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, and you will be notified by email.
• You will also get your credit back (and your swap fee back), at the same time that the email is sent to you.
• If this was a Wish Listed book to begin with, you will be placed back onto the Wish List for the book (if there are no available copies), in your previous position--you will not have lost your place in line.  Most of the time, this means that you will be first in line for the next available copy of the book.  If there are available copies when the book is declared Lost, it will go onto your Reminder List.
• 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.

You are welcome to send a Personal Message (PM) to 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.
• Books en route to you are listed on the "En Route to Me" tab on My Account.

A book that is declared "lost" at PBS may not actually be lost; 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 further (ie, being sent from the Continental 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.

Related Links:

A book I requested is lost in the mail. What now?
When can I expect to get my book?