This is strange - just today I received a duplicate book for one that I received yesterday from another seller. I marked the book received yesterday - and today the second one shows up.

I looked in my transaction archive and it shows the book sale was offered to one seller first and it timed out and went to another seller. Well, the first "timed out" offer was the book I received yesterday and the one received today was from the actual person who offered the book.

My question is - if the offer "timed out" and went to the second seller, how did the first seller know where to send the book to? I know I didn't pay a credit to the timed out seller, so now she is out a book and a credit. How should I proceed?

It's the 'timed out" seller's responsibility to have done things on time - she's out of luck. Mark the second book received so that person gets a credit.

My question is - if the offer "timed out" and went to the second seller, how did the first seller know where to send the book to?

The person probably printed out the label, but never marked the book mailed.

Kathy,

the "timed out" book happened cuz the sender didn't mark the book mailed when she should have.  So the offer went to someone else (book 2).  What should have happened, is a couple of things.  1) the first sender (book 1, rec'd yesterday) should have PM'd you to let you know that she DID mail the book and for you to not order (or allow the system to order) another for you.  This would have kept you from getting two books.  2) When you marked the book received yesterday (from your main account page, I assume??) you gave credit to the correct person (sender 2) as they did send the book ordered.  3) Sender 1 (book 1) got your address even tho it timed out, cuz she printed the label (or accessed the address part) and then just failed to mark it mailed.

Rick is right....the sender of Book 1 is just out the credit (unless you want to be nice and buddy her one...which I have seen done), but a PM would be nice to let her know that you did get the book but that you can't mark it rec'd cuz she never marked it mailed.  

Thank you all! That makes sense, that she printed the label but didn't mark "mailed." I'll PM her and let her know and I'll probably send her a credit to be fair. I did mark the one received yesterday on my main account page.

If you do opt to send her the credit, instead of buddying, do it from the transaction archive. That way the credit is tied to the transaction.

What I usually do is repost the duplicate book and when I've gotten the credit, give to the other sender. You don't have to, and I might not if I didn't have alot of credits or they were rude, but most of those errors are done by newbies so if I can recoup the credit I give it to them.