Today's Mystery Delivery

[dannylion]

On Tuesday I ordered a nice little foldable wheelie cart from Amazon.  Today, it was delivered 1) by FedEx, 2) in a Walmart box, 3) with someone else's name but my address on the label.  I found this ... odd.  

I do not recall ever receiving anything from Amazon delivered by FedEx.  The Walmart box is a complete mystery.  The wrong name with my address I'm just going to put over there in the corner and try not to think about because I keep going back to the Walmart box.  And it wasn't a recycled/reused Walmart box.  It was clearly a new box fastened together with new, uncut Walmart tape.  

I am baffled.  Has anyone had a similar inexplicable delivery experience?  

[Tennesseer]

Jun 15, 2023 19:23:57 GMT -5 dannylion said:

On Tuesday I ordered a nice little foldable wheelie cart from Amazon.  Today, it was delivered 1) by FedEx, 2) in a Walmart box, 3) with someone else's name but my address on the label.  I found this ... odd.  

I do not recall ever receiving anything from Amazon delivered by FedEx.  The Walmart box is a complete mystery.  The wrong name with my address I'm just going to put over there in the corner and try not to think about because I keep going back to the Walmart box.  And it wasn't a recycled/reused Walmart box.  It was clearly a new box fastened together with new, uncut Walmart tape.  

I am baffled.  Has anyone had a similar inexplicable delivery experience?  

It has only been maybe ten years that Amazon has been flying and delivering their own products. For years, FedEx delivered most of Amazon's shipments. Might you live in a very rural area where Amazon does not cover it and Amazon and FedEx have an agreement FedEx it take it the rest of the way.

It's possible the original box the product was shipped in broke and it was re-boxed/packaged at one point.

No idea about the incorrect recipient name on the box. All that really matters is that it got to the correct address.

[Sharon]

Did the box contain the folding wheeled cart?  Amazon doesn't deliver in my area, it is either USPS or UPS.

[dannylion]

Jun 15, 2023 20:20:27 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Jun 15, 2023 19:23:57 GMT -5 dannylion said:

On Tuesday I ordered a nice little foldable wheelie cart from Amazon.  Today, it was delivered 1) by FedEx, 2) in a Walmart box, 3) with someone else's name but my address on the label.  I found this ... odd.  

I do not recall ever receiving anything from Amazon delivered by FedEx.  The Walmart box is a complete mystery.  The wrong name with my address I'm just going to put over there in the corner and try not to think about because I keep going back to the Walmart box.  And it wasn't a recycled/reused Walmart box.  It was clearly a new box fastened together with new, uncut Walmart tape.  

I am baffled.  Has anyone had a similar inexplicable delivery experience?  

It has only been maybe ten years that Amazon has been flying and delivering their own products. For years, FedEx delivered most of Amazon's shipments. Might you live in a very rural area where Amazon does not cover it and Amazon and FedEx have an agreement FedEx it take it the rest of the way.

It's possible the original box the product was shipped in broke and it was re-boxed/packaged at one point.

No idea about the incorrect recipient name on the box. All that really matters is that it got to the correct address.

All very reasonable suggestions.  As far as I have been able to discover, FedEx ended its ground-delivery contract with Amazon in 2019.  It is possible, though, that they have made up and are now working together again.  Maryland is a small state but has several warehouses and fulfillment centers, particularly in the central area where I live.  I live in what is a suburb of both Washington, D.C. and Baltimore and Amazon delivers its own stuff here, though you make a good point about a possible (new) agreement.  I guess the FedEx portion of the conundrum is not really terribly baffling.  

It was the WalMart box that was the really weird part.  I would have thought that a replacement box might have been just a plain box, but FedEx does deliver for Walmart, so that is definitely something to consider and might just be the answer to that part of the problem. 

I'm not even going to think about the wrong name on the package since, as you pointed out, my snazzy yellow wheelie cart did arrive at its destination.  

Maybe I should be grateful for the anomalies since I can't get out and about much anymore, so this small mystery provided a break in routine and little mental exercise.  

[dannylion]

Jun 15, 2023 20:26:41 GMT -5 Sharon said:

Did the box contain the folding wheeled cart?  Amazon doesn't deliver in my area, it is either USPS or UPS.

Yes, that was the good part of the mystery.  With all the weird parts, the wheelie cart was in the Walmart box.  I have noticed of late that UPS will sometimes deliver an Amazon box and often very small packages will be delivered to the mailbox via USPS.  I was just surprised because I have not noticed Amazon deliveries via FedEx, though I guess there is no reason why they shouldn't.  It was mainly the Walmart box that turned the whole thing into a mystery.  

I'm still waiting for drone deliveries from Amazon.  I think that would be fun.  It would at least provide some entertainment, though it will probably annoy the neighborhood dogs.  

[saveinla]

Is this truly from an Amazon warehouse or fulfilled by an individual who sells on Amazon?

[dannylion]

Jun 15, 2023 22:47:36 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Is this truly from an Amazon warehouse or fulfilled by an individual who sells on Amazon?

It was a 3rd-party seller but fulfilled by Amazon.  The seller's name was Chinese, so one assumes they are in China, but my wheelie cart arrived within 2 days, so who knows.  That's a good point; maybe a 3rd-party seller might use FedEx for delivery.  Still puzzled about the new Walmart box and Walmart-logo tape, though.  It was just weird that there were so many anomalies with a single delivery.  At least it was the right item.  I'm going to stop thinking about it; it makes me dizzy.  

[wvugurl26]

My brother has ordered stuff from ebay and had it show up from Amazon. I think there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff going on. Likely the third party seller also sold on Walmart and had stuff in that warehouse hence the Walmart box.

[Works4me]

Not everything you buy from Amazon is sold and shipped by them - same thing with Wal-Mart and othersthese days. Both companies allow other sellers to list products with them. Sellers then have the option to allow products to be stocked & shipped by Amazon/Wal-Mart for extra cost or they can choose to ship for themselves. I'm pretty sure that's where the Wal-Mart box came from and the name mistake was probably just a mix up by the vendor.

After some problems, I now try to be very aware of who I buy from, how it is shipped and what the applicable return policies are. Unfortunately, external vendors are allowed to have different return policies. Both sites have a filter for vendor choice, allowing one to opt out of merchandise fromthe Pro Sellers.

[TheOtherMe]

For years here, the USPS delivered all Amazon packages with an occasional package delivered by UPS.  

Then an Amazon distribution center when in in the nearby time and everything was being delivered by Amazon.

Now it's a split between USPS and Amazon.  

My order that was supposed to arrive yesterday by USPS, says it is in my mailbox.  It isn't in my mailbox nor was there a key for the package locker.  So I called the post office already this morning.

[dannylion]

It appears there are many reasonable possibilities to resolve my mystery.  I like the "mysterious forces working behind the scenes" theory, so I think I'm going to go with that one.  Possibly adding in a hint of Illuminati and maybe a pinch of Da Vinci Code, just to keep it interesting.  

It was really an insignificant occurrence, but it puzzled me.  Maybe it is just the aftereffects of nearly 40 years as an intelligence analyst.  After 12 years of retirement, I still need to figure out what's going on.  On the bright side, now I can just make stuff up and run with it.  

[jerseygirl]

Dannylion so interesting that you were an intelligence analyst. For a US agency?
So many plots of books movies etc are about these folks. Sounds very exciting but probably boring??
I’ve always been interested in detectives or intelligence jobs.

[dannylion]

Jun 16, 2023 10:34:03 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Dannylion so interesting that you were an intelligence analyst. For a US agency?
So many plots of books movies etc are about these folks. Sounds very exciting but probably boring??
I’ve always been interested in detectives or intelligence jobs.

Yes, it was a US agency.  It was all because I got frustrated with the very low glass ceiling I encountered after graduating from college in the early 1970s and joined the Air Force, which had just opened the intelligence career field to women.  That led to opportunities in civilian positions that I would not otherwise have had.  I had a wonderful career; better than I ever could have imagined.  It was not always exciting every day, but it was always interesting (and frequently entertaining).  I do not recall ever being bored.  I am actually back at work on a contract basis through the end of this month helping to update and revamp some training courses I developed a long time ago.  It's been fun, but I'm old and tired now, so it's been a relief to be able to go to part-time for the last few weeks of the contract.  

[teen persuasion]

We have fun with these kind of puzzles at work, too often.

The library's address is 9 V*** St. There is also a S. V*** St and a N. V*** St, all in the same tiny village.

Google Maps often sends unsuspecting drivers to 9 N. V*** St when they google 9 V*** St, so the owners have kindly brought packages to us, or we have gone to retrieve them when email informs us our package was delivered but we haven't found it.

We've tried changing our address to S. V*** St on orders, hoping they'd distinguish between north and south (of the canal), but it doesn't work, and is technically incorrect.

We've even had a treasure hunt, trying to figure out from the helpful photo where they had actually delivered a package that didn't go to N. V*** St. It was apparently on someone's back patio, as the package was resting against a hot tub. It was delivered to 29 South St. Okayyyy

We've also been trying to track down the owners of mystery bills & packages being delivered to us. They are addressed to a trampoline business, but with 9 V*** St as the address. Well, a bit of detective work led us to - no surprise - an owner of the business lives at 9 N. V*** St. Luckily when it was a heavy package I caught the mixup BEFORE the delivery guy ran off, and got him to take it to the correct address despite what the label and GPS told him.


And then there's the random USPS mail we get; sometimes it's #9, but another street name altogether. Sometimes it's the nextdoor neighbors' mail - some carriers are thoroughly flummoxed by the 7 1/2 address to the north. Maybe a letter or magazine got stuck together, maybe. But I've also gotten sealed plastic bags with a bundle of different magazines (common, with all our subscriptions) with FOUR different names and addresses - the one showing was ours, but the ones buried in the bag were to other people all over town.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

We are out in the sticks. However, there is a church walking distance on the same side of the road. When googling our address, sometimes the pin shows the church. We kept getting mail for the church so I would walk it over and ask them to notify their congregation of the correct address. We finally stopped getting their mail.

Awhile back, I was expecting an order from Chewy. I got a delivery as expected but was confused about the small box since I was expecting bags of pet food. I figured maybe they split the order, so I opened the box. It was definitely not my order. I never looked at the label to make sure it was mine. It was an address about 5 miles away, also in the sticks. However, I knew where it was supposed to go so I drove it over. I never got my order so Chewy sent a replacement. I now check labels if I am home when it is delivered before delivery leaves the property.

[TheOtherMe]

I was supposed to have an Amazon package delivered by USPS yesterday.  I went to the mailbox this morning and the box was totally empty.  The key was in the parcel locker and I didn't think my package would have been big enough to need the parcel locker.

Called the post office.  Small towns are good about being easily able to contact them.  They called me back a couple of hours later and said it is in my box.

[dannylion]

teen persuasion, no doubt when the streets in your village were named, no one had any idea that it would turn out to be a delivery nightmare for later generations.  It's good that you can get some fun out of it.  Might as well since it will probably not get better without some serious renaming of streets, which would create its own nightmare.  

It would seem that your USPS carriers were trained the same way ours were:  "Just get the mail into a mailbox, don't worry about whose mailbox it is.  Let the recipients sort it all out."  On our little cul-de-sac, we have days where we all get someone else's mail, but usually someone from our street.  A few months ago, though, everyone down here at the end of the cul-de-sac got mail intended for someone two streets away.  

Sometimes my neighbor's packages are delivered to the house 4 doors up the street where the cranky judge lives.  If she doesn't catch the error before he does or doesn't know because she doesn't get a picture of where the delivery was made, he will bring her her packages, but he is clearly put out and seems to think it's her fault.  We have always wondered whether he was always like that or if being a judge is what has made him so disagreeable.  I hope your misdirected packages at least end up with reasonable people.  

[tskeeter]

Jun 15, 2023 19:23:57 GMT -5 dannylion said:

On Tuesday I ordered a nice little foldable wheelie cart from Amazon.  Today, it was delivered 1) by FedEx, 2) in a Walmart box, 3) with someone else's name but my address on the label.  I found this ... odd.  

I do not recall ever receiving anything from Amazon delivered by FedEx.  The Walmart box is a complete mystery.  The wrong name with my address I'm just going to put over there in the corner and try not to think about because I keep going back to the Walmart box.  And it wasn't a recycled/reused Walmart box.  It was clearly a new box fastened together with new, uncut Walmart tape.  

I am baffled.  Has anyone had a similar inexplicable delivery experience?  

Recently I saw something that said Amazon is shifting its delivery strategy to avoid cross country shipments and emphasize delivery from a warehouse near you.  I wonder if using WalMart as a third party order fulfillment service could be a part of this strategy?  (Used to be WalMart wouldn’t build a store more than 300 miles from one of their warehouses, so WalMart has lots of warehouses scattered all over the country.)

[jerseygirl]

Wondering how successful the drone shipments will be?

[teen persuasion]

Jun 16, 2023 15:32:33 GMT -5 dannylion said:

teen persuasion , no doubt when the streets in your village were named, no one had any idea that it would turn out to be a delivery nightmare for later generations.  It's good that you can get some fun out of it.  Might as well since it will probably not get better without some serious renaming of streets, which would create its own nightmare.  

It would seem that your USPS carriers were trained the same way ours were:  "Just get the mail into a mailbox, don't worry about whose mailbox it is.  Let the recipients sort it all out."  On our little cul-de-sac, we have days where we all get someone else's mail, but usually someone from our street.  A few months ago, though, everyone down here at the end of the cul-de-sac got mail intended for someone two streets away.  

Sometimes my neighbor's packages are delivered to the house 4 doors up the street where the cranky judge lives.  If she doesn't catch the error before he does or doesn't know because she doesn't get a picture of where the delivery was made, he will bring her her packages, but he is clearly put out and seems to think it's her fault.  We have always wondered whether he was always like that or if being a judge is what has made him so disagreeable.  I hope your misdirected packages at least end up with reasonable people.

At least for Amazon deliveries, the issue is Google Maps, and delivery drivers' reliance on it. If you google our library address, it puts the pin drop at N. V, but shows the street name and picture correctly. I've tried to correct Google maps MANY times - suggest an edit, drag the pin to the correct spot, and wait for correction to be applied or rejected. Then they change the address to N. V! Then I edit the address to correct it, then they move the pin back to N. V. And around and around we go!

I can't get the address, pin drop, and picture all correct at the same time.

Now, for USPS, the local carriers were great when mail was sorted on site. Consolidation to big city distribution centers was definitely a downgrade. If I mail a local letter at the local PO, it gets sent on a truck to #3 city (not #2 city which is both bigger and closer) where it's sorted and sent back to my PO for delivery, days later. Assuming it doesn't get lost along the way - as our payroll packet did a few years ago. That went missing long enough that checks were cancelled and reissued; the original packet mysteriously arrived 6 weeks later.

So DH has informed delivery turned on, to know what is supposed to be delivered; it often ends up a house or 2 up/down the road. We often swap mail with the neighbors one # off, but we've also gotten mail with our # but a road east. Our house is in the boonies, not in the village, so spread f a r apart.

[dannylion]

Jun 16, 2023 16:01:28 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Wondering how successful the drone shipments will be?

I think, at least at first, it has the potential to be absolute chaos.  But as long as it can avoid tragedy, it will be entertaining.  I suspect there will be areas with a large cohort of easily annoyed gun enthusiasts where drone delivery will ultimately be impossible.  It is to be hoped that the delivery routes will be designed to avoid interaction with traffic and pedestrians so as to avoid crashes and jeopardy to life and property.  I would not be surprised to hear about some misguided citizen chasing a delivery drone out into traffic with unfortunate results, though.  I think it will likely end up being confined to limited areas, so most of us might not ultimately enjoy the benefits of drone delivery.  

[dannylion]

Jun 16, 2023 15:39:09 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

Jun 15, 2023 19:23:57 GMT -5 dannylion said:

On Tuesday I ordered a nice little foldable wheelie cart from Amazon.  Today, it was delivered 1) by FedEx, 2) in a Walmart box, 3) with someone else's name but my address on the label.  I found this ... odd.  

I do not recall ever receiving anything from Amazon delivered by FedEx.  The Walmart box is a complete mystery.  The wrong name with my address I'm just going to put over there in the corner and try not to think about because I keep going back to the Walmart box.  And it wasn't a recycled/reused Walmart box.  It was clearly a new box fastened together with new, uncut Walmart tape.  

I am baffled.  Has anyone had a similar inexplicable delivery experience?  

Recently I saw something that said Amazon is shifting its delivery strategy to avoid cross country shipments and emphasize delivery from a warehouse near you.  I wonder if using WalMart as a third party order fulfillment service could be a part of this strategy?  (Used to be WalMart wouldn’t build a store more than 300 miles from one of their warehouses, so WalMart has lots of warehouses scattered all over the country.)

Another reasonable explanation for the Walmart box.  There would seem to be many possible reasons for all the anomalies manifested in the delivery of my wheelie cart that had not occurred to me.  This has been an interesting and enlightening discussion.  

[Works4me]

I just can't see Wal-Mart and Amazon working together. They are each other's biggest and only competition. IMHO, Wal-Mart's recent membership program is based on their desire to more fully compete with Amazon. I order almost everything online for home delivery and the best store flip flops regularly. Lately, it seems to be Wal-Mart, before that it was Amazon and I'm sure Amazon will pull ahead again.

[dannylion]

Jun 16, 2023 19:02:02 GMT -5 Works4me said:

I just can't see Wal-Mart and Amazon working together. They are each other's biggest and only competition. IMHO, Wal-Mart's recent membership program is based on their desire to more fully compete with Amazon. I order almost everything online for home delivery and the best store flip flops regularly. Lately, it seems to be Wal-Mart, before that it was Amazon and I'm sure Amazon will pull ahead again.

Also excellent points.  Your experience with Amazon and Walmart seems similar to mine.  I have embraced ordering everything online and especially appreciate the expanded availability of grocery delivery options since the pandemic.  I think the suggestion of a mix-up by a 3rd-party seller who uses both Amazon and Walmart might be the most reasonable explanation for the Walmart box, but who knows.  It will be interesting to see whether something similar happens again.  Maybe the next oddity will involve an order from Walmart arriving in a Target box.  

[Pink Cashmere]

Jun 16, 2023 19:02:02 GMT -5 Works4me said:

I just can't see Wal-Mart and Amazon working together. They are each other's biggest and only competition. IMHO, Wal-Mart's recent membership program is based on their desire to more fully compete with Amazon. I order almost everything online for home delivery and the best store flip flops regularly. Lately, it seems to be Wal-Mart, before that it was Amazon and I'm sure Amazon will pull ahead again.

Well, UPS and FedEx are USPS’s biggest competitors, but several years ago, USPS started paying FedEx billions of dollars to fly their mail. And now UPS and FedEx use USPS for the “last mile” of some of their deliveries. So sometimes competitors do work together.

[NoNamePerson]

Maybe the “mystery name” on package will pay for purchase? One can dream

[Works4me]

Jun 17, 2023 11:55:17 GMT -5 Pink Cashmere said:

Jun 16, 2023 19:02:02 GMT -5 Works4me said:

I just can't see Wal-Mart and Amazon working together. They are each other's biggest and only competition. IMHO, Wal-Mart's recent membership program is based on their desire to more fully compete with Amazon. I order almost everything online for home delivery and the best store flip flops regularly. Lately, it seems to be Wal-Mart, before that it was Amazon and I'm sure Amazon will pull ahead again.

Well, UPS and FedEx are USPS’s biggest competitors, but several years ago, USPS started paying FedEx billions of dollars to fly their mail. And now UPS and FedEx use USPS for the “last mile” of some of their deliveries. So sometimes competitors do work together.

Pink - you make a good point there and may well be right. Stranger things have happened in the world of modern business. To me, there is a critical difference in that both UPS and Fed Ex are independent business competitors whereas USPS is a government entity. This will be interesting to watch.

[jerseygirl]

Jun 17, 2023 18:39:49 GMT -5 Works4me said:

Jun 17, 2023 11:55:17 GMT -5 Pink Cashmere said:

Well, UPS and FedEx are USPS’s biggest competitors, but several years ago, USPS started paying FedEx billions of dollars to fly their mail. And now UPS and FedEx use USPS for the “last mile” of some of their deliveries. So sometimes competitors do work together.

Pink - you make a good point there and may well be right. Stranger things have happened in the world of modern business. To me, there is a critical difference in that both UPS and Fed Ex are independent business competitors whereas USPS is a government entity. This will be interesting to watch.

Plenty of opportunities for online shopping and delivery for multiple companies . I went to the local pretty big mall today to pick up some dresses for a wedding that I had ordered online . Realized I haven’t been there in more than a year. I’m doing almost everything online now including buying clothes, shoes, household stuff, books and food. I’ve always disliked trying on clothes in the store. Returns are now easy and don’t cost so easy to order multiples, try on at home and return unwanted.
Looking forward to drone delivery- will it be exciting to see or a big confusion??

[dannylion]

Jun 17, 2023 12:22:56 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

Maybe the “mystery name” on package will pay for purchase? One can dream

Hmm.  Interesting thought.  But I wonder if that would mean that I would be charged for whatever the mystery-name person bought?  With my luck, I'd end up paying for her scanning electron microscope while she paid for my little wheelie cart.  

[NoNamePerson]

Jun 17, 2023 20:58:08 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Jun 17, 2023 12:22:56 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

Maybe the “mystery name” on package will pay for purchase? One can dream

Hmm.  Interesting thought.  But I wonder if that would mean that I would be charged for whatever the mystery-name person bought?  With my luck, I'd end up paying for her scanning electron microscope while she paid for my little wheelie cart.  

  Then there’s that!