credit back in your Personal Message to the sender.  If you don't hear back/don't get the credit back within 3 days you should contact us using the Feedback link at the top of the Contact Us page.
  • You can also note this information about the late mailing in the Comments box at the bottom of the Book Received page, while marking the book received: this will go onto the sender's record.
• A pattern of late mailing will cause account suspension and possibly termination of membership
  • Sometimes late mailing happens for very good reasons, but chronic late mailing will not be tolerated.

I had this happen recently, Molly. But since the weather has been so bad for some, and since she cited snow as the reason for the VERY late mailing, I just let it go. The books arrived, and all was well. 

I am not as lenient as Debbie...I would mark it RWAP, mailed late. It states clearly in the rules that if you cannot mail by the accepted date that you MUST contact the requesting member to let them know that it is going to be mailed late. I live in Michigan, and have been snowbound in the past and have had to contact members to say that while I will be marking it mailed by the date agreed to (so the request does not roll over), due to weather conditions that won't be possible to get it in the mail on that date but that I will mail as soon as I safely can. It only takes a second to do so and the members who have requested the book are universally understanding. I usually follow up with a PM to let them know when it actually is mailed.

edited to add: I would not ask for my credit back because they did send the book.

I've always been up in the air with this. I am happy to get the book and I have noticed that sometimes I get members who mail super late with no pm. Then again I get timeouts after they print the label and have electronic notification..and then never mailed and no pm. So I just think that for some, they figure if they get to it when they get to it, fine and some never get to it.

I wish people would just PM!

I just mark received, enter postage and date mailed..I don't mark RWAP for that because the book was fine.

I'm with Michele, in cases like this I document the date mailed when I mark the book received

I'm with Michele also, she makes good points.  For myself, I never check the bookmarks (I'm easy.)  I'm just happy that I received the book, because if I didn't want it, I wouldn't have ordered it.  I look at it this way:  It's not the only book in my house, I have plenty to read to keep me busy in the meanwhile, and when I get it, it makes me happy.  No sense rushing happy.  

You could PM the sender and let them know the situation, and ask them why they didn't notify you it was going to be sent late.  But if the book was received and it was in decent condition, then why would someone want their credit back?

I recently finally received a book that was marked lost in the mail; she hadn't even mailed it until after it went lost.  No prior contact on the transaction.  I had to go into my transaction archive to mark it received, and the "RWAP - Late Mailing" option wasn't available.  I did, however, enter the date of the postmark in the appropriate box.

I then received a PM apologizing for the late mailing and citing medical emergencies, so I'm guessing that means she got an email, even though I didn't use the RWAP option.  I'm just glad I hadn't gotten around to ordering another copy so I had no problem giving her the credit.  If I'd already received another copy I wouldn't have given her the credit.

How about this one: I had a book go Lost, and I PMed the sender to let them know I was watching for the book and would mark it if it arrived and would hold off ordering another copy for awhile. They PMed back to say mail service had been terrible, etc., which it had, so I figured I'd wait it out.

Two days later, the book arrived first class, having been mailed the day it went missing. Grrr.

I don't check mailing dates as I have so many books to read I can wait.  Everyone I know has busy lives and books do get forgotten to be mailed after wrapping.  It happens.  So what?  PBS asks members to mark books mailed by the date it has in the system.  If I want a book for something special I just email the owner when I request the book.  Never had a problem.  If the book is in good shape that's great.  I've had poorer service from book store sites.  For example, I ordered a book that I wanted sent to another person but it came to my home!   That's happened with pbs, too, so I always email the sender and give them the address, too.  Everyone makes mistakes. 

Marking it RWAP doesn't mean you want your credit back--you still have the option of requesting your credit back or not.
Marking RWAP means they have a mark on their account that they are not following the rules.  
This allows PBS to weed out the people that continually disregard the rules, which helps us all.
 

Would I? Nope.  

I have. Not if they sent me a PM. But without one? Yes, it gets recorded.

Life happens. I'm fine if they let me know. But no contact at all? RWAP.

Ok, This is a different wrinkle.  I just ordered 6 books from the PBS Marketplace, paid for them and they weren't mailed until a month later and that was after I wrote to them.  I didn't receive any info from them as to why they were mailing late.  They still haven't been received.  Ordered 2/9/15.  So if we are unable to mark books we paid for from PBS with an unacceptable mail time, I don't think we should be too hard on our fellow swappers.  JMHO

PS  Haven't had my coffee yet and am still aggravated about those books.

I'm like Emily..I understand life happens but PM. I don't get the lack of communication.

PBS has an address just to report problems with the market. Please do report this. The market is more than one bookseller; PBS needs to know which ones are an issue. (Rumor is that one has been lagging behind the others.)

market@paperbackswap.com

The reason I do RWAP, late mailing, is because if you let it go, some members will just keep doing it. Yes, some people will just keep doing it anyways but at least it is making PBS aware of the people who mail late all the time. I'm a patient person and yes, I have plenty of other books to read, but I also believe in following the rules that every member agrees to follow when they join. Earlier this week I had a book marked as lost in the mail. I PM'd the member to say that I hadn't received the book but if I did I will mark it received in my transaction archive. The response was basically, "don't bother, I marked it mailed but I never actually mailed it". I guess that frees me up to request another copy without worrying that I will get two but it steams me that I have been waiting a month for a book that was actually not mailed.

Emily that's the address Melanie gave me and I wrote to them and they finally sent them.  Just talked to my mum and she did get them yesterday. They did respond to me that they had been waiting on one of the books but I was under the impression because I read it that they would ship the available books and you would not be responsible for additional shipping if any were delayed.  Unfortunately that's not what happened.  All is good now that she got them.

Sally, At about the same time in Feb I swapped a lot of books before the change in case people would take their shelves down.  Three of the books I ordered were "Lost in the Mail".   After waiting  I ordered another copy of one of them as it was a gift.  Strangely enough 2 copies arrived having been postmarked 3/9 and received 3/17 on the same day one from each swapper.  I think the first person was being nice and got me another copy because she previously PMed me she had mailed the first copy 2/5 but I'm not sure so I've PMed her.  If so I wish she had PMed me before sending another copy.

I also agree with Emily.  It's the lack of notification that's a problem, more than the late mailing. 

I had a member contact me one winter during a nasty storm.  She didn't feel safe going out in one of those nasty storms and let me know she would be mailing late (even mail service was suspended).  I encouraged her (as per guidelines, since she had notified me) to go ahead and mark the book mailed before it timed out.  Let her know I was happy to wait until she felt safe venturing out to the post office, and to just let me know when the book was enroute.  Several days later I received a pm that she had been able to safely drive and had mailed the book.  The transaction continued smoothly and everyone was informed and happy.  No problems, no RWAP.

This is not rocket science, little communication goes a long way towards happy membership.

I never record postmark dates. I wish no one did. I never do RWAP, either.  I have had very very few complaints against me, but I don't fight those either. I refund the credit. It is just a darned book and 99% of the time, just one darned credit. I have enough conflict in my life. I'm not going to stress about that kind of stuff.  I do wish there was better communication between swappers.

I understand the desire to avoid a conflict, but not mailing on time and ignoring emails asking about it shouldn't be allowed to persist, either. It's not that hard to send an email, which is all it takes.

I'm with those who say that all I want is to know the situation, so when those "Did X Show Up Yet?" I know the score. I don't like those, if only because I infer they're implying maybe I'm derelict.

If they're a few days late, I just put in the postmark and leave it. A week or more and I'd RWAP.

BTW, do you think they do anything with the postage cost that's input? Some of their weights are so wildly off that the wrapper says $3.17, but I mail it for $2.69. It'd be nice if inputting that info adjusted the wrapper after a few copies.

Craig, any time the weight is off for a book, please send an edit to fix it.  Just click the More Options button next to the image on the book listing.  Scroll down to Edit Book Data and click.  There you can enter the correct weight - or if you don't want to actually put it in the weight field, you can just add a note to the Reason for Edit box stating  the weight of your package or the weight of your book if you can weigh it before packaging.  The approver that gets the edit will fix it.   It just takes a couple of minutes and it helps everyone.  :^)

Unfortunately, the only way I know the weight is off is when I pay for it at the P.O. counter and they slap a $2.69 label on it rather than the $3.17 I expected (or vice versa). On occasion, they tell me it'll be cheaper to send it first class, too. A lot of my books are TPBs, which have to go to the P.O., so I don't try to weigh each book to check them in advance, since I'm buying postage at the P.O.  

I figured getting data to correct those must be why they asked what the postage on the book was when I mark them received. I'm not sure what other purpose there is for asking that if it isn't being put into the system to say that X book can be sent for Y amount. Of course, they used to ask if the label was hand-written, and I have NO idea what that was used for. Maybe they were just nosy.

I guess I'm with some of the people that says no . I would not RWAP.   I live in Michigan and we have had some of the worst weather this year and once we lost internet connection & phone for a bit.

There was at one point a data study to see if books with a barcode label were delivered faster than handwritten labels. After that study was done, the handwritten question was removed. 

For me, I don't care how long the book is with the postal system. We really don't have control over USPS. But a delayed postmark without any communication? Yes, I will record it. I won't ask for my credit. But I feel this behavior should be part of their record with PBS.

I know that PBS is looking for repeated problems. A one time late mailing will not be an issue. A habit would be. One of the major consequences of late mailings is that PBS will remove the Instant Credit option for members with a history of late mailings.