Should the calendars-that-be on PBS know no mail days like Sundays and postal holidays? I'm just thinking about the upcoming Labor Day double-whammy no mail day. I remember being surprised that I sometimes see "you must mail by X day" and it's a Sunday. If someone ordered something and it ended up being one of those days, wouldn't the calendar know and push it back a day? (Or worse, forward?) I'm thinking about if a book owner accepted a book to mail "within 5 days" and that 5th day was Sunday or Monday, what to do? I've also seen the list of days when they ask you "When can you mail this book?" and Sunday is one of the choices. Am I making sense?

You make complete sense.  And I totally agree with you.  The odd thing is, when I go to print my postage on the wrapper, it never gives me a Sunday date for the Post Mark.  So the system knows at some level.  You'd think that would follow through the site.

The system doesn't take Sundays and holidays into account when setting mail-by dates and sending reminder emails. You can mark a book mailed before you actually mail it in this case. I think the Help Center says 48 hrs, which should cover you for any postal holidays.

You can mail on sunday and holidays. Just put PBS postage on it, stamps on less than 13oz, or APC postage and drop it in a bluebox or put it in your mailbox for pickup if your carrier takes packages. I utilize the APC after hours and on Sundays quite often. It just means you deliver it to the USPS for shipping, it doesn't have to be that it starts moving on that day.

I just choose the date I will actually mail the book. 

• To get a holiday Monday deadline, you would either have said that you would mail on Saturday, or you chose "I can mail within 2 days" on Wednesday.
• To get a Sunday deadline, you would have had to have said you would mail on Friday, or you chose "I can mail within 2 days" on Tuesday.

Don't have to worry about it if you actually mail on the date you said you would mail. :)

For those of us who don't use PBS postage, one of these answers doesn't exactly apply... I just wanted to make that clear. Well, if it happens, I'll try to play the waiting game. I usually accept requests immediately, but if the "wait two days to accept" plus "wait 5 days to mail" jive enough to pass that two-day no mail zone, I'll do that.

I think you could still accept the request right away and avoid the hated waiting game (I'm not a fan of it either).  Depending on when the request comes to you, you can either mail right away as normal or, if that puts you too close to the holiday, just choose the option to mail later and choose a day after the holiday.

I like to get things in the mail right away, too, so I can see why it bothers you.  Of course, you could also just mark it mailed a day or two before you are able to send it and pm the requestor to let them know what you did.  The message will be linked to the transaction, so if anyone checks to see why the postmark didn't match the date it was marked mailed they will see your explanation.

I'm sure any reasonable requestor will understand the situation. :)

edited for typo

Yes, I agree, martinka.  No biggie to mail a day late, or even two, in that circumstance, but you do have to mark mailed before the deadline or the thing gets canceled.  I can't imagine being upset myself if someone mails a little late.   Life's wayyyy too short.

I mail on time or early but I am the kind of person who is half an hour early for everything so...  I don't expect everyone to be neurotic in the same way. :)

I can mail packages at a local postal substation 7 days a week. Granted, packages left on Sunday will not go anywhere until Monday, but when I hand them over and pay the postage charge, they are officially mailed.

That said, I never mail anything on Sunday. If I don't make it in time on Saturday, I wait until Monday. But, yes, it's possible.

I wouldn't stress about it.  If it happens that the mail by date is a Sunday or a Holiday, you still have 48hrs after that to mark it mailed.  If worse came to worse and the mark by date was a Sunday or a Holiday and you hadn't mailed it yet-you could print it out, wrap it up and mark it mailed and just mail it the next day. But I'm guess you wouldn't let that happen very often. 

If you're really worried about it-use the printed postage or keep some stamps handy. 

The help files actually address this issue:

A book must be mailed within 48 hours of marking it mailed

• It is okay to mark your book mailed before you have mailed it if:

  • The deadline date falls on a postal holiday
  • Your computer/Internet access is unreliable
  • You plan to mail the book on your way out of town