Saturday, December 3, 2022

Delivered

 We ordered a gift on line for Tim's son.  It was a big thing and we tracked the package's progress, because we wanted someone to be home when it was delivered. Tim went hunting and I was resting my knee, so I was the obvious choice. 


I was home all that day and nothing was delivered. When Tim got home from hunting, he was surprised to find that it hadn't been, so he got on line to see if they'd changed the date. It's a busy time of the year and it happens. Except that he came out of the office saying, "It was delivered at 1:22." 

"Really? Did they set it out back maybe? I don't understand that. I was right here all day, unless they showed up while I was in the bathroom or something." 

He looked out back. Nothing. I mean, it would have been impossible to miss. It was big. 

I messaged FedEx and let them know it had not been delivered. I received no response. 

I guess that I'm a bit of a wierdo, because my worry is always that they will think that WE are the dishonest people, that we are scamming them. After an hour with no reply from FedEx, I called Cabela's. 

I had to wait forever to speak to a customer service rep, but 'tis the season. I waited. When the representative finally came on the line, I explained things. 

She said, "It was delivered at 1:22."

I said, "It is not here and I was home all day waiting for it. I'm not sure what to tell you." 

She said, "I'm looking at the picture. It's out on the patio behind a metal chair with a white cushion. The house is white, the foundation is gray and the patio pad is gray."

I said, "Well, that's a problem then. Our house is yellow and we haven't got a patio OR patio furniture." 

Long pause. "Well, they must have delivered it to the wrong address. Does the house sound familiar?" I hated to tell her that we live across the street from a block of rental houses owned by the same man. They are ALL gray and white. I was pretty sure none of them had a patio though.

"It's a big box," she said helpfully. "And it was shipped right in the original packaging so it will be pretty obvious." 

Tim was standing there in his flannel pj bottoms and t-shirt. I covered the receiver and said, "The last time that we had a package mis-delivered, it was the bull-float. It went to that house there", and pointed across the driveway to a neighbor off the main drag and up a side alley. He said, "Well, if he would have gotten it, he'd have run it right over." 

He pulled on his muck boots anyways and stepped around the stockade fence to head over. I said to the woman, "Do you want to hold on, or do you want to help someone else and call me back?" She said she'd wait and so we talked about Christmas and packages and it wasn't long before Tim was stepping around the fence, wrestling with the box. 

She was happy, I was happy, Tim was happy. Happy, happy, happy. 

Later, I said, "That's kind of strange he didn't let us know it was there." Tim said, "He couldn't find a label. Neither could I. He didn't know where it belonged. He didn't even know who left it. He was very glad to see me."

I looked at the waist high box curiously, turning it this way and that, examining all four sides. How strange. There wasn't a label. 

I found it later while I was trying to wrap it. The label was on the bottom of the box. 



34 comments:

  1. Unfortunately pretty typical, isn't it!

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  2. What an adventure! I've had them say it's delivered, but it's on the next day's truck. Weird place to put the label. Linda in Kansas

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    1. I mean this is a big package. To place the label on the bottom required the package to be turned over. That would be awfully inconvenient and guaranteed that our package spent most of its delivery being hauled around upside down.

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  3. I hate sitting around waiting for packages. Most things I order will fit through the mailbox slot, but they persist in knocking on the door and then taking a photo of the package to prove it was delivered. I think next year I won't order a single thing.

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    1. Oh that's not a problem here. Everything is just left. Even when you'd like it NOT to be.

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  4. If we order online it mostly comes by Australia Post. I am not sure about these private delivery companies. There have been some bad stories about them here, but then there have been bad Aus Post stories too.

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  5. That is why I am so reluctant to order anything online now. The Post Office parcel deliveries are fine but most companies use the very unreliable (i.e. cheap) courier services.

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    1. This year, I ordered most of our stuff online, so I guess that I was asking for it.

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  6. Gosh. That is a tale! We've not had any issues with deliveries here. We order a lot.

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  7. We have a little porch with a door. We leave it unlocked when we are expecting a delivery. Sometimes, they just leave it outside anyway. One time, they left it so that I couldn’t open the door without knocking the package over.

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    1. I can't imagine that anyone would open a door and set a package inside here. We have a covered side porch. We really try to make a point of being home, especially if the weather is bad.

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  8. Oh, I am so glad that it was found. I appreciate the helpful customer service person you spoke to. How nice that she stayed on the line with you!

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    1. She was very nice. It was such a long wait to get anyone, I was feeling bad for taking up her time waiting for Tim to pop back around the fence. I knew there were a slew of other customers waiting to talk to her.

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  9. I love that meme!

    Fed ex obviously has very high standards for it's employees. Glad you finally got it.

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    1. The interesting thing to us is that both mis delivered items were delived by FedEx. We live on a street. Our address put us right next to a house numbered 415. Instead of continuing one house down to 417 (which is numbered), they turn off the street into a little alley (which is marked with a street name) and deliver it to the house behind 415 instead of the house beside it (ours). Strangest thing. No one else has ever made that mistake.

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  10. The SECOND I began reading this, I thought " I wonder if this was from FedEx"? I am not kidding, a couple months ago I was expecting a tablet to be delivered from them. It never showed but I got a notice saying it was delivered. I finally got in touch with someone from there who said it was common for the driver to say delivered if he knew for sure it was being delivered within a couple hours. By the way I never got the tablet and Barnes & Noble had to resend it. I do not trust fedex!

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  11. Whoa! Well, I sort of love that the woman in Customer Service at Cabela's had pictures of where the package was. And also stayed on the line with you. So hurray for Cabela's! I guess all's well that ends well? Sort of?

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    1. You see that all the time here. FedEx does it. UPS does as well. I imagine it is a service that they offer to people who use their service, as a way to thwart dishonest people.

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  12. Glad you finally found your parcel Debby.

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  13. I'm glad you located your package! We've had something like that happen a few times, but it's usually been during busy seasons like this when the companies hire extra drivers that don't always know the routes.
    My biggest worry (especially now with Fred and Grady who are so naughty) is that a dog will get the package before I know it's there and either destroy it or take it into the woods.

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    1. Oh, Kelly. We had the same thing happen years ago when we had Koojer. I had ordered a sweater for someone. It didn't arrive. I called. A replacement was sent. Much later, I noticed, at the back of a doghouse, that someone had a brand new pillow.

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  14. Everything I get delivered is photographed as proof of delivery, and I see the driver angling his camera to pick up the house number, good idea. The post office tells you something is delivered when the tracking indicates it's at the main sorting depot two hours away, which may mean at best next day at your house! They mean it's arrived instate.

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    1. Most of our packages via the mail will fit in our mailbox, so I'm not quite so worried about those. Good things to know, though.

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  15. So glad that it turned up across the road. Not an ideal situation though. Here they take a photo of where they left it (if inside one of the stables) or of your feet, as proof of delivery, and you open the door in time!

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    1. I personally like the picture taking, really. I was so relieved when the woman began describing where it was left, because it was positively provable that it had not been left at our house.

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  16. Why this always happens when you are going to the extra effort of being there when it is delivered? Some sort of Murphy's Law?

    My mail snafu of the day (not the problem of the USPS though) was that for some reason, several gifts for under the tree were delivered today, Sunday, and without the usual brown Amazon box with the smile logo. Instead, they were just sitting at the front door and at least two were blatantly obvious Christmas presents for my kids. They essentially just stuck a label on the outside of the original package. Fortunately I found them before my girls did so I can still maintain the element of surprise.

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    1. You would kind of think that this shouldn't need pointed out...

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  17. I am so fortunate in my last move. I instruct "Leave with concierge" and they do, with a picture and a note: Left with concierge.

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