Oh geez. I have not had the best luck with online shopping lately, which surprises me because I prefer to shop online and usually it goes smoothly. But alas, I suppose I was due for some bad luck with online shopping, keeping the scales balanced an all that.
I ordered a book from Chapters online, it is for my dad as a super late birthday present and I ended up buying a book for myself because as the online checkout pointed out I only had to spend $8 more to get free shipping and hey, isn’t spending $15 more and getting a book a better deal than spending that money on shipping? 😉 Gotta love a book lovers logic!
So yeah, I ordered the books, knew they were due at my place around the end of the month and impatiently waited the delivery. I got home Monday and saw the cardboard box that is what Chapter’s books always come in but the entire box was inside a plastic bag from Canada Post.
It looked like this…
Now, the writing on the Canada Post plastic bag mentioned my package was found damaged in the mail system…it wasn’t damaged, it was empty! The books were gone! The box was in perfect condition, except for the whole nothing-inside-the-box issue. I was momentarily rendered speechless, I mean c’mon, I went from excitement that the books had arrived to shock that the box was empty to freaking out about where the hell the books were.
I called Canada Post and got left waiting since they were experiencing “higher than normal call volumes”, a claim I never ever believe lol The automated system eventually prompted me through a bunch of menus and one of them was selecting an option for a damaged parcel. As soon as I selected that option the automated voice informed me that only the sender can open a claim if a parcel is damaged, sigh. Instead of waiting for a person who would most likely tell me the same thing as the machine I hung up and called Chapters and got the most helpful person! 🙂
Apparently because the parcels they mail go out in bulk some of the boxes sometimes end up getting opened because the glue isn’t quite dried and the boxes rub against each other and that ends up opening the seal.
All I did was explain I got the parcel but it was empty and boom! She made a duplicate order and sent out the same two books at rush delivery, no cost to me. Yay! In case you were wondering I did have the option to get a refund but why would I do that when I still wanted the books? lol Oh, and in true Canadian fashion the lady who helped me apologized multiple times even though it wasn’t her fault – customer service skills people! 🙂
The problem was solved so quickly it barely caused me any stress but I do feel badly for the two lost books. Out there, alone, exposed to who knows what kind of elements, its sad and I hope the books find a good owner who takes good care of them. Which yes, I know, makes me sound crazy but hey, no judging! I take excellent care of my books and for all I know those two books are in the care of someone who is folding down the pages, or bending the covers, or letting them get wet! *fans face* I have to stop thinking of the horrible possibilities lest I faint! 😉
The Amazing Shrinking Woman 
Love your logic!
Me too! lol 🙂