I recently had two books requested from me by two different members.  Somehow, I made the mistake that both books were requested by only one of the members and mailed both books to one address.  When I realized the mistake, I notified both parties right away.  The member that would not receive her book was not upset and said that she would just put the book back on her WL.  However, when I told the other member to keep the second book as a bonus as I could not change it, she said that if I gave her the address of the other member that she would mail it to her, today actually.  I PMed the other member to let her know, and she said OK.

I thought everything was fine until a couple of days later after this PM, I received a PM from the member saying that I would need to cancel the order since she could not because she had contacted help.  She copied and pasted the message from the help saying that I needed to contact help and that the help center would explain how to cancel the order because I shouldn't get credit for the book.  So, wanting to obey rules, I contacted Live Help.  I explained the whole situation to the live help, and she told me that I do still get credit and that the order should stay open.  So, I PMed the other member and told her, and she responded saying that she had contacted the 'Ask the Librarian', so not wanting to make any mistakes, I contacted the Live Help again and explained what the 'Ask the Librarian' section had stated.  The live help person had stated that she still felt I should get credit--I should mention that the other member mailing the book is doing this out of the kindness of her heart.  She did not ask for a credit, and I did not offer one as I do not have any to offer at this time.  I greatly appreciate this.  Anyway, in the mean time, I explained to the other member that live help said that even though I made a mistake, I still mailed the book, even though it was a mistake so the order needs to stay open until it is either received or lost.  The member finally agreed, but I also received a message from live help saying that I may need to contact another help section and explain the situation.  However, since the other members agreed to the situation, do I still need to do this?  Everyone seems to be on the same page now, but I do not want to make any mistakes.  Are there any thoughts on this?  Has anyone else been in a similar situation?

Here is the fairest thing:

You mailed 2 books out. The book that went to the right person gets marked received. That person wishes to mail the 2nd book to the right person as well. Very nice of them! You should buddy them one credit to cover the cost of their postage.

When the 2nd person gets their book, they mark it received and you get the credit.

So, as the ending:

1. Each of the requestors receives the book they ordered and has spent one credit.

2. You ultimately receive 2 credits, but you have given one to the person who re-mailed your book out.

Perfect.

Forget about cancelling the orders. That is not the recommended way to handle this situation IN THE CASE where someone will remail the book for you. That is only the right thing to do when the 2nd person will need to REORDER the book and thus needs to get their credit back FASTER than they would have gotton it when the book gets marked "lost in the mail".

All that advice about cancelling the orders, etc is making the situation much more complex than it needs to be.

Buddy the credit to the first person and explain to the second person that you should properly get the credit for mailing the book, as you have already compensated the second person. The orders stand as they are in PBS.

What should be done is you having the member who got two books forward the one on to the other member, as they said they'd be willing to do. Per the rules though, you do need to at least offer to give the member a credit for doing so, since they'll be paying shipping. You are entitled to the credit still if the book is forwarded to the member, but you really should give that credit to the forwarding member, in all fairness and in keeping with PBS rules for this situation.

The other member probably didn't relate the situation accurately to the PBS Team (Librarian) when they asked them, or else they would have told her the same thing, which is why the Tour Guide would have told you that you could contact the Team yourself and explain, if you wanted reassurance that what you were being told was in fact correct. Purely optional really, solely depending on whether you personally felt the need to do so.

P.S.: Sara broke it down perfectly. :-)

I appreciate the quick responses.  I have PMed the member who is forwarding the book and offered her the credit is she wants it.  I have no problem giving the credit, and I want everyone to be happy in the situation.  I appreciate anymore feedback anyone else has on this situation.  Thank you so much as I read each and every response...

Darcy

Darcy, you aren't the first person who has done this and you won't be the last...but I bet it's the last time YOU will ever do it!  :)

Take care and have faith it will all work out in the end! :)  If you need any more help just holler in the forum.  We are all here to help .

Like Karen says, this (or something similar) happens to most of us at some point, and PBS has a recommended method for handling these situations.  Sara's post covers it very well.

Sara summed it up well.

I, personally, wouldn't have Pm'd the "forwarding" member and "offered a credit if she wanted it". i would have Pm'd her and simple advised I would forward her the credit as soon as I received one.