What is the deal with members marking that they have mailed a book to me and then a week later I get this pathetic email that oops they forgot to mail the book or they have been sick?!  If they can't mail it in time aren't they supposed to decline the request?  This is the third time this has happened to me in a couple of months.  Is there something I should report to PBS or does the system automatically monitor things like this?

Personally I don't mark a book mailed unless it is IN the mailbox.  I would report to PBS so that they can track if it is  a one time thing or if someone is habitually doing this.

I agree, I don't mark the book mailed until I physically return from sending it. I don't understand marking it mailed before it actually leaves your hands. That is such a bummer for the waiting member. You wasted a week anticipating a book only to find out it wasn't even heading your way.

it is possible that she planned to mail it and then something happened and she couldn't get to the post office.  There is something in the help documents that you can mark it mailed (you'll have to do the search because I don't remember the details) but I personally never mark a book mailed until it is in the box.  Now if I'm making a run to the post office right then I might mark it mailed but I usually wait until I come back home.

I'm not saying she was right, just another possibility

Some times, you are sick and you send books off to be mailed with your spouse only to find that they are still sitting in his car a week later.  Or you wrap 20 books, drive straight to the post office and mail them and a month later discover that you only mailed 19 and that 20th book fell out of the bag and slid under the seat of the car.  Or you discover that your mail guy had a bin of mail spill in his car and didn't realize that there was a book under the seat of his car.  Swear to god, this has happened.  Mail guy at least left a note in my mailbox about finding the package.  Or the time that one of our members wrapped their books, marked them mailed and headed to the post office only to be in a serious car accident on the way.

I'm just saying that occasionally, there are valid reasons to mark a book mailed and then discover it still in your possession.  More often than naught, the problem is that people just want their credit, so mark it as mailed ASAP.  Silly people.  But, because you never know who you are dealing with, the "deadbeat" or the accidental late mailer, it's best not to make sweeping generalizations about learning that your book is a week further away.

Kerry

Thanks for the input.  I try to be very careful too and don't click "mailed" until it is at the post office.  This last time was really the straw that broke the camel's back as the member then reminded me to mark the book received so she could get the credit ASAP.  I wanted to send a snarky comment back about people who cheat the system but I refrained!

I would have probably said something like "when I receive it is when I will mark it received, but not before" because what if something happened and it never showed up?  you'd be out a credit with no recourse!

I would just make sure that I filled out the survey with the actual mailing date so that it is one record about the delayed mailing date.

For the response, I would let her know that I would mark it received as soon as I received it.

most people are well meaning and to tell you the truth... I never even look to see if it was mailed on time! I am always glad to receive it when ever I do. I know that once or twice out of the hundreds of books I have sent it has not gotten mailed when it should have and both were just one of those things. SO i have grace for others and really never even check the postmarks.

:-)

Because we basically live paycheck to paycheck, I will click the mail later link and pick the farthest date.  And then I ONLY mail on every other Friday (my paydays).  So, I may check that the book was mailed on a Wednesday, and because of finances mail it on Friday.

If and ONLY if I have extra funds in my PBS account will a book be mailed within 2 days of granted request.  Last payday I put enough in to cover the transactions for all the books I have sent this last week.  But as of now my PBS account is empty.

Luckily payday is this Friday.

It might be worth noting that when using Delivery Confirmation a book has to be marked mailed before it's scanned to get the quick credit.  That might not apply to your situation, but it is a reason to mark the book mailed before taking it to the PO.  It still needs scanned, though, so I'd imagine few people bother forgetting after that point.

I think there is a difference between those that mark it mailed as they are walking out the door going TO the PO and those that mark mailed just after they print the wrapper out.

Dont say it is mailed if it has not being mailed that day because life can jump up and slap you silly. 

This just happened to me.  I marked them mailed right before I was out the door to run errands(P.O.) on Friday.  Got in the car suddenly got some really bad pains on right side.  Totally freaked out(they hurt so bad).  My kids called my husband.  Husband came home took me to doctor, got sent home, then was told by doctor to go to ER because of some blood test results.  Had appendix removed at 1:30 in morning Saturday.  Books still sitting in car...my friend is taking them tomorrow to PO. 

I tend to mark as I'm on the way to the PO or blue box. I've forgotten to do so when I plan on doing it after. Still grateful to the member who buddied me the credits cause her books did get to her. Anyway I did once leave the books in my car for a week unitentionally and PMed the member recieving the books as soon as I realized that and tried to offer them a free book, credit, whatever as an appolige for the delay.

((please forgive my spelling))

Some people have limited access to computers as well and mark it mailed right away because they might not be able to get back online before it times out. 

I've only had one book I ordered go "lost".  The woman gave her husband a bunch of books to mail. He put them in the trunk of his car and forgot about them.  3 wks later she PMS me saying that she found the books in his trunk and mailed them ASAP.  I didn't mark them received until I actually got them.  They ended up only being a few days late. 

Fill out the survey when the books come.  Put in the mail by date if you can read it on the package.  Someone who chronically has books mailed late and going lost will get a friendly reminder from PBS to get their books mailed on time or put their account on hold if they're too busy to mail them out.

I will mark the books mailed when I KMOW I am going to the PO on my way to work....and on the off chance I am running late......ie fooling around on PBS, I will mail on my way home from work.

I almost always click that I mailed the book shortly after printing the wrapper because I keep stamps on hand and mail them from home. Only once did I ever forget and have to mail a book a couple days late because I was out of stamps and the post office was closed.  I pm'd the person and told them what happened. I am currently waiting on a book that the sender says they mailed 3 or 4 weeks ago.  It is set to go lost in a few days. I have gotten two reminder notices from PBS asking if I have received the book-no I haven't-and my guess is that is because it was mailed out late.  The last time this happened my daughter got tired of waiting for her book (it had timed out several times before someone finally accepted) and she bought it, and then the book showed up and sure enough it had been mailed late-no pm saying oops sorry, it's on it's way now. My daughter spent $15 on a book for no reason.

I understand that stuff happens, and people can make a mistake or get busy but a quick pm to explain what happen and say sorry can go a long ways.  The book we are waiting on right now was a wish list book that we have been waiting to come available for over a year.