inconvenience

I like to be prepared. With Christmas, this means that I like to have all of my presents bought and wrapped pretty early. This year, however, life has been a bit crazy. On Thanksgiving I realized that I would need to order any presents that needed to be shipped soon so that they would get here early. I got onto Amazon and ordered three presents, one of which was a little computer for my Dad's bike (shhhh - don't tell! It tells you how fast you are going, how many calories you are burning, etc. It's cool!) I was assured that there was plenty of time for it to be delivered before Christmas, so I wasn't worried.

A week passed. Two weeks passed. I started getting a little worried. Finally, on Tuesday, my package arrived, though it wasn't at all what I was expecting. Instead of the standard Amazon box, it looked like this:

One envelope contained a few shreds of a cardboard box, presumably the one that at some point held my Christmas presents. The other held my invoice from Amazon. On the back there was a generic note from the post office stating that "an occasional mishap does happen", and that they were sorry for "the document that was inadvertently damaged". It apologized for the inconvenience that I was experiencing.

I was NOT happy at this point. There was no sign of the computer, or any other gift that should have been in the package (And it was December 18th!). I have no idea what happened to the box, but I am guessing it had to be pretty major. I quickly called Amazon and vented to them. They assured me that they would replace all the items at no cost, and upgrade my shipping so that the package would come on time. I love good customer service people.

The box came today, without any sign of damage. I was so relieved! I am happy to say that all my Christmas shopping is done (YAY!) Now I should start on the wrapping . . .