• How this happens
• What to do if it happens
• How to avoid this happening again

If you don't know how this happened, these are the most likely possibilities:

• You accessed the address from one book request twice, and never accessed the address from the second request.
• You accessed the address from one book request, and used the wrapper to send two books instead of one, even though the second book was requested by a different person.
• You downloaded the address files from two requests, but printed one .pdf file twice and did not print the other .pdf file
• You downloaded and printed both address files, but mismatched the books and the wrappers.
• You downloaded and printed the correct address file for a book, but put a different book than the one that was requested  into the wrapper.

It is not possible to click "Print Wrapper" on one request and download the address file for a different request--the system will not permit this.  Each wrapper file is attached only to the corresponding request, and cannot be downloaded from any other request.

What to do:

If you put the wrong book into a wrapper OR you printed the wrong wrapper and used it to send a book:

• Contact the requestor(s) involved

  • use the button on the active transaction for the book you were supposed to send (and the PM button on the transaction for the wrapper you printed in error, if you re-used a wrapper to send a new request)

  • The active transactions for books you have mailed will be on the Books I've Mailed tab, in My Account.
  • If you reprinted a wrapper from a completed or canceled or lost transaction, that transaction will be in your Transaction Archive (accessed from a link at the top of My Account, in the yellow bar)

• Explain what happened, and arrange to sort out the problem:

  • If you sent an extra book to someone (instead of to the person who requested it):
  • • you can ask the receiver to send the book to its requestor (you should offer a credit or postage for doing this), and you can provide the address in a PM.
    • To give postage for remailing, you can:
      • send a stamped, addressed label/envelope by snail mail, OR
      • send funds by PayPal or Venmo if you both use that, OR
      • send a credit using the Give credits button as described in How do I give credits to other members?
  • If you sent the wrong book to one person instead of the book you were supposed to send:
  • • you can send the correct book or refund the requestor's credit following the instructions in How do I give credits to other members?
    • the requestor is not obligated to return the wrong book to you
  • If you mixed up two requests:
  • • Each requestor can send the book to the other
    • You should offer credit or postage to each of them, and provide the addresses in PMs.
    • To give postage for remailing, you can:
      • send a stamped, addressed label/envelope by snail mail
      • send funds by PayPal if you both use that
      • send a credit using the Give Credits button as described in How do I give credits to other members?
  • When your book(s) is/are marked received by the requestor(s), you will get a credit for sending each one.
  • If the requestor marked the book received with a problem, you got credit at that time.

• If a requestor whose book was mailed to the wrong address does not want to wait for your book to be redirected, and the book is still listed as "en route" to her:
  • you can ask us to cancel this transaction
  • when we do, she will get her credit back

If you mixed up two requests and sent the wrong books to two people:

• Contact both requestors.
  • Use the buttons on the active transactions for the books to let them know what happened.
  • The active transactions for books you have mailed with be on the Books I've Mailed tab, in My Account.
• You can ask the requestors to send the books to each other
  • You provide the addresses in PMs.
  • You should also offer them each a credit or postage for sending the book to the proper destination.
  • To give postage for remailing, you can:
    • send a stamped, addressed label/envelope by snail mail
    • send funds by PayPal if you both use that
    • send a credit using the Give Credits button as described in How do I give credits to other members?
• When the requestors get the books they requested, they can mark them received.
  • This means the sender "breaks even" on these transaction, but each book ends up with the person who requested it.
• If the books are delayed enough to have been declared lost at PBS:
  • the requestors can still mark them received when they get them (giving you credit) from their Transaction Archives, as described in I received a book that was 'lost in the mail'.
• If either of the requestors marked either of the books received with a problem, you got credit at that time.

If you can't get the correct book(s) to the correct person/people (one or more of the recipients does not want to send it or is not Responding to your messages, or the mis-sent book has been damaged, or you never actually had the correct book, etc):

• If the book(s) is/are not yet declared "lost in the mail" - you should contact us to cancel the transaction for the mismailed book.

• • This is better than waiting for the book to be declared "lost" by the system because it gets things moving faster  - the request will be passed to a new sender if there are other copies available when we cancel.
  • It is also better if this is a Wish List book - because if we cancel and there are no other copies in the system, the book will go back on the requestor's Wish List  in the same position as before.

• If the book(s) have been declared "lost in the mail" you can just leave things as they are - they can repost the books to their own Bookshelves.

  • If the books were Wish List books, they will be offered to the other member (if the other member is not already getting a copy from someone else)
  • If the books are available in the system, the requestors can simply re-request the books from other senders, with the credit they got back when the books were declared "lost inthe mail."

How to prevent this from happening again

The best way to avoid mixing up requests is to:

1. Before printing, be sure to check the title of the book you are printing the address for on the top of the Wrapper Settings page
2. After printing, check page 2 of the wrapper to ensure that the correct book title(s) are listed there.
3. Before Wrapping, first match each PBS Wrapper page 2 (which has both the address and the book title on it) with the book, then match page 1 (with the address on it) to page 2 (which also has the address on it, and which you have already matched to the book). 
4. After you have used a wrapper to mail a book, discard the downloaded file. That means: put it into your computer's trash and empty the trash. That way you will never print an old, previously-downloaded file and use it for a new mailing.