Okay, I read the help document, but I'm confused.  A book that I sent to another member was marked lost.  I filled out the form online with the USPS for this.  Today, I received the book back (it was received late) from the person that I originally sent it to.  She marked on it the day that it was received (late).  So, what do I do next?  And, also, she has put postage on it to send it to me.  What should I do to reimburse her for this?  What to do?  What to do?  It was DC so I've already gotten my credit.  Help!  I want to do the right thing.

If you want to offer her a credit for returning it you can do that.  Go to your transactions archive, and click on her name.  If she has a profile, there will be a button above the blue box with her name that says "Give Credits."  (Before you give her a credit, though, make sure that the name you clicked on matches the name of the person who sent you the book.)

You could also PM her and ask her whether she'd like a credit or a book off your shelf.  Had it been me, I would have sent you a PM before returning the book so that we could discuss what to do, but since you can post the book again now, I'd say returning her credit would be fair.

You could also ask in the Postal forum about whether you should inform USPS that the book's been found.

I'm assuming you are sure that it was she, and not the Post Office, that returned it to you.

Thanks, y'all.  I'll do what you both suggested.

I'm confused. She accepted the book and marked it as received in the system after it had gone lost. And then proceeded to send the book back to you? I'd PM her to find out what was up before I sent anything.

Wait a minute...she didn't do what she was suppose to do....unless the book was postmarked late she was suppose to mark it received when it got there.  The Help Center said she should wait 2 weeks before ordering another book, so if she didn't wait 2 weeks then yes, she would be out the credit.  The help center says NOTHING about returning the book...she made that decision all on her own, she didn't PM you first so, I wouldn't refund her anything...she should have marked it received and if she didn't want the book she should have gone ahead and posted it.  NO WAY would I refund her postage.

I don't guess that she marked it as received because it still has a question mark by it.  I pm'd her right after reading the first two replies here, plus a reply from online help.  I did offer her a credit back.  Yes, I am a little confused myself.

Was it a WL book? If it was WL book, the system would have put her back on #1 when it went lost and she may have gotten another one that way.

As long as you mailed before the date it went lost in the system she is required to mark it as received in the system. I would not offer her a credit for the postage, you can repost it, but you have to pay to send it out again. It was her decision to send it back to you, why should you pay postage twice to get one credit?  I understand a member not wanting to get more than one copy of the book, but if she's going to pay postage anyway, just mark it as rec'd and post it. She should have PMd you before doing anything.

Yes, it was a wait list book.

I finally got into my Transaction Archive and, although it stills has the question mark for book missing, in the details, it has it arriving back in my town yesterday.  Oh, well, I've posted it again, had it requested and will mail it out in the morning.  As I said, before I read some of the last few posts, I did as the online help and the first few posters said--I pm'd her asking if she would like for me to give her a credit since she used postage to return it to me.  I'll do whatever she says and then forget it.  Thanks for all the input.

Vivian if the DC number YOU printed shows it as having been returned to you, then it is the post office that returned it, not the other member. If she had ACCEPTED the book from the post office and THEN returned it to you, the DC # would have been invalidated and they wouldn't have kept scanning it. Have you actually gotten a response from her saying that SHE returned the book? She may have asked the post office to return it unopened, but like I said, if it's still your DC#, she did NOT remail the book. USPS simply doesn't work that way. If you open a package (which she would have had to do to find out it was a book she'd already received from someone else), you have to put an all-new DC# on it to return it to the sender. However, if she marked it refused without opening it, and put it back in her mailbox, then your DC# would remain valid to track the book back to you. But if that is the case, then she didn't have to pay for postage to send it back - refused mail does not need new postage to be returned.

Well, I'll look again when I get home from work.  There was a sheet of paper taped over my original PBS wrapper.  It had her name and address hand-written in the upper left hand corner and my name and address hand-written in the addressed to portion.  I'll look at it more carefully and see.  Would the USPS put her and her address as the return address?  Also, on the back on the package, again hand-written, was written "rec'd 2/25/08."  I'm pretty sure that she didn't re-wrap it, just put the paper over the address.  And, there was nothing stamped on it such as "Return to Sender." 

The post office wouldn't put additional postage on it though....

Okay, I dug the packaging (my original packaging) out of the garbage.  She actually signed her name on the back with the date it was received.  Also, new postage was put on it.  I pm'd her as I was first advised to do (online help, etc.) to ask if she would like for me to give her a credit since she was out postage.  I do understand that many of you say that she did not do the correct thing.  However, it's fine with me.  I've just learned that if the reverse situation happens to me, I'll check the help documents and with all of you and then do it correctly.  Thanks for everyone's help and interest.