I had a bit of a surprise yesterday. A courier turned up with a parcel neatly addressed to me which isn’t that unusual since I’m regularly buying things online. However I wasn’t expecting something quite this size and when I opened it it turned out to be a rather large car radiator.
I hadn’t ordered a car radiator so the first thing I did was to check my PayPal account and bank account and thankfully nothing was amiss and there were no unexpected transactions. Tracking the seller down however wasn’t that easy as they’re not included an invoice, packing slip or even a business card.
Thankfully I was able to get their contact details from the courier address label but it constantly bemuses me as to why sellers don’t include contact information in each and every shipment. It’s almost like sellers don’t want me to contact them or don’t want me to visit their website and make future purchases. I’m probably going to be most delighted with your product and service at the time I open your parcel so don’t miss this opportunity to tempt me to shop again from you.
If I’m not delighted for any reason making it easy for me to contact you by phone will often save you from poor feedback. If I can ring you it gives the opportunity for you to sort the problem out and turn me into a happy customer without me leaving a less than glowing feedback for you or opening an “Item Not As Described” resolution case on eBay. Even worse if you do mis-address a parcel how is the unintended recipient ever meant to let you know if there are no contact details enclosed?
Anyway to finish the story of the mystery parcel… when I eventually contacted the seller they told me “You bought it on eBay” and gave me the eBay user ID. Turns out that it was a radiator for Bart, Sue’s husband and silent partner in Tamebay. I got hold of him late last night and he asked me to use Parcel2Go to ship the radiator to him in France. It’s just been picked up and is safely on it’s way, although it does beg the question as to why the seller didn’t offer international shipping.
I was laughing with Dan about this earlier today and he casually asked what the cost of sending a car radiator to France was. We are both a bit surprised how cheap international parcels are these days as it was only £20.81 including the PayPal surcharge. Bit of a bargain really for a one off ad hoc delivery of a relatively heavy item.
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Coincidently, you nearly got some nice garden chairs the other day Chris, I selected your address for delivery by mistake, luckily the seller emailed me to confirm the details before they dispatched.
I can’t remember why I have your address on account but I can’t be bothered to find out how to remove it so one day you might get something half decent.
“surprised how cheap international parcels are these days”
we think you have been drinking the anti freeze from that radiator
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Slightly OT, but I was in our local Post office the other evening & on putting our sack into the dispatch bay noticed a rather large parcel [70 x 70 x 70cm] on the floor.
Curious, I asked what it was… and oh dear some people.
It turns out it was an 2nd hand ‘automatic car gearbox’ that THREE BLOKES had dragged along the floor and demanded they [PO staff] arrange to send it back to the sender, even though it had been delivered to them by pallet lorry.
It seems the address label was just about stuck to the item with cellotape & no one seemed to know what to do with it!!!..
The BLOKES had just walked out & no one could lift it, it was so heavy…
Some Mother’s do have them!!.
At a company I used to work for it was possible to order items from Screwfix for delivery to any site.
When being made redundant it was tempting to put in some orders. A nice log cabins for a few thousand pounds, or something simple like a few toilets.