I received a request from another member for 1 of my books (not wishlisted) on July 13,2015. I mailed out the book with tracking on July 18,2015. according to the tracking number the package was received on July 23,2015. I looked at the member's shelf and from what I can tell they hasn't been any activity or logging in since July 20,2015. I have pmed this member this week letting them know that the book is set to time out and go lost this coming Saturday August 15,2015. the thing is I haven't heard back from the member and the item hasn't been marked received. the thing I don't get is this is a request that was initiated by the other member and to me that just seems rude. I mean I know they might be on vacation/out of town. but if that's the case why would they request a book to be sent to them knowing they would be out of town/vacation. I was hoping to at least get a reply saying that they weren't able to mark it received for whatever reason. here is the tracking info.

my question is what would you do. I can't believe that a member hasn't checked their e-mail in 3 weeks. not in this day and age. so I am finding this just plan frustrating.

I've had this happen to me a few times. I just let the PBS team know and they looked into and marked it as received, especially when the book got close to being lost. Click on contact us at the bottom of the page.
 

I can't believe that a member hasn't checked their e-mail in 3 weeks. not in this day and age

Life happens.  The member may have experienced a death in the family, a serious illness of themselves or a family member, a personal tragedy (fire, natural disaster, etc.), the list is endless.  Take a deep breath, contact PBS, and let the system work.

I will just address why people don't use vacation hold when they go out of town. Because they have no control over how long a request might wait before it gets accepted, how many times it might roll over before it gets accepted, or how long it will take other members to mail, or how long the mail might take to arrive. So, to be safe, you probably would need to not request anything for 5-6 weeks before your vacation. Which, in my opinion, isn't really reasonable. A month and a half is about 10% of the membership year. If you take 2 vacations, then that would be 20-25% of the year that you "shouldn't" order books. 

I travel for work every month, for example, so if I didn't want books to ever arrive while I was gone, I would basically never be able to order books.

So, since I can't control how fast or slow other people mail books out, or how fast or slow the mail takes, I order when I want a book, and if it arrives before I travel, then lucky me, and if it doesn't, then it waits until I'm home again.

Then add in the factor that if you have your mail held, it is scanned as delivered when it is put in the Hold box. Not when it is delivered. I can't tell you how often I though a book would arrive before I left. Always seems to be one day after.

The system automatically marks books received instead of lost if the account has not been accessed recently. In addition to the PM you sent, PBS will also send this member 3 auto-emails with the first one going out 2 weeks before the deadline shown on your My Account page. If the member doesn't login at all during those 2 weeks, then the system will mark the book received the day before the system action date. *

Also, if a member fails to mark 2 books received, then her account is put on hold and she can't request any more books (even if they're on auto-request) until she logs in, acknowledges the message explaining why her account is held and manually unholds it.

If this member does login and does not mark the book received, the system will assume she didn't actually get it and will mark it lost. At that point, you can contact PBS and say "hey, she isn't answering my PM, and I think she did get the book because of this delivery scan." They can mark a book received and give you a credit (although you should already have it if you used PBS Printable Postage) at any time, even after it's been marked lost.

* If you get an email asking if you got a book, always login, even if you didn't get the book. This demonstrates that you aren't marking the book received because you didn't get it, not because you abandoned your account.

I understand your frustration. It is irritating when people receive a book and don't mark it received. At this time I have 3 books I have sent out and all 3 have been received and none of them have been marked. I find that a lot of people have to be reminded before they mark a book received.

From the Help Center:

If you sent the book with printed postage/tracking purchased elsewhere and it has been recorded as delivered by USPS but hasn't been marked received yet:

• First, contact the requestor from the active transaction (in the Books I've Mailed tab in My Account), or from the "lost" transaction in your Transaction Archive if the book has been declared Lost in the Mail by PBS.
• If the requestor does not respond to your PM within five days, contact us and we will look into it.
• We cannot grant credit for postage or tracking purchased outside PBS, but we can check if this requestor has become inactive.
• If this requestor is inactive, your book should be marked received by the system.

I just really do not understand why dc does not constitute proof of delivery and enable the member to obtain the credit earned. Confused. What else could the sender do? Delivery proved should be end of discussion. PBS fee is not for dc as that is included is any media mail. So does PBS fee represent insurance to obtain a credit? 
 

What Charles said!

I wind up contacting people a couple of day sbefore going lost..each and everyone gets around to marking it. I guess between my PM and the ones PBS sends, it reminds them. What I don't get is that you can see when some have logged in and you can see they've logged but they don't mark received.

I just really do not understand why dc does not constitute proof of delivery

Mary you have a lot to learn about tracking and the post office. #1 thing to know is that tracking is very unreliable. For instance, some mail carriers scan all their packages before they leave the post office to begin their routes each day. If a package can't be delivered for some reason it will be carried back to the p o but the scan says it was delivered. Sometimes a scan shows delivered but the people at that address don't have the package. If they are lucky the people in the next block who got the package will bring it over to them. If they are not lucky the package will disappear and never be heard of again. Delivery of the mail is done by humans. lots of chances for mistakes.

Charles,

So is the PBS fee granting a credit prior to delivery insurance against non receipt? I had thought it was for DC, now unnecessary as it is part of all media mail without additional charge.

Mary Anne

Mary, here's the relevant help doc for you:

Can I get Book Credit with a Post Office receipt even if the book is not marked received?

No, proof of mailing does not earn Book Credit at PaperBackSwap.

• A book sent with "no extra services" to an active member must be marked received to earn credit.
• Using PBS Printable Postage (with a good sending record) does earn Guaranteed Credit if the book is declared "lost in the mail."

The reason for this is that the PBS Printed Postage service is a form of insurance against loss/misdelivery by USPS, and not against non-mailing.

• That is why proving that you mailed does not earn credit.  It's not a question of whether or not you mailed -- we will absolutely believe that you mailed if you claim that you did -- but if you did not insure the package with us beforehand against loss/misdelivery, credit won't be given here for a book mailed to an active member until the book is marked received.
• Because the extra services guarantee against USPS loss/misdelivery, a poor sending record will make an account ineligible for Instant/Quick/Guaranteed Credit. 
  • So if you mail late without consent, the mailing is not eligible for Instant/Guaranteed Credit.
  • And if your account has a high rate of outgoing "loss" (higher than can be attributed to random USPS loss in the mail), it is not eligible for Instant/Quick/Guaranteed Credit.

What I don't get is that you can see when some have logged in and you can see they've logged but they don't mark received.

I log in to PBS every day, including on vacation using my phone and/or tablet. So, logging in does not mean that people are home to receive books.

Maybe not but why not answer a pm then?

Cathy,

Thank you for the clarification. Since I do not have a printer, never used it and had a hard time figuring out why anyone would. Now I get it. Purely insurance but way expensive If a credit sells for $2, the cost is like 30% WOW!

It is a great feature if you are sending a bunch of books to one member. Worth it then.

Or sending to a place over water, such as an APO. Those books will often go past the Lost date.

Well , I can only speak for myself but I just got out of the hospital, and had a book come while I was in there. But I couldnt mark it received until I got home.  Also , I had posted 2 WL books before I went in( didn't know I'd be in the hospital)   Now I need to re-post and apologize....

Sometimes , crap happens.....

In the last month I have had wish listed and unwish listed books go without the person showing them delivered.  I know shit happens but with all the smart phones and such it seems they could mark them as received.  I have had five or over in the last month I have sent PMs to and gotten no response and finally have had to contact PBS.  I always use PBS postage due to this problem I have had in the past.  I have one book now it was delivered 7-31 still no response another delivered 8-7 I write a PM no response I contact PBS.

Charles, the PO 'delivered' issues seem to be improving....and localized.  My PO has been very dependable (2 during my PBS membership)...if it's incoming and marked delivered, it's in my mailbox.  Of all my transactions maybe one arrived the next day.  Some members used to post comments that their PO marked them delivered when they arrived at the unit but may not get around to sorting and actual delivery for several days.  But I haven't heard this complaint after the last couple of USPS software updates.  The one a couple years ago (in particular) changed the scan structure quite a bit, I think that was when they separated 'arrival at unit' and 'delivered'.

When I was mailing out more books, I did notice there were times of the year that members seem to not mark books delivered in a timely manner...late summer and December.  I don't mind if people are out of town for a few days, but once in a while ya get one that will apologize and say they were on vacation for 3 to 5 weeks and their account wasn't on hold...hee hee (WTF).  And yes it bugs me, these were planned and extended events and they chose not to be considerate of other PBS members during their absence.  Some thoughtful members just mark all incoming books as received when they know they are going to be gone for quite awhile and didn't (for whatever reason) get their account on vacation hold (and note that they've rarely if ever been burned by a book not arriving).

Real life happens, yes.  And my grouchy doesn't extend to receiving members that are caught up in unexpected life events (been there, done that).  But a significant number of the late 'delivered' notations is unnecessary and inconsiderate.  And it doesn't help that TPTB are so reluctant to require any type of check-in requirements, so we also have to deal with dead accounts also not logging books in as received.

well I heard back from the PBS team and they said to give this member more time to mark the book received and that they would talk to the member to see what's going on. I can't believe they are allowing this member more time to mark a book received when they haven't done so in the allotted time. I guess the rules don't apply to everyone. if the member hasn't answered or read my personal messages or marked the book received and from what I can tell hasn't logged into their account since July 20th. I highly doubt they will. but from what I can see they are giving the inconsiderate member more chances and I get nothing. this doesn't seem quite fair to me but It is what it is so I just have to wait and see what happens.

Molly, I think PBS is following the guidelines in giving them the full amount of time which you said is "go lost this coming Saturday August 15,2015"

Unfortunately even if a book shows delivered by tracking, the member still has the full number of given days to mark received. Not good for the sender and may not be considerate of the receiver but that's the timeline.  Something may have happened.

Something like this did happen to me not too long ago.  And I couldn't get in touch with the person about it  because their account was closed or suspended, and I had the tracking # that said they had received it.  PBS had to check it out  first, I no its frustrating ,but I did get my credits.

Proof of mailing is very different from delivery confirmation which is now provided with all USPS media mail. The standards seem outdated but I'm sure PBS is happy to collect fees to prevent failure from less than forthright recipients. Dc should constitute proof of delivery.

According to the official USPS web site media mail delivery is below

Media Mail^®

2-8 Business Days4

Media Mail is a cost-effective way to send educational materials. This service has restrictions on the type of media that can be sent. From $2.72 at a Post Office.

PBS estimates and time frames are way off base. I have tracked every package since it was available and the longest any shipment took was 5 business days and that was cross country.  Seems some updating is needed for pbs standards to not accurately reflect the USPS estimates.