Things get returned to retailers and sent back out to other customers. It happens. What isn’t supposed to happen is that one customer gets the item with all of the personal information of the person who returned it. That’s what happened to reader Justin when he bought some luggage for his wife from o.co, the retailer formerly known as Overstock.com, that had a tag filled out with the information of a stranger.

The situation got weirder when he contacted the other customer to make sure the bag hadn’t been stolen, and learned that the woman whose name was on the tag hadn’t even bought the bag.

I found a Johnston & Murphy carry-on bag on Overstock.com and bought it for my wife. When it arrived, I was surprised to find the luggage tag was already filled out. The information included a name, address, phone number, and email address of another person in Denver, CO.

I assumed that this was a returned item but emailed the previous owner just in case it was stolen. The woman replied quickly and said that she never owned a bag like that and wasn’t missing any luggage. We think her law partner may have bought it, filled it out and then returned it. Is this common?

On the bright side, the mystery owner turned out to be a very courteous attorney in Denver, where I was born. I am a law student in Oklahoma that always wondered about moving to Denver. Life is weird. I love your site.

It could be that the partner planned to buy
If this were a movie, Justin would move to Denver and would end up marrying the attorney. Well, if he weren’t already married. Otherwise, we’d tell him to sell the movie rights when it inevitably happens.

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