Request Dates

An hour after my request was accepted, I got this message from the sender:

2/28/2012 @ 8:48 PM ET

I hadn't looked at the dates (under "details") at this point, and sent advice on the 29th about how to mark it mailed or contact the PBS folks for help. I noticed later that the label wasn't printed until after I sent that message.

Now the book is about to go lost. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but I thought I'd ask you all whether you could think of any explanations for this other than someone trying to get credits without sending a book. Even then, I can't figure out the purpose of claiming you've sent the book before you click all the proper buttons, or the value of claiming that you'd sent it two days ago when you've just clicked "accepted" an hour before.

She doesn't have a profile, so I don't know whether she's a new member.

Any thoughts?

If it was a glitch, the late date might just reflect when it was fixed. That's just a guess though. 

Is the person PMing you the same member sending you the book?

It sounds to me like the person who PMed you didn't mark the book mailed, your request with them was cancelled and moved on to the next person with the book and member #2 accepted and mailed the book and those are the details you are seeing. This person was trying to get your before another book was sent to cancel a second request, but didn't word things right.

My guess is the same as Melanie's.  You may end up getting two copies of the book, one from the member who didn't mark the book mailed, and the other from the member who received your request when the first request was canceled.

To check this theory, click on the PM button for your current transaction and compare the name there with the name of the person who sent you the message.  Our guess is that it's not the same person.

There's a help doc you can look up called

"I received 2 copies of the same book!"

if this happens

Melanie's theory makes alot of sense, except for the part where the book is about to go lost.  The OP hasn't received one yet, much less two books. 

I've no idea what the sender has done Elizabeth, but unless the 'glitch' theory is correct.  The sender shouldn't have been able to use the 'mailed' button until after the label was printed. 

And I believe Emily is correct, in as much as the system notes when the shipping label is reprinted.  We've had members confused b/c a sender has reprinted the label after marking the book mailed...and it's noted on the 'details' page.

I was thinking the same as Melanie. That this might not be the same request.  Sounds like the first person didn't mark it mailed. Or they thought they did but didn't for some reason. Because in the details you shoed it shows the lable printed and then marked mailed a couple of hours later. 

If they are sure they marked hte book mailed, they need to contact PBS and take it up with them.

If the "new" transaction was mailed on 2/29, then the "about to go lost" makes sense.  It would be marked lost 26 days after it was marked mailed (as long as we're not talking Alaska, Hawaii, or overseas US addresses), and that's approaching fast.

No, this is all the same person (I had triple-checked on this, and should have added that to my original post). In any case this is a very unusual book, not one that would likely have a FIFO queue.

The book went lost today, which didn't surprise me much. I'll keep an eye out for it - hopefully there really was a glitch and she really did send it and it will show up eventually....

Good idea about checking the posting dates, Emily - I hadn't thought of that. She's not new. Or at least, she has some books posted a couple of years ago - no telling how active she's been.

The whole thing still seems strange to me, though. An unheard-of glitch plus something being lost in the mail seems so unlikely. But why would someone post a couple of hours after accepting a request that they mailed the book days earlier? I simply don't understand it, either as a glitch or as something done to try to game the system.

Or maybe - now I'm thinking of it - she got the request, then somehow got confused and sent the book to the wrong recipient. She printed a label for the wrong book, sent my book off to the wrong person, and marked that one mailed. That would explain why her account information didn't match her recollections. Then she went ahead and marked it mailed (figuring that it was a system glitch). In the meantime, another requestor has received my book instead of the one they wanted.

Okay, that makes more sense to me - that's my bet. I wonder if I should PM or leave it alone....

I would PM her and ask if she had multiple requests that week and is there a chance she can PM those people and ask if they got X title book as well as the book they requested..
Sounds to me like she got many requests and thought she had marked them all mailed.