I was expecting a package from a member in Iowa yesterday. I live in LA. She paid for DC and so I was able to look at tracking. Yesterday I saw the message "out for delivery." The mail came around 6pm. No book. Now, I am not sure my street has a regular carrier anymore as one day the mail comes at 10am the next like yesterday around 6pm. What is strange is I have seen on the next block over, an old regular mail carrier to this street but then she is long gone when my mail finally comes so don't think it's her. Problem is this morning I checked tracking again. I am seeing the error message "undeliverable as addressed. It is being returned." The sender did mail first class so she should get it back? I did call USPS 800# customer service. Awesome FYI on that, if someone does not answer immediately but you are offered a call back within a time period do it. I got a call back within 10 minutes. That lady was very kind she looked up tracking but said all she saw on her end was "undeliverable." She was not even seeing the "why." She recommended I hurry and call my local PO to try and stop the package from being returned to sender.

Lol, trying to call my local PO. Actually the one closest to me they do answer. They are also not a main branch which is where I needed to call. That branch does not answer their phone very rarely, just is busy or constantly rings before timing out. I did manage to speak to someone for  second. He asked me my zip code. I told him. He asked me to hold on and that was that! He never came back.

I will print out the tracking and hopefully be home when the mail does come. Going to the main branch PO, based on previous experiences, is much like trying to call them. You need to wait to talk to a supervisor and that person may or may not be there. I understand they are a busier branch but their customer service from my end could be better! I may try to go anyway.

What should I do now? Should I wait to contact the sender until today's mail comes though it does not sound like the package will be there (my address, btw, was correct on the label it shows me)? Should I contact PBS? I don't think it's going to go missing. More likely by end of next week the latest the sender will get back her book. I know since she used DC on here she did get her credit. I'm glad of that. Do I get my credit back? Doesn't seem fair for me to pay for a book I may never get.

Thank you!

If she used the PBS postage, she purchased insurance for misdelivery from PBS not delivery confirmation. PBS should give you your credit back as the book was not received and also not take the credit back from shipper because she paid for their insurance. You need to contact PBS.

In my experience when I have gotten that message it has always been a mistake by the mail carrier. I have never had a package returned after that message.

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Thank you all very much for your replies, I appreciate it! :)

Mary, I myself have never used PBS postage and am not 100% on how it works. I see the yellow box with green arrow and my name and address for this transaction. I'm able to click on it and view the history. On that page it just says something like no update. It is when I type in the tracking # on USPS that I see the error message. On here it does say Delivery Confirmation which I am thinking is tied into insurance?

Charles, I am sorry to hear something similar happened to you, too and you never did get your package :(

Wow! Gordon B that is a tale. I am so glad you finally did get your package. I never thought of the possibility of the wrapping being incorrect and that causing the issue.

Update of sorts is I finally did talk with the main PO over the phone. I gave that man the tracking # and he saw what I was. He told me something surprising and that is my regular mail carrier is indeed the lady I often see a block away. She has weekends off and today's carrier is supposed to be a man named Peter who often filled in for the lady carrier (Lesher) when she was out due to health issues for a couple years. The person I spoke to, he never gave his name, said he would attempt to call Peter to find out if the package was on his truck for today's delivery and then call me to let me know. So far no call, no mail delivery. I understand the PO gets busy and also Peter may not have been reached, don't know. I will keep a book thought and hopefully it'll surprise me later when mail does come. If it doesn't and tracking still says same thing (it does now) I will contact the sender. I may give contacting PBS (what do you guys think)? another couple days to see if the package does come maybe by Tuesday?

USPS estimates arrival before 9/10/2015
Date of system action: 9/11/2015 12:00 AM ET
Please do not contact us before this date.

I think that is probably not applicable here as pretty much the book may very well be returned to sender.

Happy Weekend and Reading to all!

Mona, I would not contact PBS about this until after the date they said, 9/11.  Actually, I would try to work it out with the sender before contacting PBS.

One thing to keep in mind is that the post office does not deliver very fast when it comes to something that is being returned to the sender (for undeliverable addresses, refused, etc.) and media mail seems to be the lowest in line for a return.  I've had a return to sender media mail pkg take 3 months to get back to me. If the pkg is going back to the sender, hopefully it won't take longer than a couple of weeks.

Good News: Package came this afternoon :) Thanks again everyone.

That's great news.

Thank you, I was most thankful to see it.

Glad you got your package!

For the record, there is no need to contact PBS when this type of thing happens. The system takes care of it completely automatically.

If the book is never delivered to you, then you never mark it received, and you get your credit back after the time period no matter what.

If the sender mailed it with PBS postage, then she will also get a credit to keep (from PBS) because she has paid for that service by using PBS postage.

If the sender mailed it without PBS postage and PM'd you the Tracking number and that's how you knew the tracking number, then she would not get a credit from PBS, she is just out the credit.

(This is fair because this is how PBS handles the situation when the PO messes up ... if the book is lost completely, then the receiver gets their credit back and the sender is out of luck. If the book is damaged during mailing but ends up being delivered, then the receiver marks it received and pays the credit, which the sender keeps.

Damage or loss caused by the PO are both pretty rare, and that's the fairest way for PBS to handle the situation where neither the sender not the receiver is at fault ... in half the situations the sender gets the ding and in the other half, the receiver gets the ding.)

If you contacted PBS, at most, what they would have done is canceled the transaction early, and only after asking if the SENDER agreed that it needed to be done, so you could get your credit back early. PBS only cancels transactions early at the request of the book SENDER and not the book receiver, because as you have seen, book scans can be unreliable and incorrect.

Thank you Sara for taking time to type up that very handy FYI!

A very similar thing happened to me about 3 weeks ago with some jeans I ordered for DH from American Eagle Outfitters.  He is tall and skinny and they are one of the only places that carry jeans that fit him at a reasonable price.  He tends to get paint etc on his jeans and he was desperate for the new pairs.  They usually come quickly.  Well I watched the tracking and got the "Out for Delivery" then "Undeliverable as Addressed".  That really ticked me off because I knew the address was correct.  I'd ordered from them many times before.  Well the next day they came.  My theory was the carrier forgot to deliver them and selected that reason, forgot to deliver probably isn't a choice and they went back out again the next day.  Just a theory.

Wow, I am very glad the jeans did come, Theresa. That would be much more expensive to invest in than a book credit on here!