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Topic: Mailed late With water damage

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NJSurferGirl avatar
Subject: Mailed late With water damage
Date Posted: 12/19/2012 6:00 PM ET
Member Since: 3/17/2008
Posts: 333
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This is really just a rant, but today I received a book that had gone lost in the mail some time ago and the DC shows it was just mailed yesterday. My account is currently on hold because I am in the process of moving. We bought a house and are back and forth between the old and new addys right now and as of Jan 15th, all of my old mail will be forwarded. Had this person kindly emailed before her late mailing, I would have told her not to mail the book at all. i don't think it's fair to mail books AFTER they have been marked lost in the mail. What makes matters even worse, is that this book has liquid damage. The damage isn't that severe, but the book is not postable so it shouldn't have been mailed at all. Yes, I marked it RWAP, but i think there should be some sort of system in place so that when a book is clearly mailed late with PBS's own DC system, that the system should automatically remove the credit from the sender. Now I have to wait and see if she'll do the right thing and refund the credit. Since the rules were already broken twice with the mailing of this book, I'm not that hopeful.

Patouie avatar
Standard Member medalMember of the Month medalBook Cover Image Coordinator medalBook Data Approver medalTour Guide Asst. Coord. medalFriend of PBS-Silver medalPBS Cruise Attendee medalPBS Blog Contributor medalPrintable Postage medal
Date Posted: 12/19/2012 6:11 PM ET
Member Since: 8/26/2006
Posts: 9,656
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The rules say that if you are mailing a book more than 4 days after you marked it mailed, you are required to PM and get permission before mailing it.  See: Can I mail a book later?

However, it would be unusual for the book to have been mailed yesterday, and to have arrived at your house today.  Maybe it was sent from a neighboring city, but do check the return address on the package to see if the sender on the package matches the sender in your transaction archive.  And check whether the DC scan was a scan from the sender's city or from yours.  Perhaps it never was scanned until your Post Office received it for delivery.

DC isn't considered proof of when a package was mailed.

That said, it does go against the rules to mail a package way late.  Normally, when you are marking a book "received with a problem" you can choose "late postmark" as the problem if there is a legible postmark showing the package was mailed late.  But the water damage was more important in this case, so marking it "damaged by sender" was the right thing to do.  If you also entered the postmark date, then the site will send the sender an email about late mailing.

 

 

NJSurferGirl avatar
Date Posted: 12/19/2012 6:18 PM ET
Member Since: 3/17/2008
Posts: 333
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The delivery confirmation record states scanned at her post office yesterday morning, scanned received at my sorting center last night, scanned received at my post office this morning and received at my unit at 5pm. Book was mailed from a neighboring state where I often send and receive media packages within one day. To drive there and back is roughly 5 hours, so it's very possible.

okbye avatar
Barb S. (okbye) - ,
Date Posted: 12/19/2012 7:34 PM ET
Member Since: 3/14/2011
Posts: 5,767
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Did you ask them if they just mailed it? Someone has said here before that if the p.o. messes something up, like they misplace it or damage the packaging, they sometimes print a new label giving a false postmark. Was it first scanned into the system yesterday?

fangrrl avatar
Member of the Month medal
Date Posted: 12/19/2012 11:24 PM ET
Member Since: 12/28/2006
Posts: 14,177
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Are you sure this is the origional sender?  If it was a book from your wishlist, it would have been returned to your wishlist when it went lost and could have been mailed by a second member. 

Yes, Im not doubting the one day shipping.  Books I mail to other Western Washington PBS members are often delivered in one day (even Media Mail). 

thekoose avatar
Date Posted: 12/21/2012 7:40 AM ET
Member Since: 11/28/2010
Posts: 754
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What does the postmark on the package say, and is it from the city that it originally was mailed from?

NJSurferGirl avatar
Date Posted: 12/21/2012 6:30 PM ET
Member Since: 3/17/2008
Posts: 333
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Person refunded credit after admitting mailing late. Said her son was supposed to mail it but didn't. Since credit was refunded, I marked it resolved. :)