In the past two weeks, I have had two "double receives" of books and am anticipating a 3rd, except I caught this one, but now I am watching for a book addressed from someplace in Californaia so I can write "refused" on it and hopefully it will go back.

I dont' remember what happened with the other two books, but obviously the senders either didn't mail them in a timely manner or didn't mark them sent so my request went out to the next trader.  In the meantime, the original trader sent out the book.  Like I said: I am a twit.  I don't remember going into the transaction archive to mark I had rec'd the books after the alloted time, but I must have, because they both have green X's now.  In the meantime, the folks to whom the request had moved to had sent out their books and the first one I am like: what?  I already have received this!  But there is is in the en route list, so I marked it as rec'd.  The second book, I realized what had happened, but what am I supposed to do?  I had already gone in and marked it as rec'd from the first sender, so I am supposed to punish the second?  So I marked it "received" and now I am down two credits.  The third book, the tardy sender kept e-mailing me that "I'm going to send it, I'm going to send it", and then finally: "I sent it."  About a day later I received a copy from someone else and I emailed the first sender  and told her and that's why we are going to try to return it by me refusing it.

My points are this:  #1: I am a twit.  I wasn't paying attention.  Pay attention!  If a book has moved to the archive as a failed transaction, don't mark it read until you've made sure it's not being sent by someone else!

#2: I know it's a busy time of the year, but if you don't have time to keep up with your transactions, then don't accept requests!

There I have vented and I feel better now.    I wasn't really mad or aggravated, more chagrined.  I hate it when I do a dumb thing over and over again.

Darlene, if the first sender forgets to mark the book mailed and the order has been passed on, when you go in to your Account Page to mark the book received (whichever one you get first) you will be marking the second sender's book received because that's the one which will be an active order.  And the second person is the one that should receive your credit, so that's correct.  Just make sure you don't mark anything received from your Transaction Archive unless it's a lost book that finally shows up, or some other special situation that you have.

But you're right, it's a good idea to pay attention to the request dates on your orders so you can know if one is being passed on.

Diane 

I believe that Media Mail is not returned for free. So if you mark it refused the sender will have to pay to get it back. Underthe circumstances you describe, that seems unfair to them. If it was sent First Class, nevermind.

If you indicated to the late sender in the 3rd instance that you would accept it mailed late, then you should be marking it received even if you are getting a second copy since you agreed to them sending it. If they send it after you told them no (and its been marked lost in the system), then you would not have to mark it received.

PBS says that the only instance that it is acceptable to deny delivery of a book is if it arrives postage due. You should be accepting the book and following the steps given in the Help Center section for - I received two copies of a book!

In all cases, if a transaction is on your My Account page, you must accept the book from that member and marked it received. That sender did what they are supposed to and should not be penalized by someone else's late mailing or your giving credits to the member who made the error.