First, You Cut a Hole in the Box....

For a shortened version of this "situation" read "Mail time blues" posted by AV earlier today (and unbeknownst to me!)


Let's play a little game of "Hypothetically Speaking"

Situation 1:
So, hypothetically, you receive a fairly large box from UPS. The box is from Dell and you haven't ordered anything from there. You look at the box and notice the name on the label is not your own. Next, you look at the address. It is also not your own.

Situation 2:
Again, hypothetically speaking, you receive a fairly large box from UPS. The box is from a store called "Chaparrell Racing" and you haven't ordered anything from there. You look at the box and notice the name on the label is not your own. The address is where you are currently living but you only just moved in a few days ago and you know it was rented to someone else prior to you.

SO. What do you do in each of these situations?

A. Call the company that sent it.
B. Call UPS
C. Leave the box outside and assume UPS will come back and take care of it.

If you answered with either of these three options, you are clearly NOT the people who have been receiving our packages.

However, if you answered with option D: OPEN THE MOTHER F-CKING BOX, WOOOOO!! We need to have a little chat.


Let's check back in on Situation 1.

Last year, AV ordered a netbook from Dell. They sent it UPS and the package required a signature. The UPS driver was confused and dropped the package off at a house on a different street with the same house number as us. Honest mistake.

But what about the SIGNATURE part?? Every time I've gotten a package that I have to sign for the delivery guy goes "Are you (name on box)?" or just simply "(name on box)?" I either respond with, "Yeah", "No, but he lives here", or "Um, no....?" The guy then either lets me sign the sheet or he goes away and takes the box with him.

So obviously the delivery guy either went "Sign here" and the recipient went "Okie dokie" or didn't actually get anything signed. Still fairly honest mistake, this can be fixed.

BUT.

When the delivery guy finally figured out the mistake and went back for the package, it HAD ALREADY BEEN OPENED. Remember options A through C? Clearly whoever took the box didn't either.

So we ended up receiving an expensive piece of electronic equipment that had ALREADY BEEN OPENED and TAKEN COMPLETELY OUT OF THE BOX.

Um, thanks but NO. When I order something for THAT MUCH MONEY it should be in the original packaging and it should come to MY house.

Then AV had to call Dell and we got a new computer sent to us, because, duh, "Do not accept package if opened or damaged".


Now on to Situation 2.

Months ago AV ordered some safety equipment from a racing company so we could ride dirt bikes. One of the items was back ordered and was supposed to be sent separately. That's fine. Months and months and MONTHS passed. The company finally called AV and asked if it was cool if they substituted a more expensive piece of equipment for the one he had originally ordered, um heck yes! While on this call, AV also told the company that we had moved and that they needed to ship the box to our NEW address, which he then provided.

Our lease ended and we were 100% moved out. While fighting for our full security deposit from the landlord via email, she mentioned that we had received a box at the house. Where we no longer lived. Which AV had specifically told the company NOT to send anything to. AV asked for the box and the landlord responded with "Last I saw it, it was in the garage on the freezer".

Um, WHAT?

So, the landlord KNEW that WE received a box but didn't bother to hold it for us? She just left it for the new tenants to keep? WTH?

And thus began a ridiculous situation.

AV called the company and told them we hadn't received our package. They said they had sent it, call UPS. Called UPS they said it had been delivered to the address provided by the company. Called the company again, told them it was delivered to the wrong location, they told him to call UPS back, and tell them that we never got the box, AV said no. Called company again, told the same thing (FYI what they were asking us to do is called FRAUD). Called a THIRD time and the company said they would take care of it, "do you still want this item?" Um YES? WE PAID FOR IT ALREADY???

The other day AV got a call from UPS. "We have recovered the package." Pause. "But it's been opened".

WHAT THE HELL???

So, did the landlord just go, "Yeah that package is for the previous tenants but I'm pissed at them, so have at it!"??

WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP OPENING OUR MAIL???

Stop touching my stuff!!! LEAVE MY MAIL ALOOOONEEE!!!

Come ON people! Use options A, B, or C. Option D is called "being an a**hole"

I am NOT happy. In fact, I am currently wearing my Angry Pants, that's how NOT happy I am.

Cheers,
Red

Mail time blues..

For a longer version of this "situation" read "First You Cut a Hole in the Box..." as posted by Red.


Apparently getting packages delivered up here in Michigan is a bit harder than the three other states I have lived in. So let us take a moment to think about a hypothetical situation. Imagine for a moment that a package arrives at your door. You excitedly bring it in and to your dismay it is addressed to someone else at a completely different address. Like most people you set it back outside on the porch and call UPS/FedEx that this is not your package or go deliver the few houses down where it is addressed.

See that is what I thought until my computer was delivered a few houses down the street. The person who signed for my computer at the wrong house decided to open the package and then start using the laptop. After sorting out with Dell and FedEx over what happened my computer was retrieved by FedEx and delivered to my porch without a knock. The computer had been sort of stuffed back into the box with a crude taping job over the "do not accept if seal broken" tape. Now Dell first had to ask me 20 questions about how the computer was functioning before agreeing to send me a new laptop, simply for the fact that I paid for a new laptop and not a used by the neighbor down the street laptop.

So to add to the package failures so far this year. I purchased a roost deflector* and the shipping got completely screwed up because the product was on back order and I moved. So after almost a month, my package was finally "recovered" from my last address and is on it's way now. Unfortunately the driver had informed me that the package had been opened but she thinks everything is in the box still. I guess we will see tomorrow when it arrives.

Does anyone else think it is weird and inappropriate to open a package not addressed to you? I'm not just going to think that the random dell package not addressed to me is mine to play with. This isn't finders keepers.

People can be a mystery sometimes. Let me know if I am being unreasonable....

*This is a piece of safety equipment for dirt biking

The Garage Sale

I want to discuss the garage sale. This is a very important tool used by many households to make a few bucks and get rid of extra stuff.There are some inherent rules to stick to when having a garage sale.

The Rules
1. Everything being sold is something you were planning on donating or throwing away
2. It should last no more than one weekend
3. If you think it is actually worth something then put it on ebay
4. Have some idea what the stuff is
5. Very small signs pointing in the general direction

Now I have been to tons of garage sales that break one or two of these rules, but in particular one so called garage sale is annoying me.

Near work I stopped at a garage sale that had nothing under five dollars and no real prices marked on anything. It was obvious he was collecting and obtaining items just to have a garage sale. This particular sale had been going on every weekend for two months straight. I finally stopped when I saw a table full of instruments, I asked about one particularly beat up marching french horn (marked as a rare trumpet) and he said he was asking five hundred for it, I laughed a little out loud.

So far this garage sale has broken every rule, except for the last one...........wait he has permanent neon spray painted signs that he covers with trash bags during the week....so yes he breaks every one of the rules.

No more shall his be called a garage sale! It shall be called a crappy roadside store with only weekend hours.

PS Red is King of the Garage Sale with the $25 snow blower.

This has to go on the blog

You might have seen this photo in the previous post:

In case you didn't read the previous post, this is a photo of the locked glass case in a Goodwill near Purdue. Yes, that is a box of "1 Vibrating Ring plus 1 Latex Condom". At Goodwill. For four dollars. Did I mention that this was for SALE at a Goodwill store??

Of course, like the good daughter I am, I texted a photo of the case to my dad. And now, for your entertainment pleasure, his response:

"Top Ten Reasons to Donate Your Trojans to Goodwill:

10)  making up for congressional cuts to Planned Parenthood 

9) girlfriend got pregnant, so these became superfluous

8) one size didn't fit all, had to get other.

7) preferred the chocolate flavor.

6) girlfriend kept laughing at the psychedelic color

5) sensu-ribs did not have the intended result.

4) "for best results use before" date had expired.

3) mom found them and one never to waste anything, made me donate them.

2) my girlfriend is a werewolf, so these were unnecessary

1) the Viagra kept making me go blind, deaf, and have an unsafe drop in blood pressure, so i can't use these anyway.

The blue pills are in the case behind you. We accept food stamps and AFDC."

When I asked him if he made this up or found it somewhere, he responded with:

"I have been working very hard on it since I zoomed in on the picture and saw what it was. This has to go on the blog."

Wish granted.

Cheers!

Red

My favorite is reason number 2 :)

Holy Donation, Batman!

Maybe it's the fact that AV and I still feel like poor college students or maybe it stems from Dad's penchant for dead men's wardrobes and Mom's refusal to pay full price for anything, but AV and I spend a significant amount of our shopping time in Goodwill stores.

Even though I usually leave these stores with an almost obsessive desire to bathe, I still shop there. As long as you wash your purchases in hot water and bleach it's really not as nasty as it sounds. Well.... sometimes it is as nasty as it sounds, but more on that later.

Our dumpster diving shopping style has really paid off a couple of times. When we first moved up here we found a Mike Knuble Red Wings jersey. Obviously, hockey is HUGE up here and I really wanted a jersey but even the local team's* jerseys sell for over $80. So when we spotted a jersey hanging on the wall in the local Goodwill we made a bee-line for it. Seven dollars. NICE.

Lookin' good Knuble

The second greatest purchase (or quite possibly THE greatest) was a discovery in a Salvation Army store in Cinci. Always on the lookout for sport jerseys (AV likes how the wicking material feels) we discovered something AMAZING. A grey and blue sport shirt with a "23" and "WILSON" emblazoned on the back. But the amazing part was when we looked at the front. "Northern Kentucky Table Tennis" and a pair of crossed paddles. OMG. NKU has a ping-pong team.  

Bring it Grandma.

If you can handle the motion sickness inducing 360 degree room view for the first thirty seconds of the video, you can see the shirt we found at around 0:35 in the video below.

But after our Purdue adventure this weekend, I'm not sure about Goodwill anymore...

We went down to PU last weekend to watch SWE compete in Grand Prix**. It was moved to Sunday due to the weather and we were stuck entertaining ourselves for an entire afternoon we hadn't planned on. We did what anyone would do in our situation and ended up at Goodwill. AV made a bee-line for the glass case on the front wall containing "valuables". He collects/plays/sells old video games and records and has been able to find some real gems at stores like this. As he perused the record selection I stared into the glass case.

There was a small box between some other, larger boxes. Most of the front of the box was covered by a $3.99 price tag. I didn't have my glasses on so I assumed I had made a mistake when I identified what was in the small red box.

I pressed my nose to the glass and my jaw dropped. That was NO mistake. That box was EXACTLY what I thought it was.

O_o

WHO DONATES THAT TO GOODWILL??? And maybe more importantly, who BUYS that from Goodwill???

Cheers,

Red

*The Muskegon Lumberjacks
** Winning their sprint race and placed 30th in the starting lineup of the big race, kart 44 finished the race 7th but officially finished 5th following TWO disqualifications in the top five finishers. AWESOME job ladies!

Photo credits:

Knuble - http://www.sportsmemorabilia.com/image_php_1030077.jpg

Ping-Pong Grandma - http://office-table.com/tag/picture-of-table-tennis-game

Northern Kentucky Table Tennis - http://www.nkytt.org/