CLAIMS RETURNED

What do you do when a patron says that an item on their account has already been returned? While you might encourage them to double check at home for the item, and you might yourself want to physically check on our shelves for it, there comes a point when you just need to take the item off of the patron's account. And of course you would then only impose fines that would have accrued up to the date on which the patron says the item was returned.

That being said, how is it done? In Millennium, highlight the item in question and click the "Claims Returned" button. A window pops up wanting to know on which day the item was returned -- usually this will be some time in the past. Leaving this field blank is also an option. The next window that comes up offers 3 choices, please always use the middle one. This calculates the fine as described above, takes the item off of their account, and changes the status field (in the item record) to "z - Claims Returned."

The other part of the equation is what to do when an item finally turns up. Simply check it in, and just like items that have been declared missing, its status will be changed to "ON SHELF." It is not necessary to refer back to the patrons account.