Help Center - A DVD I sent is lost in the mail!

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If a DVD you mail does not arrive by the 21st day (*35th day for items mailed to or from outside the contiguous US) after you marked it mailed, it will be declared Lost in the Mail at SwapaDVD.  This does not mean that the DVD is actually lost; it may be delayed en route, or may have been misdelivered.  Also, the requestor may be away from home and unaware that the DVD has arrived.  If so, he or she can mark it received from his or her Transaction Archive when he or she returns home.

If you sent the DVD with SwapaDVD Printable Postage and you have a good sending record, you got credit for this shipment.  If you sent the DVD with "no extra services" to an active account, you will not get credit until it is marked received.

What to do if a DVD you sent is declared Lost in the Mail at SwapaDVD:

  • first, contact the requestor to confirm that the DVD was not received.

    • Sometimes the requestor just forgot to mark it received.  Sometimes the requestor was away from home when the DVD arrived.
    • If you don't hear back from the requestor within a week of sending a PM asking about the DVD, you should contact us (using the "feedback" link on the Contact Us page) to look into the situation.
    • You can contact the requestor by clicking on the far right of the  "lost" transaction in your transaction archive, and then choose "Personal Message" to send a message to the other member.
  • if the requestor did NOT get the DVD:

    • As the sender, you should call 800-ASK-USPS or go to http://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/forms/MLNtRcvd.aspx (the Postal Inspection Service's website) and input the information online there . This will help USPS try to recover your package if it truly has been lost in the mail. If the link above does not work, here are directions to find the proper page: go to the website www.postalinspectors.uspis.gov, then select "Mail Theft / File a Mail Theft Complaint / Mail Theft, Vandalism or Mail Tampering" from the menus.
      • This form at USPS is titled "Mail Theft"
      • This does  not mean only theft of mail.  USPS categorizes any mail that does not arrive or that is tampered with as "mail theft".
      • The choice that should be made under "Class" if Media Mail was used is "Parcel Post"
    • You can get the information about the transaction from the Transaction Archive:
      • Click "Transaction Archive" in the menu under My Account in the toolbar at the top of the site
      • Click the Request Details link on the right of the "lost in mail" transaction
      • If you need more information (such as requestor address) you can ask the requestor in a Personal Message for that information.
        • We are unable to provide member address information outside of the duration of an active transaction, due to the SwapaDVD Privacy Policy.
        • You can use the button on the transaction to contact the requestor.
  • if the requestor got the DVD from you, he or she can mark it received from the Transaction Archive as described in I received a DVD that was 'lost in the mail'.

    • An exception to this is- if you mailed this late without notice and the requestor got a second copy after yours was declared "lost" by the system.  Not getting credit can be one of the consequences of late mailing.
  • If you sent the package with Delivery Confirmation, and the package was scanned as "delivered" :

    • Send a message to the requestor - using the PM button on the transaction in your Transaction Archive.
    • If the requestor replies to your Personal Message and confirms that the package was not received = the requestor needs to talk to his or her local PO and mail delivery person, to try to track down the misdelivered package. This is in addition to your filing the mail theft/loss form above.
    • If the requestor does not reply to you within 3-5 days of your sending the message, contact us and we'll look into it.
  • If USPS does return your DVD to you, and it is undamaged and still playable:
    • You should ask the requestor (using the button on the Lost transaction in your Transaction Archive) if she or he still wants it. 
    • If she or he does, you can re-send it.  If she does not, you can repost it.

If you have a high proportion of outgoing loss (DVDs you marked mailed that were never received) on your account, this bears looking into:

The most common causes of a high outgoing loss rate are: late mailing, inadequate wrapping, and non-sending.

  • If you are mailing late, you can easily correct this. 
  • If your wrapping is inadequate, the DVDs could be getting lost en route, and you should read the Help information about wrapping DVDs in How to Wrap a DVD for Mailing.
  • If there is some other issue affecting your sending, this needs to be identified and addressed.

If a high loss rate persists on any account after we have discussed this with a member, this will jeopardize membership.  DVDs need to get where they are going on SwapaDVD, and the USPS rate of package loss is really low--a high outgoing (or incoming) loss rate can almost never be blamed solely on USPS.  If a sender wraps well, uses the correct address and amount of postage and mails promptly, more than 99% of her packages will arrive at their destinations.

  


Related Links:

USPS lost the DVD I sent! (they sent me a notice/the empty wrapping)
How to Wrap a DVD for Mailing
I received a DVD that was 'lost in the mail'
How to Use the Transaction Archive
I sent my lost DVD with DC and the email says I didn't!