Dr. Peter R. writes:

It
s not just the e-shops and brick
n
mortar mega-shops that come up with dubious if not devious ways to defraud their customers. Sometimes its the delivery service that turns the tricks.

Take our simple case of buying a camera bag via eBay. A simple enough procedure. Paid for it, including the shipping charge, and the seller
a company over in California
promptly sent us an email with the tracking number. Everything checked out: the address was correct, the price was right, and the three-day wait was fine. Except that it would mean delivery on a Friday, the one day of the week we get to go home early. Checked the trace Friday morning and discovered it was scheduled to be delivered. When we came back to our office on Sunday (this being a Jewish company), the FedEx tracker claimed that it had been
left on the doorstep
. A call to support got us nowhere
apparently the depot was closed thus no action can be taken.

When we checked the tracker on Monday, we discovered a different delivery time and date for the exact same item, also
left at doorstep
. This time the call to the support line yielded a promise to track the driver, the item, and a call-back within twenty-four hours. None of which happened
instead the FedEx claimed it sent the item back to the original sender
who never received it. It does not end here: the seller, without prompting, ships a new bag to replace the one
lost by FedEx
. Only almost exactly the same story took place; the only variants: this time the driver
could not find address
; and when we called to pick it up ourselves from the depot, we were told to wait until the depot would re-open after the holidays. We did. Only to find out that FedEx
shipped the item back to the sender
. Who, of course, never received the item.

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