Suppose someone orders a book and it is mailed but never arrives. PBS removes it from active status and it   shows up in transaction archive.

So the person reorders immediately. The 2nd order is accepted and mailes.

Then the first order is received . I believe that the rules require the receiver to go into the transaction archives and mark it received.

Then the second copy arrives. S/he must also mark it received, correct?

Who is the loser  here? Both senders acted in good faith and followed all directions.

Is it the reciver that suffers in that s/he has two copies and is out two credits?

PBS suggests that you wait 2 weeks after the lost date for the first book to arrive before reordering.

This from the help docs:

• You order a book, and then submit another order for it.
• You re-order a book that was declared lost in the Mail, and both copies arrive
  • Because "lost" can sometimes mean "delayed en route to you", we recommend not re-requesting a Lost book until it has been Lost at PBS for 2 weeks.
  • You must mark a "lost" book received when it arrives.  To do this:
    • Go to  your Transaction Archive:

• • • • place your cursor over My Account in the toolbar at the top of the site
  • • • Click Transaction Archive in the menu that drops down
  • • • you can also click the link 'Transaction Archive" from the My Account page

• • • Scroll down to see the Lost transaction for this book.
      • Check the sender name and Details to be sure it is the correct transaction
      • There are sometimes several canceled transactions for one title

• • • Click  on the transaction
    • The usual Book Received screens will come up from there.
    • When you mark the copy received, the credit is taken from your account and given to that sender.

There are also different rules in the help docs regarding late postmarks, no response to emails, etc. but I got tired of looking for them.

In your case, you would have to mark both received and be out 2 credits for 2 copies of the same book.  Only way you don't have to mark the first one received is if it's got a clear postmark and was mailed after being declared lost in the mail and the sender didn't PM you to ask if you still wanted it.  If it was simply delayed enroute but mailed before being declared lost, you have to give that credit.

You'd want to repost one copy of the book right away to recoup your credit.

As long as both books were mailed within the time frame explained in the Help Center, yes the receiver gives up 2 credits because they have 2 books they can repost to get 2 credits back.

Now if the 1st sender never mailed the book until a couple days before it was going lost and then tossed it in the mail without any message to the receiver, then no, the rules would not require the receiver to mark the 1st one received because that sender would not have acted in good faith.That would fall under the exception:

*There is an exception for late-mailed books:

• If a book was mailed more than 2 weeks late without notice to you about late mailing before it was mailed and
• was already declared Lost at PBS before it arrives, and
• you re-requested the book after it was declared "lost in the mail" and
• you end up with 2 copies, THEN
• you do not have to mark the late-mailed-without-notice copy received.

What they said

I would PM the sender to ask if there was an issue before ordering a second copy.  Not accusatory but just a polite inquiry-maybe the book was sent back for some reason, maybe they used DC outside of PBS and can see where it's stuck, kid got sick and book sat it car for a week before being mailed etc..,  I don't PM until after the book is lost and only if it's WL.  So I can judge how long to keep the book on hold.  For a non-WL book, I just wait a few weeks and reorder.