Books you request and receive need to be marked received from the "En Route to Me" tab in My Account.  Look there first:

• Click My Account in the toolbar at the top of the site

• Look below the My Account tab (on the left, in yellow) to see the "En Route to Me" tab. 

  • In other words, look JUST ABOVE the book cover image on your Main My Account view.
  • There is a tab there, labeled with the category of active transaction showing as the default view.
    • This tab will be large and yellow (because you are currently viewing that category)
  • If this large yellow tab is not labeled En Route to Me, look JUST TO THE RIGHT of the large yellow tab
    • The En Route to Me tab will be there
    • It is smaller and grey (because you are NOT currently viewing that category)
  • When you click the En Route to Me tab, it will turn large and yellow because you will now be viewing that category.

• Scroll down! if you need to, to see the "En Route to Me" tab. 

  • This may be the first tab on the left, or it may be to the right of "Books I've Requested", or it may be the only tab below the "My Account" tab--this depends on whether you have any active transactions in the other categories in your account.

• Click the "En Route to Me" tab

• You will see the books that have been mailed to you and that need to be marked received. Scroll down! if you need to, to find the transaction for the book on the "En Route to Me" tab.

• Follow the instructions in Marking an incoming book received from there.

A short cut to the En Route to Me tab is the button on the Message From the Librarian on your My Account page

• If you have books en route to you there will be an item in the blue Message from the Librarian box that will say:

Books to be Marked Received when they arrive -
 

• If you place your cursor over this button, the En Route to Me tab will highlight

• If you click the button, you will be taken directly to the En Route to Me tab.

If the book is not on the En Route to Me tab, it may be that: 

1. the sender didn't mark the book mailed yet, and it is still on the Books I've Requested tab; or

2. the sender didn't mark the book mailed by the deadline and the transaction canceled; or 

3. the sender canceled by mistake but mailed the book anyway; or

4. you have already marked the book received; or

5. the book was declared lost in the mail at PBS (and needs to be marked received from your Transaction Archive; or

6. this is a NEW offer of the book on your My Account page, and the copy you got was from the previous, canceled transaction -- so you would need to cancel the new request if possible and mark the canceled book received from your Transaction Archive as described in I received a book from a canceled transaction!; or

7. you did not request the book in a for-credit transaction at PaperBackSwap. 

To investigate/narrow down these options:

If there is an active transaction for the book on your Books I've Requested tab:

• Click the button on the transaction to see the sender's name in the To: field of the new Personal Message
  • If the name is the same as the name in the Return Address on the package, then this sender did not mark the book mailed yet. 
    • You should immediately send a PM to the member, telling him or her to mark the book mailed!
    • If the member does not read your PM in time, the request may cancel
    • If so, a new sender will get your request and the status will change to "Waiting for member"
    • If this happens, you can click to cancel the new request
    • Then you can mark the book received from the canceled transaction in your Transaction Archive, to give the first sender credit.  See instructions on how to do this in I received a book from a canceled transaction!.
  • If the name is NOT the same as the name in the return address on the package, then the request has already been passed to a new sender.
    • If there is a button you can click it then and mark the canceled book received from the canceled transaction in your Transaction Archive, to give the first sender credit.
      • See instructions on how to do this in I received a book from a canceled transaction!.
    • If there is no button, the new sender has already printed your address and you can no longer cancel the new request.  You will get 2 copies of this book.  You are not obligated to give credit for the extra copy you have already received; you are also not obligated to return it. 
      • In this situation you should NOT ask the new sender to click the Cancel Order button, since this will pass your request along to a third sender.  If the new sender agrees to cancel at your request, the new sender should contact us and ask us to cancel so that the request is not passed along.  Also, if we cancel in this situation, the new sender's book will stay on her bookshelf; she will not need to repost it.

If there is no active transaction for the book on your Books I've Requested tab, check your Transaction Archive. Your Transaction Archive is accessible from a link at the top of My Account.  Place your cursor over the icon to the left of each transaction to see that transaction's status.

• First, sort the Transaction Archive by Requested by Me - All - Title - Descending
  • Then scroll down the list to see the transactions for this title
  • There may be multiple transactions for the same title if  one sender declined to send the book, or the first copy you requested was lost in the mail, to give two examples.
• Compare the sender name on the right of the transaction(s) for the book in the list with the return-address information on the package:
• When you find a name that matches the sender of the book you received, place your cursor over the icon to the left of that transaction to see its status pop up in a little box

• • If the status is Canceled or Lost on the transaction that matches the return address information on your package:
    • You can mark it received from the transaction  (this is mandatory for lost books, and optional for canceled books)
      • Click on that transaction.
      • The Book Received screens will come up. Click Continue on the screens you see until you see the "Thank you for telling us that you got the book".
      • Doing this will give credit to the sender of the book.
  • If the status is Completed Successfully, or Damaged, Damaged by USPS,  Requestor Condition Violation or Wrong Book  (these problem transactions have an X or red checkmark on them):
    • You have already marked this book received, and do not need to do this again.
    • The sender has already gotten credit.
    • If he or she refunded credit and you now want to return that credit, you can do so using Friends.

If there is no transaction in your Transaction Archive that matches the information (sender name/state of origin) on the package you received:

• This may have been a Box-O-Books swap.  If you are a Box-O-Books subscriber, check your pending Boxes in the Box-O-Books area.
• This may have been a book from a PBS Game you are playing in the Games forum.  Check with the game host.
• You may have obtained the book from outside PBS: from another swapping site, or from an online site such as Amazon.
• This could be a "random act of kindness" book from another PBS member--if so, you will probably have to wait until that person reveals herself to you!

Related Links:

I received a book that was 'lost in the mail'
I received a book I didn't request!
I received 2 copies of the same book!
There is a problem with a book I received!