How does one handle requesting a book, sender taking a long time to respond and then being out of town when the book arrives? That means the sender won't receive credit.

thanks for your help, Sandra

Sorry, I totally misunderstood the question! 

You will still see the book on your "Mailed to You" list.  And can award credit when you return home. On several occasions I have told those sending my books that I will be out of town for awhile and will award their credits soon after I return home. None ever indicated having a problem with that.

If you plan on being out of town for a long period of time, try not to request books for a couple of weeks before that.

If you do happen to get one that just ends up with bad timing, just let the sender know that you are out of town and will check your mail and mark it received when you get home. (If you are going to be gone from home for a really long time, like over 3 weeks to a month, then it probably isn't fair to the sender to have to wait for the credit and you should probably mark the book received at the system action date as long as the senders "long time" is just taking the time PBS gives us to send).

Once you are back home, if the book has been marked lost by the system, you go to your Transaction Archive, find the book with that sender on it and you can mark it received from their and give the sender credit.

Yes, you are still required to mark books received that you have actually received, even if the system determined they are lost in the mail because that much time has passed.

Just go into your Transaction Archive and mark them received from there, if they have been removed from the "Books En Route" tab.

If I was going to be out of town more than a day or so after I think the book may be received, I'd go ahead and take a chance and mark it received before I left, even though I hadn't gotten it yet.  I wouldn't want the sender to have to wait for the credit. 

I travel often, multiple times a month. There is no way for me to "time" orders. I just mark books received when I get back. Having said that, it's rare for any trips for business to take longer than a week. So, that's the longest that someone might potentially wait for their credit if books come while I am away. If I was taking a much longer trip than a week, I might consider marking books received without seeing them first.

I find that people who are very concerned about getting the credit as fast as humanly possible tend to purchase DC or postage in the first place.