A UPS/U.S. Postal Service partnership was supposed to bring some totally excellent Star Wars items from ThinkGeek to Michael’s doorstep. It didn’t. The package went missing somewhere in the post office’s custody, never to be heard from again. There was no insurance on it, so he didn’t expect much when he let ThinkGeek know it was missing. He really didn’t expect a total replacement.

On February 20th I ordered a few items (some really sweet Star Wars stuff!) from ThinkGeek because I had heard they were having a 20% off sale. I chose standard shipping and anxiously awaited the shipping notification from ThinkGeek which I received the next morning, February 21st. Checking the UPS website I was told the expected delivery date was February 26th. Of course, even though I knew it was a few days out, I checked the UPS tracking information regularly over the next few days to see how it was going. Doing so let me see that on the morning of the 25th it was transferred to my local post office for final delivery, though the local post office wouldn’t note that it was “Received by the local post office” for nearly 22 hours…my first inkling that something strange might be going on.

Checking back on the 26th I was greeted with a note from UPS saying there was a “Local Post Office Exception” which meant that an incorrect sort had routed the package to the wrong local post office. While I was a bit annoyed with the delay this was going to cause, I quickly got over it realizing that it was at least in the same city as me and should be in my hands very soon, oh how I was wrong.

Fast forward to Friday, March 1, and I called USPS to ask about the status of my package since I know I can send a letter from my house to anyone else in my city in 2 days max, so imagine my confusion that my package couldn’t get to me in 4 days. The USPS agent, who was honestly very friendly, told me she would open an investigation and they would track my package down. This would not ever happen. I received a call from USPS the following Monday to let me know they hadn’t been able to locate my package and that the local offices didn’t have it, nor did the system have a record of its current location. Even though I was frustrated I decided to give them a few more days to try and sort it out and made a note to call them back on Thursday morning.

Come Thursday, there is still no record of my package, no one knows where it is and USPS has basically thrown its hands up and said “Oops”. Not knowing what to do since I didn’t send the package and therefore didn’t have it insured, I decided I would at least let ThinkGeek know that my awesome Star Wars loot never arrived.

Here’s where the happy ending comes in, without me even asking, the ThinkGeek rep said he was sorry that this had happened, and offered to check if my items were still in stock. Before I could reply, he let me know that everything was available and that he would send out another order, free of charge. Needless to say, I was floored. ThinkGeek went above and beyond here, especially given that I made no request for another order, free or otherwise. They definitely have a lifetime customer now, USPS however, does not.

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