I received a PM from the sender of a book I ordered saying she mistakenly sent the wrong title. She said she mixed up 2 orders and sent my book to someone else. She wants me to forward the book to the other person when I receive it.

If I understand PBS rules correctly, I should mark the book received with a problem and indicate it's the wrong title. Then the sender may request that I return the book to her, which will cost her a credit (in addition to the refund credit).

Is my understanding correct? Is there any reason not to play by the rules; i.e., forward the book to the other member? I forsee potential problems with this request.

this happens often (and there are various threads about it).  If both parties agree to send the books to each other, the original sender can send you each a credit to cover the cost of postage.  She wouldn't need to send you 2 unless someone didn't agree to send the book because you will receive the book.

I wouldn't mark it received yet until the situation is resolved and you do receive the correct book from the other person.

She needs to refund your credit, as you did not get the book you ordered.  Then one more credit to cover the cost of postage you will incur. 

I just completed a BOB trade along those orders - a sender mixed up two boxes.    The two of us had a look at each other's shelves and found we had books we would be willing to trade, so we started our own trade and just included the other sender's missent books.  The extra postage was minimal.

I'd have no problem sending the book to the intended receipient rather than back to the sender, given a credit.  Might even ask if the other party would be interested in a 3/2  5/3, etc. deal, if they could find books they wanted on my shelf I could just include the missent book and not need the extra credit as the postage increase would presumably be none or small.

No that is not what you do here. If you receive the wrong book AND the sender gets the two people with the wrong books to send them to each other, then you DO NOT mark anything received until you get the book you ordered. If you do not agree to send the book on, then you mark it wrong book received. The sender should give you postage, or a credit to cover the postage. This is in the help section. As long as you send the book you have on to the correct person, you have no book to mark received, someone else's just stopped by on its way. It is always a good gesture to forward a book, since that is what most of us would want done with the books we are  waiting for.

Found the help section:

• If there is a book that is listed there as coming from the same state, click on the transaction and send a Personal Message to this sender asking if she sent you this book by mistake.

• If she did,
• and sent your book to another requestor, she can offer each of you credit or postage to send the books to one another; the sender can provide the addresses in Personal Messages.  When each of you get the correct books, you can mark them received.

I sent 2 orders to the same member once. I printed the same packing slip out twice. I pm'd the member that received both orders and asked her to mail the book to the correct person. Of course I buddied her a credit for her trouble. She was very nice about it.

In your case I don't think I'd mark it received. Let it time out and go lost. Then if the other member mails the original book to you, you can go to your transaction archive and mark it mailed  received. The original sender should buddy both of you a credit for the postage you'll spend. I wouldn't ask for 2 credits though.

You have not received your book so you do not mark it received.  Get a credit from her to cover postage to mail the book out to the correct person.  Get the address from her.  Mail that book out to the right person.  That person should send you your book. When they do, mark the book received.  You are still only out your original credit.  If you never get the book you requested, the book will go lost and you'll get your credit back. 

I've had this happen to me twice and this is how I handled it the 2nd time. The first time, I was in contact with the other person who got the wrong book.  We each posted the book to our shelves and then ordered the right book from each other.  The sender refunded our credits. 

OK, my understanding was incorrect. Thanks everyone for your help.

I think the Wrong Book Received button is for when you say order a hardback but they send paperback.  Or you order large print and then send regular.  But technically when it's completely the wrong book, the right book hasn't been received. 

I don't know. When I got the wrong book, I was told not to mark it received until I got the right one.

But if you start out with say 2 credits, then spend 1 on a book and get the wrong book, then you are down one credit and have the wrong book in your hand. 

Then you mail out the wrong book to the correct person and you are down one credit AND the postage cost and you're without a book. 

Then you get your book from the other person, so you are down one credit, but you finally have the book you wanted, ok, that evens out, but you are still out the postage you would not have incurred if the correct book was sent to begin with, hence the need for the second credit to be buddied to you. 

If you are going to go from 2 credits to 1, you should have a book in hand in return.  If you are going to mail out a book (pay for postage) you would eventually get a credit.

So for this transaction you spent a credit AND postage, but in return, got only one book.  That doesn't add up, to me anyway.  I believe the second credit is to cover the postage.

Genie, this does happen a lot!  And it's almost always easily fixed.  It's been my experience that everyone involved is able to work it out.

1)  Leave the transaction open / don't mark anything received until you actually get the book you ordered.

2)  When you get the "wrong" book, ask the sender for a credit to cover the postage,and get the address to mail it to.  The other person will be doing the same thing.

3)  When you get the book you ordered, mark it received.

Your first credit is for the book that you will eventually get.  The second credit that the sender will give you covers the postage to mail the book to the other person.