I ordered some cables last week from Best Buy. They were delivered on Thursday. Today I got another box from Best Buy. The exact same shipping label on it (same USPS tracking number and order number). Only it has an apple watch in it that I never ordered. There is no record of anything on my Best Buy account except the cables and no charges for anything but the cables. Both boxes did not have any packing label inside. I plan on contacting them tomorrow to get them to straighten it out.
My question is what crazy or bizarre delivery mix-ups have you had?
At least a dozen people have received a lot of stuff that I’ve ordered since Walmart started using Door Dash and other local delivery services to fulfill online orders from a store instead of shipping from a warehouse. Because those items are dropped off in Walmart bags with no name or receipt, they’d have no way of knowing who should have gotten them. The driver sometimes takes a photo, I guess to prove delivery, but they’re often worthless. I’ve seen a photo of someone else’s mailbox (house number only, so no telling what street), a close up of a door, and even a picture of someone’s leg inside a vehicle. So random people have found bags of first aid supplies, baby formula, underwear for H, toilet paper, cereal, etc. on their front porch and have no idea why. Each time I contacted Walmart and they sent a replacement.
Once I ordered baby clothes and received big girl sizes instead. Another time I ordered a Minnie Mouse top and got some mechanical droid character. That sort of thing has happened several times. Most of the mix-ups are from Amazon, but there have been a few others. Target has said to keep, toss or donate the things sent in error, I suppose because the cost of a UPS call tag is more than the item is worth to them. Amazon has required a return for things costing as little as $4.50, even when they have to send UPS to pick up.
Other times when I thought there’d been a mistake made by a store, it turned out that either H had placed the order or someone had sent a gift but there was no receipt enclosed.
I wonder how Best Buy will handle the apple watch mistake. They may have no way to determine who really did order it.
I had a very similar situation, although with Home Depot. During the pandemic shut down I ordered some Rustoleum spray paints and sandpaper for a project. The items arrived in multiple packages over two days and cost about $30. The third day I received a huge box from HD with a Koehler sink! No idea how that happened. I was never charged for it and HD told me to keep it rather than deal with the return. It was a bit of a headache, but I donated to Habitat Restore once they reopened.
In the past when I got duplicate or wrong items from Amazon, they usually said to just keep it (but none of these were particularly valuable).
Over 30 years ago I ordered a refrigerator from Sears. I had a confirmed delivery date and time and my in-laws over to accept delivery (my husband and I were both working). They never came. They rescheduled a new delivery date, my in-laws came again, and we got the fridge. About a month later, we came home from work one night and when we opened the garage there was another refrigerator from Sears. They had delivered another one with nobody home and left it in the garage (which was not locked.) Frankly, I was shocked that a delivery team would live a major appliance in an open garage with nobody home and nobody signing for it. I called them and explained the whole thing. Sears was so confused, they had no record of the extra refrigerator. I tried to get them to come and take it away but they were not interested. I ended up selling it to a friend.
We got a package when we moved into our house. It was a housewarming gift from my Inlaws. They had given us a heads up about it…it was from LL Bean. Well…the box was left by our front door…and it was most definitely the shape of a pair of snowshoes. And indeed, we opened it and there was one pair of snow shoes. Now…we live in southern New England, not northern, and we get enough snow for snow shoes maybe once every three or four years. Plus there was only one pair.
So…DH called to thank his mom for the snowshoes. Well…it was supposed to be a Boothbay wind chime. We contacted LLBean and they sent a return shipping label…and shipped us the wind chime.
Wonder if the folks who got the wind chime returned it!
My best was quite a few years ago: I ordered a fairly large organizer - with bins, etc. perfect for my daughter (she still loves and uses it) and at a good price. Picked it up from the post office (P.O. Box). Barely fit in my car. Two days later, another pickup notice, same number, almost the same tracking. It was another of the same. We had no room for the second one, so I refused it and had it sent back. Called & told them what had happened. Even after several phone calls, I could not convince them to undo the full refund. A friend explained that this was probably due to internal tracking and potential employee theft issues. I stopped trying.
Another time, my adjustable desk, thru a kickstarter, arrived with the motor attachment wings damaged. Called/emailed the one person who was in charge of all shipping/customer service. Very nice person. Arranged for replacement part. Requested I send back damaged part. Delivery guy was not pleased when the two large, heavy boxes he hoped to get off his truck were not getting off, but, the customer service representative was really happy that I was sending back the mis-shipped desk.
I ordered a package of face masks from Amazon and had them sent to D at college in January. Instead of face masks, in the pouch are replacement casters for an office chair that are like rollerblade wheels. She turned the pouch inside out, attached the return label, sent them back and I got a refund. In May, right before she gets home, she gets notified of a package and it is the same box of replacement casters. The warehouse turned the pouch right side out, put a new sticker over the original and shipped it. When she opened it, her return label was still taped on the inside…
Our ring doorbell chimed about 90 minutes ago. It was already dark and we weren’t expecting anyone, so I didn’t open the door. Checked the system and husband said somebody just dropped something off and was gone. So, I turned the porch light on and went outside. There were two boxes of pizza on our doorstep! I was just telling my husband we need to call the pizza place when my neighbor across the street rushed over to claim them!
I accidentally ordered two identical pairs of sweatpants from Target for D22 last Christmas. I went through the process to return them online and it refunded me and said to keep, donate, or recycle them rather than return them. I felt bad because if I was going to keep them I wouldn’t have asked for a refund, but they didn’t want them back so we kept them. I also ordered some different sweats for my older kid and some slippers. Target sent me bonus “Mama Bear” slippers in my size, too. I didn’t bother trying to sort that out because I’m sure they would have told me to keep, donate, or recycle them too. I never would have ordered them for myself, but I ended up really liking them.
Thank goodness we were home when the neighbors’ DoorDash order showed up! The driver was adamant she was at the right house despite us pointing to the house numbers on the giant, well-lit marker! Mr. said that if this were pizza, he would have taken it, but he was not in the mood for Indian food.
Ok I think I have the best story: a couple months ago I had a guy in full scrubs (complete with hat), gloves, and surgical mask with a IV stand and bag show up at my door all ready to perform an infusion.
Years ago I was going to China with a group and I was supposed to get my passport with a visa in it back on Friday (sent by the travel agency). Didn’t come and no could find it. Everyone was in a big panic but me. Somehow, I knew it would come and I’d be on that plane on Sunday morning.
On Saturday a delivery person from DHL just walked up and handed it to me. Package looked fine with my name and address on it. Somehow it was directed to the zip code of another couple in our group (in California) but never delivered to their house, just hanging out in their zip code.
I assume it was some kind of double scan at the travel agency.
When we were living in NYC, I ordered senior formula dog food for our very old dog from Amazon. I received notification our dog food had been delivered, but inside the box was a weed wacker. The tracking number on the dog food notification was the same number as on the box containing the weed wacker.
In the end Amazon told me to keep the weed wacker. We lived in an apartment and we gave it to the grounds-keeping crew, since we had absolutely no use (or space) for it.
I have had a few delivery mix ups over the years but one of the craziest was years ago when my kids were young. I ordered four pairs of snow boots and a few other things from Lands End which came in a large box. I ended up returning all the boots so put them back in the box and lugged the box to my local Sears that had a Lands End department. They returned my items and took the box off my hands.
Weeks and weeks later, I come home to find this huge box on my porch - so heavy I had to slide it inside. I opened the box to find it was stuffed, and I do mean stuffed, full of Lands End items. I figured out that it was a box of returns from my local Sears they were shipping back to Lands End warehouse. Though there was a label on it, the label from my order was still on the box (did not dawn on me they would be reusing the box or I would’ve removed the label). So apparently the UPS guy scanned my label, not the warehouse label. There were all kinds of bathing suits, kids’ clothing, a man’s suit jacket, etc. Not that I would’ve kept anything but it was funny to go through it. There was easily close to $1K worth of clothing inside. I called Lands End and had to convince them to send UPS back. I could not carry the box myself plus it wasn’t my problem!
Funny story this summer. I bought a pair of Olukai flip flops off Amazon Prime. When they came, there felt like something was wrong with how the strap was hitting the side of my foot. I have the same exact pair and know how they fit and was sure these would give me a blister. I packaged back up, returned and bought a new pair a few weeks later. Well, they sent back the same exact pair - I could tell b/c of the way they were packaged it was the ones I had sent back plus they still had the weird strap issue. I’m guessing they were the one pair in my size sitting in a local Amazon warehouse so just resent them. I returned again and bought a new pair from Nordstrom - same price, free shipping. I’m leery about buying certain things from Amazon for fear they might be counterfeit and with the funky strap, decided it was safer to order from Nordstrom.
It’s funny you mention this because something a bit similar happened to our family. In the early 70’s my parents wanted to get a new fridge and Sears was having a sale. My dad went and purchased it, Sears delivered it and set it up. But they never charged him for it. So he called and they thanked him for bringing it to their attention. Next billing cycle, no charge. He called again. Once again they thanked him and said they’d fix it. Again, no charge. My dad said after asking them twice to put it on the bill he’d done his part, if they wanted him to pay for it they’d have to send a bill. Never did. Fridge ran for decades, and my parents always talked about our free fridge.
I received a king size set of very nice sheets intended for someone with my same street name and number…100 miles away…I contacted the seller (I think Overstock) and they told me they’d send a call tag for it, but they never did. I located the buyer through FB (very unique name, easily located) and sent a DM letting them know I have their sheets, but never heard from them. I still have the sheets…no king size bed…
