“Dear R&R—I went to mail my book with PBS Delivery Confirmation, and the postal clerk told me that the Delivery Confirmation made it First Class, and charged me additional postage. Can’t I use Media Mail rate with Delivery Confirmation? Sincerely,”– Delivery Confused in OH

Dear Confused,

Yes, you CAN use Media Mail rate with Delivery Confirmation! Delivery Confirmation does NOT change the class of mail. Delivery Confirmation is intended for merchandise, and a book is merchandise. Unfortunately, not all USPS employees know and understand the USPS regulations. Sometimes we PBSers will have to educate our postal employees. First, the package MUST say “Media Mail”. That is why all PBS generated wrappers have this in bold red print! (If it doesn’t say “Media Mail”, the USPS is required to send it First Class.)

If you need documentation to show your USPS employees, you can print it off the Internet at this location: http://www.usps.com/send/waystosendmail/extraservices/deliveryconfirmationservice.htm.

The regulation is in the center of the page under the subheading You can use Delivery Confirmation with…. Media Mail is cited in the third bullet point.

“Dear R&R—I tried to order a book from a member offering a 2-for-1 deal, but my request went to a totally different person! Why did this happen?” –Trying to Make a Deal in Delaware

Dear Dell,

If you want to direct a book request to a certain member, instead of to the member who posted the book into the system first, you need to go to that member’s bookshelf and click the Order This Book button THERE (and nowhere else).

If you click the book cover or title to look at the book details page and learn more about the book, you must then click the BACK button on your browser to go BACK to the member’s bookshelf before clicking the Order This Book button.

Clicking the Order This book on the book details page, or ANYWHERE else on the site except a specific member’s bookshelf will send the request to the member who posted her copy of this book earliest, which may or may not be the intended member. (This is because of the FIFO–first-in, first-out–principle; for more about FIFO, go to the FAQs and enter ‘FIFO.’)

You can check to be sure your request has gone to the right person, by clicking the Personal Message button right away on the transaction for the book on your account page. If the name that comes up in the ‘To:’ field is not the name of the member you intended to order from, you should cancel this order, and try again. You should do this (check-and-cancel) RIGHT AWAY, so that the sender does not get a chance to print the wrapper. Every request is delayed about an hour before the sender is notified, so if you cancel before the hour is up, the sender will not even know that you ordered the book from him or her at all.

I hope this helps you get in on those great deals in the Book Bazaar Discussion Forum—there are new ones being posted every day!

“Dear R&R– I tried to put Delivery Confirmation on my book wrapper, but the system is telling me that DC isn’t available for this address. What do I do now?” –Address Invalid in AR

Dear Addy,

Some addresses ARE valid but require modification. If you notice that your address in PBS has been changed from Road to RD, or from Lane to LN, or perhaps your apartment number has been changed from Apt to UNIT, please do not change it back. We are correcting member addresses that are validated but have been refused by USPS for failure to use USPS nomenclature. It’s not enough to have the correct information; that information must be formatted exactly as USPS requires. If you want to check your address to see if it’s validated, visit this website and test it: http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp.

For those members who have been living for years at an address that USPS has not gotten around to validating, it is a good idea to approach your local postmaster about attending to this task.