I received a book today. It was the wrong book. The sender wants me to return the book to her and she will send me the right book. She said she will reimburse me for shipping but I do not have paypal or any way for her to send me the money. I don't want to be stuck with the bill for sending the book back and I don't feel this is my mistake to fix. What is the best way to handle this without either of us being affected too much?

Ask her to buddy you a credit to cover the return shipping.  And make sure she agrees to send the book back to you at her expense so that you are only out one credit for the entire transaction.

Well, I've had this situation happen before. What I did was PM the sender in which she offered to paypal the cost of postage for me to forward it to the correct person. She then PM'd the person that was recieving my book and did the same thing. So it worked out for all of us.

From Help Desk:

If you received a book you didn't request (a title you don't recognize), most likely the sender put the wrong book into the PBS Wrapper with your address on it.  If this was a single-book shipment, the book you received may have been requested by another member, who may have gotten your book.  It is also possible that the sender reprinted a wrapper she or he used to send you a book in the past, and sent this book to you instead of to its proper requestor.  If this is a multiple-book shipment, the sender may have sent you a book intended for another member, or may have mixed up a Box-O-Books shipment.

How to find the sender of the book to sort this out:

• Go to the Books en Route tab in My Account.   You can get there by clicking My Account in the toolbar at the top of the site, and then clicking the Books en Route tab (behind the Books to Mail tab).
  • Compare the state of origin on the package return address with the state of origin of each book on your Books en Route tab in My Account.  The state shows on the right of the transaction, in the "speech bubble" containing your address.
  • If there is a book that is listed there as coming from the same state, click on the transaction and send a Personal Message to this sender asking if she sent you this book by mistake.
  • If she did,
  • and sent your book to another requestor, she can offer each of you credit or postage to send the books to one another; the sender can provide the addresses in Personal Messages.  When each of you get the correct books, you can mark them received.
  • and she still has the book she was supposed to send you, she can offer to send the correct book to you. You are not obligated to send the extra book back to her, but it is a nice thing to do the sender is a new member.

I did ask for a credit and she didn't want to do that. She said she already had prepaid postage. I also offered to send the book to the right person and the book was not intended to go to anyone else.

This is just turning into a lot of work. I have now had 3 problems and I have only ordered 4 books. The first 2 problems were easy and I accepted them. They were supposed to be hardcovers and they were not. This one I don't know what to do.

I would prefer a credit but I don't know if I am asking too much for this mistake. But again I do not have a paypal account.

You're not asking too much at all.  It's as if you have listed the book and she is requesting it back from you.  She gives you a credit, she gets the book back.   It's the solution that makes the most sense for everyone.  You shouldn't have to open a PayPal account to get $2.  She needs to own her mistake and buddy you a credit so that you can get her the book back.  If she doesn't want to give you a credit, she should forfeit the book that she already sent and STILL send you the book you requested at her expense.

I'd ask for a credit back, can't hurt.  The only option would be to keep the book and repost it on your bookshelf(of course, then you wouldn't get the book you ordered).

If she has prepaid postage, can she just forward you the mailing label?

Sorry you are having such problems Carrie! There really are many more good swappers than bad. If she doesn't want to give you a credit and wants to pay postage, tell her to print prepaid wrappers and send them to you and you will wrap the book up and send it back to her in them.  You are not obligated to send her the book back. If she won't pay for it, post it to get your credit back to re-order the book you wanted.

ditto to her just sending you the postage via mail and you sending from there.  cheapest route as well.

I'd say her choices are:

• she sends you the right book with the postage reimbursement inside or in a separate envelope it so you can send back the wrong book - no way should you have to send back the wrong book first
• she sends you the right book and you keep the wrong book

But prepaid postage can "expire". Haven't people had problems w/printing the postage the night before and then being told they mailed on the wrong day. She needs to just transfer you a credit.  If the book was supposed to go to someone else you can post the book and that person can order it from you.  The original sender needs to give that person a credit as well.  This is what I did when I got the wrong book a couple wks ago.  Fortunately the other person got my book as well and we just ordered the right books of eachother's shelves.  The orig. sender sent us both a credit.  She can't get out of this for no $.  She has to send credits and just eat the postage if she can't use it on another book.

I have decided to resolve it this way. Even Stevens! I am going to keep the book I will read anything so my husband says and then I will repost it. I hope things don't keep going this way! I am sure they won't! Not a big deal just wondered if everyone is having problems like me. Obviously, not!  Thanks for all the replies!

I agree with Stacy. This happened to me several times. All but 1 time was the person willing to correct their mistake.