Oops. Not my week for books. One of mine sent goes missing and this one gets returned to me!

I recieved a request for a book and mailed it mid-way through March with no problem. It was a fairly heavy and large book but it was weighed at the PO and I paid for the postage. I thought there would be no issues. My mother called me today saying that the book had been sent back home (the return address, rather than my college address where I currently am). She said that the packaging is intact but it had been marked as not having paid for postage.

I know in this situation I need to PM the requestor to tell them what happened but I wanted to ask what to do from there. If they still want the book, can I cancel this transaction and start a new one? Or should I just send it, let the book get 'lost' since it wont be there in time? Or how do I cancel the order if they dont want it?

*sighs* This is the last time I send a book bigger than a normal hardback! Since this is my second problem in one week, I am terrified of my account getting scolded. How many marks against your account do you get before bad stuff happens?

Did the postage fall off?  If the postage stamp from the PO is still on there you should take it to the PO and ask them why it was returned.

If the book was sent back postage due because of a delivery problem ont he other end (media mail is one way)-then you need to contact the requestor and have them confirm that the address is correct with PBS. IF the address was correct and it was a postal error (it happens) then again you need to take it back to the post office and ask them why it wasn't delivered.

Also the marks won't go against you as long as you are communicating and trying to correct things.

You need to contact the requestor before you send it out again just to make sure they didn't reorder the book.

My mother says that when she went to pick it up from the PO, they told her that there had not been enough paid postage. This annoys me since I saw it weighed and paid for it myself. Ill get the book in hand on tomorrow so Ill be able to see what went wrong. I will have some strong words for the PO if they made a mistake.

I will PM the requestor once I have the book in hand, let them know what happened, and see if they still want the book. But if they dont, do I just let the book go 'lost' or is there a way to cancel the transaction?

And thanks for reassuring me about the marks against my account. I have loved this site since I joined it and want to be the best member I can be. I would hate for PBS to mark me as an unreliable sender or shut my account down. Thanks.

That really stinks! Was the book clearly marked as Media Mail and no reused Priority or Express packaging used on it? If the postage was low due to no fault of your own, I would definitely take it back to the PO and complain.

Hopefully the receiver still wants it and you can just send it back on its way.

If you still have the receipt, then take it and the book back to the P.O., show them that it was weighed by them and paid for accordingly, and tell them you expect them to cover the cost of having it remailed.

UPDATE! UPDATE!

Okay guys, I have the book in hand now. The note attached to the wrapping says 'Not deliverable as addressed; unable to forward'. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe this to mean that the sender wrote an unavailable address. Its not my fault! So now I am supposed to PM the sender and tell them what happened, right? Can I ask them for an extra credits due to the extra postage payment (my mother had to pay an additional $2.93 to pick the book up on top of the $2.93 I paid to send it out, and if I send it out again, it will be another $2.93)? So I am within my rights to ask for an extra credit to cover postage, right?

Please advise me in this matter! Thanks everyone!

Double-check with the sender, typing in the exact address on your wrapper. If the person says, "Yes, that's my address and it's good." Go to the PO and have them re-mail it at their expense, if the book still has not gone lost or the book has not been re-ordered from someone else.

Help center regarding bad/incorrect addresses:

You are not obligated to re-send the book to the requestor if this happened due to a problem with the requestor's address. If the book was not damaged when it came back to you, and you do not want to re-send the book to the previous requestor, you can simply repost it.
If you do not get a reply message from the requestor within 5 days of your PM, contact us.

If the book was returned to you through an error on the requestor's part, you can ask him or her for an extra credit (or money for the postage) to re-send the book,

If the book was returned to you through USPS error, you can take it to the PO and explain the situation; they can check the address and if it is correct and the book was returned through USPS error, they can send it again "under cover" without requiring more postage.

Actually, I would also suggest taking that address and going to the USPS zip code lookup.  By typing in the address, you will be able to find out if the USPS thinks it's a deliverable address.

I say this because a few years ago (3?), my Mom used that to find my zip code.  Imagine her surprise (and then mine) to find out that the address I'd lived at for 4 years, and had been being used for about 35 years by that point, was consdiered 'invalid'.  I actually got the USPS to change it in their system but it was a bit of a hassle and took some time.  It also was fixed for the other 5 houses that are on my cul-de-sac.

If there's any postage paid at all on something, it gets sent on to the receiver postage due.  The only way the sender would get it back for insufficient postage is if there's no postage on the package at all.

Definitely confirm that address on USPS.com and with the sender before you decide to send it out again or not.

Sarah, not necessarily true.  It depends on where the postage short is caught.  Usually it's sent on but not always.

That is definitely true Kimberly!  I have had a few packages returned for insufficeint postage from the regional sorting center here, because someone there doesn't understant that electronic DC does not require an additional 75 cents.  This is why I no longer print PBS quick credit DC on my labels.

If the receiver still wants the book, let them know that once it arrives they'll have to go into their Transaction Archive to mark it as received.

If they confirm their address is correct, take the book back to the PO and tell them that and insist they re-mail it to the address.  They should not charge you again for postage.

I may be wrong, but I believe that when you enter your address on your account here it gets automatically verified through the PO.  The reason I think this is because of a small curiosity with the PO database.  For some reason the PO drops the last "E" in "Fredericksberg", making it "Fredericksbrg".  And, sure enough, if I try to correct my town name in my PBS account the correction doesn't "take", it always reverts back to the "official" PO name.

PROBLEM HAS BEEN SOLVED!

It turns out that the address sent was an old address from that member and, for some reason, that got labeled as the sending address. The requestor agreed to give me an extra credit to cover the second postage. It will 'go lost' in the eyes of PBS before it gets there but, with the correct address, it should hopefully arrive and she can mark it arrived.

Dont you just love happy endings? :) Thanks for all the adivce guys!