I just received in the mail today a book that I had mailed out on May 13. It has a sticker on it from the post office that says REFUSED Returned to Sender. (I'm actually surprised the post office sent it back.....)

I'm planning on double-checking with the person who ordered my book and making sure that they refused it. But shouldn't I still get my credit? 

not unless you used PBS-DC

I could not find anything in the help center about this exact issue- only about books being returned to sender.  There are a number of possible reasons for that, including insufficient postage.  According to the HC, this is the ONLY situation in which it is OK to refuse a PBS book.  Is there any indication on the package that there was insufficient postage?  If so, then I would add put the correct amount of postage on and resend the package.  Otherwise, you will have to wait until you hear from the person to whom you sent it, as to why it was refused.  If they don't have a good reason for it (remember, insufficient postage is the ONLY acceptable reason), then you might want to politely ask them to give you a credit to cover the money you are out in postage.  They are not necessarily obligated to give it to you, but it doesn't hurt to ask.  You can always repost the book, but you did spend money to send this book, so I would at least try to recoup that cost.  Hope you hear from them soon and find out what's going on.

You konw, the other thing that pops into my head (because we have such an issue with it here sometimes, :-p) is that it was misdelivered and refused for that reason.   *IF* something like that were the case, I'd say it is an unfortunate situation all around and there isn't much that can be done.  As Leslie said, PBS-DC would have helped in this case.

Maybe it was sent to the wrong address, and the recipient didn't notice and refused it?

I agree with the suggestion of double-checking the postage on the package and the package weight.

Hopefully the recipient will respond to your PM. (Be sure to send a deadline for response.) If not, you might inform PBS about the problem, so they can flag the other account.

If the member didn't refuse the package and the address is correct, take her written message to the post office and have them re-send the package at their expense.

I have heard back from the requestor and she DID NOT refuse it. Am double-checking the address with her also - waiting to hear back from her about that.

The postage is correct. We have a scale at work that computes the postage, but I double-checked it all.

Maybe it did go to the wrong address and that person refused.....

Jane-good idea. will print out what the requestor said and take it to the post office and see what they say. Else, I guess this credit will cost me $4.46!!!  Wouldn't want it to happen too many times.

Thanks everyone.

Talk to someboby at the post office. They should refund the postage due and resend the package to the address it needs to go to.

Sorry for the extra posts. Computer has a mind of its own tonight!

This happened to me once - I PM'ed the receiver, and she never saw the book, much less refused it.  Back at the PO, we finally figured out what happened - during handling, a Refused sticker came off of another package and got stuck to mine.  My book didn't even make it half-way to it's destination!  The PO re-sent it at no charge.  Weird, huh?

I think that's what happened. On the bottom of the refused sticker there was one of those square zip code stickers with a different zip code from either one of us......

anyways. the post office said they would re-mail it at no cost to me. I did take a printout of my pm's with the requestor with her stating that she did not refuse it. we'll see what happens.

I had a book returned because it weighed more than 13 ounces.  I had put postage on it and put it in an outside mailbox because the PO was closed at the time.  As it turned out, the added weight of the padded envelope put it over the maximum weight limit that you can  mail yourself, and I was required to hand it to a postal employee for them to mail.  The postal worker just cancelled the stamps with his little rubber stamp and threw it in the Media Mail bin.  In other words, it had enough postage on it, I just didn't  follow the rules.