All of a sudden I've had a rash of people mailing books out late!  today I finally received a book that was marked mailed in Seattle on 19 FEB--it was about to go lost-- and lo and behold the PO postage sticker shows it wasn't mailed til 5 March! What's up with people lately???  This is 3rd time this has happened to me in about a month.

Anyone else been having this problem recently?  

(today's incident is with a member who joined in 2006 so I know it's not a "newbie" issue. don't know how active she is since her sent and rec'd counts are set to private and she has not completed a profile.)

I've recently had some go missing that I really, really wanted!  I've actually PM'd the sender twice, but have not heard back.  So I'm still waiting for the 2 weeks to be up to reorder them.

I also have another one that is about to go "lost"

Really I've been lucky so far.  I haven't had any truly go lost.  Once someone sent me a PM and said they checked with the Post Office . . . they don't know what happened.  Lo and behold it appeared in my mailbox 3 days later and the date on the label from the Post Office had the date they sent me the PM!

Maybe it's the yucky weather or something.  Hopefully it gets better!

I know there is one book on its way to me mailed late at the moment but marked mailed on thge 2nd. The member waited until the last day to accept and the last minute to mark mailed before it would have gone to another member. I am pretty sure it wasn't even mailed yet as there are no delivery scans yet and it was coming from Georgia so I'd get that pretty quick. 

I have been noticing this is happening more lately that members just mail when they want instead of in the timeframe set.

I've had a lot of them lately myself.  Most mailing about 3 weeks late. One person mailed the book the day it was declared lost. I've had a few that I've had to mark received from the transaction archive. It has really been annoying me. I wonder "is it lost in the mail or did they even mail it?" "How long should I wait to reorder the book?"  I feel your pain, Jeanne.

I have had two transactions in the last month go lost in the mail. The first book I requested on 12/30/12 and it was mailed 1/2/13. I noticed it was being sent from Guam, so I saw a potential problem there. According to the tracking info, the book seems to have not moved between 1/7-2/15. I figured it was floating around on some boat. The book went lost 2/4. Something told me to just give it a little longer since it was coming from another country, and the book arrived finally on 2/19. This transaction didn't make me mad since the book was coming from such a far distance. I do think it was mailed when the sender said it was mailed.

Now the second case does make me mad. I requested a book on 1/20. It was accepted 1/24 and the wrapper was printed and the book mailed on 1/24. Wrapper was reprinted 1/28 (Why, since the book was on its way to me????). Anyway, PBS canceled the transaction since I had not received the book by 2/19.

I received it on 2/23. Post office marking was for only 3-5 days before, yet sender says it was sent 21 days ago.

I filled in all the important information when I did mark this book received. Hopefully TPTB will see when book was marked mailed and when I did eventually get it. I made a note as to when the PO marked it received on their stamp. Hopefully people who don't play by the rules will get reprimanded in some way.

I have been a member for 5 years or so, and have never had more trouble than  with these two transactions.

The date that it says a wrapper was printed doesn't mean it was actually printed out. What it means is that the sender generated and opened the PDF and it might be just to look at the label. They did not necessarily print it out.

Recently?  No...this time last year, I had several late mailings and a few RWAP's.

I know I have "reprinted" the wrapper when I have opened the PDF to check where it is going.

That said, please do use the new option to RWAP, late postmark if the counter postage is more than four days after the mailing date.   This adds a little extra flag to the late mailing, and triggers an email.   You are NOT offered a credit refund option. 

Do note that I'm saying Counter Postage.  The cancelation of stamps are often later than the mailing.  But the counter stamps with the date listed?  Nope.  Spot on.

• Late Postmark
  • this means that the postmark on the package was later than the date the book was marked mailed.  See My requested book arrived with a late postmark! for more information about this problem.

And:

Books that arrive with a late postmark should be marked "received with a problem" and the late postmark can be noted. 

• Providing the late postmark while marking the book received will generate an auto-email to the sender of the book, reminding him or her that late mailing is not acceptable at PBS.
  • The email includes the information that the late postmark could have been entered in error
  • The email includes the information that sometimes postmarks are delayed a few days, even if the book was mailed on time
  • The email includes the information that if the late mailing was agreed to by the requestor, this is not a problem
• You can contact the sender using the text box provided while marking the book received
  • Please be gentle!  You can't know what might have delayed this shipment.
• If the book was declared lost in the mail and you requested and received (or will receive) a second copy because you thought the first one was really lost:
  • If the postmark on the package was from the week before the book was declared lost (or later!), and you got no notification from the sender that the book would be/was mailed late: you do not have to mark this book received (this is the ONE case in which you don't have to mark a received book received: if a very late mailer without notice caused you to reorder the book and end up with two copies).  
  • OR: You can mark it received to note the late postmark, and ask for your credit back in your Personal Message to the sender.  If you don't hear back/don't get the credit back within 3 days you should contact us using the Feedback link at the top of the Contact Us page.
  • You can also note this information about the late mailing in the Comments box at the bottom of the Book Received page, while marking the book received: this will go onto the sender's record.
• A pattern of late mailing will cause account suspension and possibly termination of membership
  • Sometimes late mailing happens for very good reasons, but chronic late mailing will not be tolerated.

Media Mail books that travel over water, such as Guam, do come by boat.  We should expect extra postal time for those.

yep, Em, I used that new "late postmark" RWAP option. I know that way at least PBS is tracking the person's late mailings. I also sent the sender a PM with that same factual info--- no "you lied about mailing the book" or anything-- just the date they marked it mailed and the date the PO sticker postage said. There is no need in these cases where the book arrives in fine condition to do anything else other than the virtual "hand slap" they get when they read the msg about late mailing.

OH, and I know all about Guam's mailing disasters since I lived there through 5 direct hit typhoons and an 8.2 earthquake. One of the typhoons swamped a barge carrying mail with Christmas presents on it so in January that year we got water logged packages that we had to open so we could make the insurance claims with the PO--very depressing.  And the barge carrying the Christmas trees to sell to us never made it that year.    But Yes, 3 week minimum delivery time  is expected even with first class packages going there (I send RAOKs to PBS members who live there now.)

I just recieved one like this said she had mailed it 2/15/13 but according to the tracking it didnt scan at the PO til 3/1/13 and I recieved it 3/9/13.  I find sometimes that it is ppl that used the prepaid postage dont care when they send it because they have already have the credit. 

Well, the USPS tracking doesn't have to scan as often as they used to do it so that's one problem, but I very rarely use Tracking (what we used to call DC). Other threads show  lots of discussion about problems with tracking since the postage increase and that since mid-FEB a lot of members aren't getting their instant credit when they pay for tracking thru PBS.  It was supposed to be fixed on 19 FEB but someone just reported it's happening again.  I predict lots of people will stop paying for tracking thru PBS if it's a problem to get your credit quickly.

Aggghhhh, just got another one today with a late postmark!