In the three years that I have been an OWC Customer Service Representative, I have seen many… unusual… situations. I’ve heard about things like dogs eating hard drives, ex-spouses holding packages hostage and people backing their cars over their computers in the driveway. Nothing really shocks me anymore.
I got a call the other day from a gentleman that lives in Michigan and he started the conversation by saying, “Are you sitting down? I have something shocking to tell you.”
When a conversation begins like this, you never really know what you’re going to get. Considering all I’ve heard, however, I was expecting a good story, but likely nothing I hadn’t heard before.
Then the customer said, “I received an order today… from 2009. The mailman just dropped it off.” Okay… that was something I hadn’t heard before and the customer was right—I was shocked by this!
Two years ago—almost to the date—we shipped his order… and it didn’t arrive. After he contacted us, we shipped him out a new order and marked this one off as being a casualty of the postal service. It’s unfortunate, but the occasional lost package is just part of the online shopping experience; it’s is also why we’re prepared to offer options for customers dealing with lost packages.
Two years later, the original package arrives at the customer’s door. Where had it been? What took it so long? I spent the rest of the day (between calls, of course) making up ridiculous back-stories on where this lonely little package has been and its journey to the customer.
The moral of the story is if you ever think that your shipment may be lost, it might be and OWC will be glad to work with you to get it resolved. On the other hand, it may just be running very, very late.
LOL @ O-Dub Scott!
That is a great story! I hope you reported it so the company that sent it could start a claim. There’s a good chance that if the package was insured they would have paid out on that one. Usually when they leave the ‘oops’ note, as I like to call it, they’re fully aware and noted in the packages shipping history that there was some major issues.
I don’t think we’ve ever heard of something on fire before but I am unfortunately familiar with the ‘oops’ letter. I have a copy hanging in my cubicle as I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when I received my customers email with the pictures of how the package had arrived and the ‘funny note,’ as he called it, that was attached. (the laughter was, of course, after we had straightened out how well we were going to take care of it for him. The photo’s he sent were his, ‘no really, you have to see this,’ moment once we had straightened everything out. If memory serves, he had his replacements the next day.)
The package appeared to have been squished length-wise, then width-wise and then sort of twisted completely around itself two or three times. The poor little memory chip that actually made it to the end of the journey was not the chip it used to be. I believe he kept it as a souvenir as the postal service did not require it for the damage claim that followed.
Fire though, that is definitely one we’ve never seen! I think we can classify that one right up there with the two year old delivery for the ‘best of’ USPS incidents series. :)
Also, OWC Chris S., you are correct! As the customer did not pay anything for the replacement package that was sent, he held up his end and reported and shipped back the package right away as soon as it delivered. What a great, honest, customer to have indeed! We really do have the best customers in the industry!
I’m very curious about what happened next. Did you let the customer keep the package or you had it returned to you? If the customer kept it, the products were useful being two year old? Maybe he or she doesn’t owes the computer the products were intended to anymore, who knows?
As I understand, we sent him out a return shipping label (I’m not sure what carrier…) and, as he already received the replacement shipment, he sent it back to us.
That’s crazy!!!
Love the pic you chose for article. Good ‘ole USPS:
I ordered a book off Amazon about a month or so ago and it was sent via USPS. When I opened the package, the entire top half and all the pages were burned- literally burned in a fire. USPS attached a notice that said, “Sorry for the inconvenience, we do everything we can to ensure packages arrive the same way they are sent. We hope you remain a loyal customer to The United States Postal Service.”
That was it. They basicallly just said, “Our bad. Hope it’s all good even though we set your book on fire.”
Ha….I just wish I knew how on Earth could they have managed to set my package and I’m sure others on fire!?!?!?!
O-Dub Scott
Many people use USPS each day without any problems. In fact, many cases (such as shipments to military bases and some international destinations) pretty much require going through the Postal Service.
Personally, when I have stuff shipped to me, I go with UPS or FedEx, as I like having the tracking number which I can easily use to determine how far away it is. I’m impatient like that. ;-)
After 2 years, i guess the tracking number had timed out. So no data on where it suddenly “appeared” in the delivery process again.