I got an e-mail this morning saying a book had been mailed out to me today, from Pennsylvania...

Now this afternoon I receive an e-mail from a member saying that they mailed that same book to me on Monday but forgot to mark it mailed so they wanted me to "deactivate my account" so I wasn't "looking for the same thing" and requested that I credit their account when the book arrives.

I don't know where to start with this.

Maybe there is confusion and the 'mailed' notification I got was for the copy they sent me but forgot to mark sent...  but in the event that I get two copies of the book, any thought on how I should handle that?  I'm a new member with not many credits and I don't want to spend two credits on the same book because someone forgot to mark a book mailed - and I also don't want to pay postage to send their book back to them, but keeping it would feel like thievery.

What the heck is proper ettiquette in this situation?  Ideas?

If the first sender forgot to mark the book mailed, the request was sent to the next person who has the book. At this point, you are obligated to mark the 2nd copy as received when it arrives. However, you are not obligated to mark the first book received, send a credit to the sender, or even return the book to the sender. You can choose to do these things if you like but you do not have to under PBS rules. This is why it is so important to remember to mark your books as mailed. All this information can be found in the help center/help docs under "I received 2 copies of a book".

Deactivate your account? That's totally bizarre.

But yeah, ^^^^^^^ that.

Shelley, this is indeed the right answer.

>Deactivate your account? That's totally bizarre.

I'm sure what was mean was "please take the book off your wishlist if it was put back there, or try to cancel it if the request went on to someone else".

If you want to be nice, try to look carefully at mail from PBS members coming in and try to spot the one from this person before you try to open it.  If it was sent by first class mail, you can just write "return to sender" on it, and as long as you didn't open it, it will go back with no postage due.  If it was sent by media mail, you can do the same thing, and the sender should be (but sometimes isn't)  charged for the return postage - so you might ask the sender if they want you to do that, or just forget about it.

What Shelley said. I would also PM the first sender and let her know that the book had already been mailed by the person who got the order after she failed to mark it mailed. Since your credit for that book went to the second person who did mark it mailed, you will be unable to credit her for the book when it arrives. Watch for the correctly marked book to arrive and then mark that one received from your En Route to Me tab.

From the verbage of the PM, it sounds like a confused newbie.

They probably wanted you to put your account on vacation before the system ordered you another book. 

I would send them a polite PM saying it was too late that another book is already on its way to you.  That you don't have many credits since you just joined.  Remind them that the rules say you don't have to give them a credit if they forgot to mark it mailed and another one was sent.  

I like Bret's idea of refusing the package.  Just make sure you refuse the right one.  Then they'll at least have their book back.   

thanks for the feedback on this.

the return to sender option is one I honestly hadn't thought of (I didn't know they would let you do that with media mail, but I'm going to try) and the sender likes the idea.

thanks again!

Make sure the sender is OK with that since it is not encouraged by PBS (the Help says the only acceptable time to not accept a book is when it arrives postage due).  Media Mail is a one way trip. The sender will probably have to pay the postage again to get it back from the post office.