Paperback Swap "Lost in the Mail"?

[fhjmom]

I haven't been on Paperback Swap long but have had what I was hoping were less than standard experiences. I posted about them a while back and got some responses that helped adjust my expectations somewhat. However, one of the items that I requested on 8/10 (it was on someone's bookshelf), was promised to be mailed on 8/20, mailing label was first printed and it was marked mailed on 8/22, then the label was printed again on 9/13. PBS marked it "lost in the mail" on 9/17. Our mail comes pretty late and it came in the mail yesterday (9/17) after the PBS system already marked it lost in the mail. Now I am trying to figure out the best way to handle it. According to the PBS website, these are my choices:

 

• 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 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.
    

   

   

   

 

 

It seems like it would be better for the sender for me to leave it "lost in the mail". Does this option put a ding on the sender's record (the info above doesn't say anything about it if it does)?

 

If I mark it received with a late postmark, it sounds like it goes against the sender's record. I would also like my credit back as this is the book that DH needed for class and he ended up buying it new just this week. (I know not to request books on PBS I need in a hurry; we had about a month from the time of request until he needed the book and even if it was mailed in the longest amount of time allowable by PBS guidelines, we would have received it in plenty of time for DH's class.) If I do this though it sounds like it is up to the sender to choose to give back the credit or not? It says to contact PBS if they don't but it doesn't say what they will do, anyone know?

 

I thought about sending a PM to the sender and just asking how she would like me to handle it. Would that be the best option?

 

ETA: The actual postmark was also 9/13, the same day the label was printed the second time. The sender had not contacted me about late mailing.

Edited September 18, 2010 by fhjmom

[littlebug42]

This happened to me recently and I was told that if I received the book then I must marked it received. The person did not mail it until the day PBS marked it lost in the mail. The only exception is if you received another copy from PBS after the one was marked lost and then you receive the original one with a late postmark. This is getting ready to happen again next week as delivery confirmation shows that the book was never mailed. Who knows if I will see it. I have never had PBS problems before but this summer has not been good.

 

ETA: This rule was clarified for me actually by PBS.

[hsmom3tn]

Yes, I believe you are supposed to mark it received. They will get credit for it when you mark it received; but since they mailed it late and you went out and bought it because you were not expecting it to come in the mail, they should refund your credit.

 

It's true that they might give you trouble about refunding your credit, but I hope, in that case, that PBS would step in and do something about it. PBS needs to know about the late mailing date, though, so you should go ahead and mark it received. You will have to go into your transaction archive to do this, since it was declared lost in the mail.

[littlebug42]

PBS will not do anything about it and the person I contacted was really snotty with me about it as well. However, when you mark it received do so with a problem so it is marked on their record. If they do it too many times, their membership will be revoked. Definitely mark the problem. I failed to do so but PBS did do that after the fact for me.