In these recent days before Christmas, our hallway filled up with cardboard boxes. They were brought to our door by an array of delivery drivers. Most of the parcels had been ordered by our son Ian and we had no idea what was inside them. A particularly large box was addressed to our daughter.
When she finally opened it, we discovered a mattress inside. But nobody here had ordered a mattress. It arrived via Amazon Prime. Clearly a mistake had occurred.
We attempted to let Amazon know and we tried to contact the intended recipient - a Mr D. Spencer who lives in the village of Killamarsh east of Sheffield. It's about ten miles away from our house. Yes we really did try but to no avail.
But the bottom line was that we didn't want that massive box in our hallway. Consequently, today I transported the box to St Vincent's Charity Warehouse on Queens Road. This worthy charity helps needy people to furnish their homes. The brand new mattress was gratefully received.
Nowadays, there seem to be many issues with deliveries and delivery companies. Maybe it was here in Blogland but I heard of someone who had received a Yamaha electric organ in error. When they pursued the matter, they were told to just keep the organ. It would have been too much trouble for the carrier to correct the matter.
You hear of dishonest delivery drivers and of parcels being stolen from doorsteps. Shopping may have changed forever but not always for the good. It would help if all delivery companies had well-staffed customer service facilities to ease communication. Instead, the reality is that you are more likely to wait for a bot in a telephone queue as a recorded message fibs, "Your call is important to us".
I hope that a weary and deserving someone is soon able to lie down upon that mysterious mattress and then sail through sleep's archway to The Land of Nod. They will have no inkling of knowledge about the mattress's prior journey.
I rarely order anything online so i luckily avoid most of the nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI heard you ordered fishing line online plus washing line too.
DeleteSomebody will be happy to have the mattress!
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a lovely time with the fam
I bounce that kind thought right back to you Kylie - HAPPY CHRISTMAS!
DeleteOne of our neighbours regularly uses Amazon prime, and on one unfortunate occasion her son waited in especially for the delivery but the driver put the parcel through our letterbox in error. We passed the parcel on to the neighbour who contacted Amazon to tell them of the error and was assured that it would not happen again. However, the very next day we had another Amazon prime delivery left in our porch for that same neighbour, we passed the parcel on and she complained vociferously to Amazon, this time seemingly with success, as we haven't had a repeat wrong delivery since.
ReplyDeleteWhy should we do the work of Amazon and other delivery people for them?
DeleteI have heard of people being told to keep the mis-sent items by Amazon but what of poor Mr. Spencer? Oh well, have a great Christmas, Neil.
ReplyDeleteHe will have complained and said, "I didn't get my mattress!" so they will probably have sent him another one.
DeleteI do order without many things going awry but it happens fairly often in my neighborhood. We post on the Facebook page and shortly the intended recipient comes by to rescue said package off the front porch. My theory is that many many seasonal employees are hired and not given enough or even any training. I'm sad for someone trying to do a job and they don't know how.
ReplyDeleteNone of us voted for Delivery World. It has been foisted upon us.
DeleteI wonder what the percentage of accurate deliveries are?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not 100%. Maybe 94%? That would be my guess.
DeleteAnything that is possible I buy directly at the shops in my hometown and carry it home on foot. I wanted to do the same for the gift I chose from the "Wishing stars" on the tree in the foyer of our office building, those stars being postcards filled in by children coming from poor or otherwise disadvantaged families. On the card, it only said the first name, gender and age of the recipient, and the specific wish they had which was not to cost more than 30 euros.
ReplyDeleteA specific perfume was asked for by "Valerian, 16" - easy, I thought. But in spite of personally visiting three usually well stocked shops in town, nobody had that particular brand, and I had to resort to ordering online.
The first parcel was damaged during transport and never reached me. The second did arrive, thankfully on time and in one piece. I hope Valerian is happy with his new scent - a bit of luxury and obviously something he can not hope to receive from his parents, or afford on his own.
You and I are not willing online shoppers but many younger people are addicted to the process and perfectly comfortable with it. Unlike Valerian 16, I would never ask for perfume as I prefer my natural body smells - never rancid as I shower daily.
DeleteI wonder at any large store (Amazon) who can just write off the cost of a misdelivered item by telling you to keep it and sending another to the correct address.
ReplyDeleteAs they don't pay the taxes that they should be paying, there's plenty of spare cash left over to cover errors.
DeleteWe occasionally have takeaways wrongly delivered, we read the correct address and send them away accordingly. I'm tempted to take one in, and claim that we thought our son had sent it.
ReplyDeleteThen you will become a target for the Deliveroo mafia.
DeleteIt sounds like an episode from One Foot In The Grave.
ReplyDeleteAre you comparing me with Victor Meldrew? I don't believe it!
DeleteWell done. There are children in Sheffield without beds to sleep on (see comments on Thelma's blog). Some of those drivers are scheduled 200 deliveries a day. Can you blame them for dumping package on doorstep, brief knock, them disappear rather than getting involved in talk. We won't pay the true cost of delivery and underpay the drivers.
ReplyDeleteTis the season for many deliveries. The community we live in is four towers, 15 stories each, a little over 1,000 homes. Our inhouse security staff spend about 25% of their time re-delivering misdelivered packages. And with that they walk the hallways and ride the elevators making sure we are safe and secure.
ReplyDeleteThere is an Amazon distribution center not 12 miles away from my house. It is beyond huge. And I guess they employee a whole lot of people. Same when it was being built, quite possibly hundreds of people were working on that site. I am afraid that they are so engrained in our economy that we'd never be able to go back to the way it was before Jeff Bezos came up with his idea.
ReplyDeleteJust popping in to wish you and those you love, a very happy Christmas. Xx
ReplyDeleteI've heard of delivery mistakes, but that one is a whopper. Donating it to charity was a stroke of good thinking -- you made someone's Christmas, in all likelihood.
ReplyDeleteDelivery drivers have a hard time of it, with a trying delivery schedule. Most do a good job, I think, for little recompense and few thanks.
ReplyDeleteHappy Christmas to you and all yours - it will be lovely with little ones in attendance.
What a lovely thing to do. Somebody who needs a mattress will receive one, that's kind.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas Mr. and Mrs. Pudding!
I made the mistake of unwrapping a mattress that I ordered but was delivered in the wrong size. They told me to just put it back in the box and return it. I had to ask them if they were serious about what they were asking. In the end, they gave me some sort of one time exemption and didn't make me return it and sent me the correct sized one. The missed delivery now is my MIL's bed, which we upsized to fit the mis-sized mattress.
ReplyDelete