I am trying to work out a wrong book problem. I know that I sent the correct book, but she states she received a different book. I am not sure what to do, as the book she received from me is not one I owned or would have mailed. I asked her to verify the packaging and it has my name on it, in the correct envelope, but I don't know where the book she has came from. I have checked my other transactions from the same time perioed and verified that everyone received the correct book, so I am not sure what to say to the member. I read all the help literature, but nothing quite fits the situation. Please advise and thank you for your time.

I don't know if I can be of assistance but I had this happen to me. I ordered a book and what I got in the mail was another book by the same author. i PM'ed the person who I ordered the book from and she swore that she mailed me the correct book. I sent the isbn number of the book I got and was considering taking a picture of all the wrapping etc etc. needless to say once I mentioned that I had to mark her book as lost in the system and couldn't give a credit since I never got the book it went downhill from there.

To this day the mystery remains. I still have the other book and I never got the one I orginally ordered.

The only thing I learned from it was to make sure when I'm sending out multiple books that I make sure I'm mailing the right one.  Not sure what to tell you if the person isn't giving you more info. The whole mystery of it would frustrate me though.

so far the member has been trying to help, but as you said, the mystery frustrates me. The mystery book she received is by a completely different author and doesn't even look like the one I mailed, so I am pretty sure I didn't send it to her, as I didn't own the book she received. She has marked it rec'd but with a problem, so I can refund or whatever the next step is. Just not sure how to correct it, as I am almost 100% positivie I sent the right book.

Did you check your transaction archives and copy and paste what it shows there that you sent her?  That is the proof you mailed the book that was requested.    Well, at least it shows you what book WAS requested. 

Did she happen to open more than one package at a time and possibly mixed up which book came out of which package? Did the wrapping appear to be damaged/opened in any way? It is possible that if the package came open or was inspected, the PO just shoved in something that fit in the envelope. Those are the only things I can think of that would explain why a different book was received than what you mailed.

I was wondering if the PO put another book in the envilope too, stranger things have happened. Either way, I wouldn't refund the credit if you are so sure you sent the right book. Something weird/ fishy is going on and I don't think you should take responsibility for it until you get to the bottom of it.

Jeanne, did you check your shelves to see if the book requested was still there?   I did send the incorrect book one time in a game swap and I realized it as soon as I saw the book I was supposed to have sent still on my shelves (both were Christmas themed books with similar titles).

If not, and you're positive you never owned the book member says she received, I wouldn't refund credit.  It seems rather likely that they confused their sender info. when opening multiple packages.  Hope it gets sorted out for you.

This happened to me.  The PO attempted to put the book and label back together after they came open.  But the wrong book went with the label.  Was the wrapper damaged or repaired?  Or one of those plastic apology bags?  The PO has a form to handle that sort of problem, called a rifling form.  What, guns?  No rifling as in theft.  There might be someone else out there with the right label and wrong book.

thanks for all the suggestions, I'll ask about the torn packaging idea.

I did check my shelf for the book and it is not there. I really remember mailing it, so I am positive on the mailed part.

I should have had her describe packaging to me, but I offered the info and of course she agreed.

If I don't give refund, how does this work. It's my first problem with this.

I'm assuming she sent you the name and author of the book, right? Use the Contact Us link and send a message to the site owners, asking them to see if anyone here at PBS ordered that particular book recently and if so see if they will tell you who that person is and you can contact them and see if something similar is happening to them. Because the only thing I can guess is that the post office messed up the packages.

As far as the credit refund, if she hasn't marked the book received yet, tell her not to until you have talked to TPTB and attempted to figure out what is going on. If two books get accidentally swapped between receivers, the receivers are supposed to mail the books to each other, and neither receiver is supposed to mark the book received until they have the correct book in their hands.

I checked with member again, and the packaging was fine. She did mark the book received, but with a problem, so i don't know what to do now. She seems pretty friendly and not overly worried, I just puzzle at the mystery of a book going out, that I never owned. I will e-mail PBS site with info.

Jeanne-  I once received a package at work that was nicely tapped up , did not look like anything have happened to it until I opened it up and saw a note from the PO saying it had been opened enroute to me and sorry for the late delivery.  If not for that note I would not have known it had been opened.  Some POs tape packaging back up it is opened so another book could have been put inside and taped up and the receiver might just have assumed you did a sloppy taping job.

I would contact the TPTB and see what they recommend, they will be able to see that the book sent had never been on your shelf.  If the book she got was in a postable condition, I would not feel inclined to give her a credit.

I don't know if this would apply.  I had someone order a book from me and I sent her the book she requested.  I don't have that many requests so I know I didn't mix it up. 

I kept asking what book she received, meaning the title.  She just kept saying that I had send her the wrong book in the series instead of the one she wanted.  TPBST insisted I must have sent her the wrong book.  Finally I just returned her credit to finish the discussion.  I hate confrontations.

After I sent the credit she finally told me the title of the book she received.  Exactly the book she requested!  Then I did a bit of research.  Come to find out this person ordered the book not by the title, not by the ISBN but by the description of the book.  When I looked at it I realized the description was for another book by a different author!

Not my fault, hers!  She had marked the book RWAP and simply wouldn't budge until I returned the credit.  Wouldn't give me any information until then either.

I almost quit over that situation.  It went on and on and pm after pm for about a week.  Which doesn't sound like much but one day I actually ended up writing her seven pm's.

There is a very remote chance that it wasn't addressed to her and the postman delivered it to her house by mistake.  I know that once I got a book and tore open the packaging and thought "hmmm... I don't remember ordering this"... and sure enough, when I looked at the envelope it was addressed to someone else that lived nearby.   During a 2 week period, I have 2 other things delivered here that weren't mine.  Maybe a change in postal person?  not sure.

So, that might not be your receiver's issue, but its something you can check.

If she only had one order out there and received one book... if it wasn't actually addressed to her and she didn't notice... that could be it.  Or it could still be mystery.

That does should very puzzling!

Getting TPTB to look at the whole transaction might help.. there could have been some goofy twilight zone activity around the time of the order... you never know :  )

My guess: The recipient had a book either "go lost" at an earlier date or wasn't marked mailed, and that is the book that just arrived in her mailbox. Your book is still on its way. She only had one "active" book order, so she assumed it was the book you sent, when it was really an old expired order in her transaction archive.

Has she checked her transaction archive?

Oops! Double-post! I must have had a very adamant opinion!

If this other person isn't trying to pull some funny business the only other thing I can think of is the PO messed up. The PO has a right to open media mail packages to verify the contents qualify for the media mail rate. They will leave a typed note and it should bear a date stamp (stamped by hand) of the date the opening occurred. Maybe the inspector hadn't had enough coffee or was just a dope and mixed up two packages? Did he/she say there was a note form the PO in there? This is definitely interesting. The only other possible scenario I can come up with is maybe the book requester requested the book after having taking their nightly dose of Ambien and doesn't remember doing it. :-\

Apparently USPS incorrectly repackaged books in transit. I ordered one non-fiction book plus 2 Canadian cookbooks. Instead, I got the correct non-fiction book plus 3 Spanish parenting books, with all 4 books in one envelope.
If you are on the other end of this mix-up, contact me and we can arrange a switch. The books were sent from one large Texas city to another.

What I got that I didn't order: 1) Como Hablar para que los Ninos Eschuchen..., (2) Los 7 Errores que Cometen los buenos padres, y (3) La Ley de Atraccion.

What disappeared from my order: (1)I've Got to Have That Recipe, and (2) I've Got to Have That Recipe, Too.

The sender has never owned books written in Spanish, so the error occurred somewhere in transit. The package did not have a note saying USPS had opened it for inspection.

ETA: The books arrived last week. This week I filed a report with USPS and notified TPTB.

the last post is interesting, as it sounds similar. I'm not dealing with Spanish books, so unfortunately, I can't help you there. My idea is the wrapper was incorrect or something. Anyway, PBS is aware of the situation and has told me to treat it as a lost book and refund credit. I don't know if I will do this, as the reciepient can re-list the incorrect book and get her credit, as it is a fairly popular author. My next question, is do I lose my sent book credit?

Thanks again!