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Help Center - I haven't received my book yet. Is it lost in the mail?

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It may simply be delayed in making its way to you.

  • USPS Media mail packages can take a variable amount of time in transit.
  • The average is 9 days; some books travel much more quickly, some take longer
    • If a book is travelling farther (ie, being sent from the contiguous US to Hawaii, AK, PR, GU, VI, or an APO/FPO address), it will usually take longer to get where it is going.
  • You will receive reminder auto-emails to mark your book received at regular intervals after it was marked mailed:
    • These are helpful to some requestors who forget to do this after getting a book.
    • Marking a book received as promptly as possible after receiving it is essential to maintaining your account in good status at PBS.

If the book has not been received by the 26th day (the 35th day if the sender or requestor is outside the contiguous US) after it was marked mailed by the sender:

  • It will be declared lost in the Mail at PBS, you will get credit (and Swap Fee or Free Swap, if you used one) back, and you will be notified by email.
  • If the book was a Wish List book, you will go back into your previous position on the Wish List (set to auto-request if the Wish was previously set to auto-request).
  • It is not uncommon for books that have been declared "Lost in the Mail" at PBS to arrive at their destinations.
    • For this reason, we do not recommend re-requesting a Lost book until it has been "lost" for at least 2 weeks.
    • When a Lost book is received, it must be marked received from your Transaction Archive, accessible from a link on the My Account page, or from the dropdown menu under My Account in the toolbar at the top of the site.   When you do this, the book will also be removed from your Wish List.

You are welcome to PM the sender of the book, to verify that (and when) the book was mailed.

  • Simply click on the En Route book transaction to send a Personal Message to the sender.

Related Links:

A book I requested is lost in the mail. What now?
When can I expect to get my book?
I received a book that was 'lost in the mail'