I received a book today that was supposed to be mailed out 1/17.  The post office stamp (there are three of them) say it was mailed the 27th.  Should I use RWAP?  The book is fine and was wrapped in plastic, good condition, but jeez, she mailed it out ten days after she said she did.  My fear is she obviously reads the same books I do and I'm afraid her habits will worsen as time goes on, making things difficult for me or someone else.  I'm going to go and see how long she has belonged.  I'm back and I was wrong.  It was five days from print and the day she said she mailed it; then five days until she actually mailed it.  Guess I should just let it go.

If the book meets PBS book condition guidelines, it needs to just be marked as received w/out a problem.

Here's from the Help Center   My requested book arrived with a late postmark!

Hope this helps!

You cannot mark it RWP for a late mailing, that is for only those situations spelled out as an official problem. Late mailing is an unofficial problem and should be indicated by inputting the date mailed when asked. Life happens, 5 days late is not the end of the world (not saying it is acceptable, just saying its nothing to get stressed about, better than 1 day before it goes lost in the system). 

from the Help Center:

"Unofficial" problems (books that are postmarked late, that arrive postage-due) are marked received normally, and the problem(s) can be described in the optional "survey" portion on the lower part of the Book Received page.

Unless the book is unpostable then you cannot mark it RWP.  I would her some slack. This may have been an one time thing where life got in the way of making it to the PO.  Or maybe she gave it to a teenager or spouse to mail and they flaked out on her. Fill out the survey with the date mailed info.  If she's a chronic late mailer then PBS will send her a polite reminder to get her books in the mail ontime.  Personally if I get the book before it goes lost, I don't really care when it was mailed. 

Also if she used stamps then you can't go by the post office cancellation stamp.  Sometimes they get stamped right away, sometimes they sit for days on end before getting stamped, sometimes they get stamped along the way and other times not at all.  It could have spent a weekend in the blue box, then a week in the media mail bin waiting to be processed. So unless it's a metered postage stamp the date could be inaccurate. 

She did use stamps, but wrote first class on it.  I did do the survey and left it at that.  You're probably right...she more than likely gave it to someone else to mail.  Thanks guys.   Roni

I am pretty sure that record is kept of those who are habitually late-mailers. When you do the survey there is an email that goes out if the postmark is significantly later than agreed. I received it once when I book I had mailed was returned to me and then re-mailed:

"The book [title] you mailed was reported to have a postmark date of 12/12/2008. You originally told us you had mailed the book on 11/19/2008. PaperBackSwap requires that you mail the book within 24 hours of marking it mailed on the web site. This must occur in order to prevent members from waiting unnecessary amounts of time for a book to arrive. We understand that sometimes it may take a couple of days to receive a postmark or the receiving member may have misreported the postmark. Please ignore this email if you did in fact mail the book within 24 hours of marking it mailed, or if the requestor was aware of (and had agreed to) the delay in mailing."

You got the book in excellent condition- you don't mark it as a problem because of the mail date. That's not at all how it works on PBS. You could make a little note for yourself about it as to not order from her again (if you really want to check everytime a book goes through the FIFO), but she didn't techncially do anything "problematic."

ETA: It's not ten days after she was supposed to mail it. There's a Sunday in there, plus MLK was a postal holiday as well.

Hmm - all this discussion about the postmark date input in the system makes me wonder what PBS is thinking about some of my books that may appear to have a postage date prior to the date it was requested (because I purchase multiple $2.23 "stamps" from the automatic machine whenever I have to go in to mail a book to use at a later date) - maybe they think I'm psychic, LOL!

Actually, if I remember right - she/he has 5 days to accept, 5 days to mail it and then there is a 2 day grace period, which means from the time you request a book until it is actually sent can be up to 12 days and this is within the PBS guidelines.  Pat

I had a book last month that was marked mailed and then did not turn up on DC until 7 day later.  However the book got held up in OR due to the massive snow storm that shut everything down up there, including the Post Office.  So sometimes at this time of year, Mother Nature will throw glitches in the system also.  Not saying that was your problem.

Hi. I can see why you're frustrated with this exchange. I can tell that quality is important to you. You're right to be upset if this was done carelessly. It might not have been the sender's fault though. I say this because I live in a rural area where mail is picked up. Sometimes when I look at my PBS tracking, it looks like there is a 2 or 3 day gap between when I put my book in the mail and when it shows up in the system. I haven't been able to figure out why this happens. I've started printing postage at home but putting my books in the Post Office mailbox when I can. It still saves me time since I don't have to actually go into the Post Office, and it seems to get my books into the system faster. If I have to mail a book from home, I do my best to remember to send the recipient a message thatI've mailed the book and that it should show up in the tracking system in a couple of days. The book still arrives on time if I mail from home, so I'm at a loss to explain the differences in how the book is processed. I thought I'd share my experiences in case it helps you to figure out what might have happened to your book.

If she used stamps and the postmark date is "stamped" - rather than it being a purchased postage label - check the postmark against the sender's zip code as well - the package may not have even been postmarked at her post office. Some don't even get postmarked until they hit the recipient's post office, many days later. I mail all my books from a campus mailroom, and not only do they take several days to get them into the official USPS system, they CAN'T postmark them or even scan the DC labels I purchase here because they simply don't have the equipment an official post office has.

I used to live on an island.  We had a small local post office.  But all the mail went to the mainland for processing. Even stuff that was just going from one part of the island to the other.  If I brought stuff into the PO it was post marked right away and DC scanned if I used it before it got shipped to the mainland.  But anything that I put in my mail box or the blue box wasn't scanned or processed until it went to the mainland. Things only got processed that day if you dealt with a postal clerk.  If I had to go to the mainland for anyreason, I would drop things in the blue box there because it cut down on a couple of days of mail time for whatever I sent.

USPS is confusing isn't it?  I'm glad I have a PO Box and mail my books from there.  Thanks!!!