I had 2 books go lost in the mail from 2 seperate people a few weeks ago. They said they were mailed Aug 27th, and on Sep 22nd, they both were marked lost in the mail. So I reordered 1 of them because I really wanted to read it, and have already gotten it. Today I received that book in the mail from the first order, but it was not actually mailed until Sep 12th, hence why it went "lost", If I marked it as received now, I will lose a credit, right? How should this be taken care of properly?

Thanks for any help....this is the first time it's ever happened to me!

From the help center:

You can read more here: http://tinyurl.com/36glb8

Ok, thanks Sheri! :) I marked it received.

I have to say, I probably wouldn't have marked it recieved.  They mailed it late and it went lost.  You ordered from someone else.  If you hadn't ordered from someone else, I would have gone ahead and done it, but now you have spent 2 credits.  I don't think I would have given them the credit.

Something very similar happened to me today (and twice last week). A book I ordered at the beginning of Sept and that was supposed to be mailed out to me on the 5th went lost last week. It arrived today and according to the postmark it was actually mailed on the 22nd of Sept. I did mark it as mailed and the person did get their credit for the book, but I also made darn sure to answer that questionaire we get when we mark a book recieved AND I wrote in a small note to R&R about how late the book was mailed. I am sure that this will be a "mark" on this persons account and if they keep this up that they will get a warning or even a suspension.

I know it may sound petty, but we need to report irresponisible behavior when it occurs in addition to just marking the book recieved. We need to make this a smoother place for the folks like me and many of you reading this that do play by the rules.

seems to be a lot of people getting books that have been mailed a lot later than what they were supposed to have been mailed. I wonder if these people are new members and do not know the rules?

Rebecca; since they mailed the book AFTER the deadline and your already ordered and received the same book from someone else, you shouldn't have marked it received. Now you lost a credit.  I would  PM the member and nicely ask for your credit back.

I think Sheri has it right on this one: rules say you have to mark it received--and that you can ask for your credit back. 

From the Help Center:

• Providing the late postmark in the survey portion of the Book Received page will generate an auto-email to the sender of the book, reminding him or her that late mailing is not acceptable at PBS.
  • The email includes the information that the late postmark could have been entered in error
  • The email includes the information that sometimes postmarks are delayed a few days, even if the book was mailed on time
  • The email includes the information that if the late mailing was agreed to by the requestor, this is not a problem
• You can contact the sender using the text box on the Book Received page:
  • Please be gentle!  You can't know what might have delayed this shipment
• If the book was declared Lost in the Mail and you requested a second copy because you thought the first one was really lost:
  • You can ask for your credit back in your Personal Message
  • You can note this information in the Comments box at the bottom of the Book Received page: this will go onto the sender's record.
• A pattern of late mailing will cause account suspension and possibly termination of membership
  • Sometimes late mailing happens for very good reasons, but chronic late mailing will not be tolerated

I don't think it's necessarily new people who make these "errors."  I hear this a lot in these  forums but in my five short months here I've come to realize many of the rule breakers when it comes to mailing books late (or  being a general flake) are those that have been around awhile and I consider anyone who has a 2007 join date to be "new"  like myself.  That's just my experience though.

One thing I have learned is that if a book goes lost, I never reorder it until at least 6 weeks to a month afterwards because of the "late mailers." If it's a wishlisted book, you do go back on the wishlist at first in line, but I figure if I get a second copy of one of those, I'll just post it as soon as I get it. But yeah, always mark it received, and DO make note of the postmark on the little survey at the end. Like it says, people who do this habitually won't be around long, and the only way to make that happen is if R&R know about it.

Cheryl