I mailed a book. It has not been marked recieved as of yet.. (of course the system hasn't decided its lost as of yet). However my question is if it is l determined to be lost, will I loose both the book and the credit. OR will I get a credit???

If it is not marked received & you did not use the site's postage, then sadly, yes you would lose both. Occasionally, the site will intervene if you have proof that it was received and that the owner simply didn't mark it as such. If it was to a PO box, the person may not collect their mail often. Hopefully it turns up for you.

If you used PBS postage, you will already have the credit and you will keep it.

If you mailed it without, then you receive your credit only when the other member marks it as received.

That said, PBS does send out two reminders in the week before the book turns lost.  One a week before, one a day before.

If you used non PBS postage and have a tracking number, you can contact PBS if the tracking records the book as arriving. PBS would then review the account to see if it looks active. If there has been no log ins or activity other than auto-request books, then PBS has been known to transfer the credit. Doing this basically manually moves the account into the flagged non response pile. Otherwise, the system waits until several failed responses before the account gets flagged for human review.

Whenever I have a book about to go lost, I PM the member to say that I DID mail the book on (fill in the date) and to inquire if they have received it yet. If they have I ask that they please mark it received so that I might receive my credit. If they haven't, I give instructions on how to mark a book received after going lost in their transaction archive. I ask that they confirm receipt of the PM.

If I have not heard from them in 5 days, I let PBS know and that has often led to PBS marking the book received because the member has become inactive. You are required to respond to PMs within 5 days, and PBS takes that very seriously. It is remarkable how many people will mark a book received after they have gotten that PM from me. Sometimes books DO go lost/get destroyed in the mail but in my experience most books are delivered and people just forget to mark them received.

It is amazing how many get marked after the PBS reminder email.

That said, be polite. There have been times that a book has been marked as delivered when it wasn't. One sub carrier marked every parcel as delivered without actually doing it. One book was delivered to a neighbor who didn't bother to walk next door to give it to me. (Or put it out for the carrier.)

When my mail was held, all the books were scanned as delivered. Yes, to the plastic bin in the post office backroom, not to my house.

Sally, you said

Whenever I have a book about to go lost, I PM the member to say that I DID mail the book on (fill in the date) and to inquire if they have received it yet. If they have I ask that they please mark it received so that I might receive my credit. If they haven't, I give instructions on how to mark a book received after going lost in their transaction archive. I ask that they confirm receipt of the PM.

Would you be willing to share the PM that you write? I'd like to do this, but my writing style tends to be a bit too abrupt.

Robin

Robin C., as requested, this is the PM I send:

I see that this book is slated to "go lost" in a few days. I wanted to assure you that I did mail it on December 30th. If you did receive it and haven't had a chance to mark it received, then please do so that I may receive my credit. If you did not receive it, then let's hope it has just been delayed and you can mark it received in your transaction archive when it does arrive. Please either mark the book received or PM me back within 5 days letting me know that it hasn't arrived yet. Thanks for your time. Happy reading.

Yes, that has always worked for me......sending a polite reminder works wonders!

Sending a polite reminder has always worked for me, and now that the PO prints out the delivery confirmation # on their receipt (for both media and first class), I always check the USPS site, enter the tracking number, and see if it's actually been delivered. Then I also put that info in the message also. PBS has also been wonderful about giving me my credit with proof of the DC#, on the rare occasion that the member had their request on auto but is no longer an active member, and doesn't respond to messages or e-mail's.