Let me begin by stating, very clearly, that delivery personnel have been god-sends to me during the pandemic. I have appreciated each and every one of them and have relied on their services to keep my household running smoothly.

               That said, I did have a couple of encounters that left me a little…confused. Both of them, coincidentally, began in August.  Let’s start with the catalogue that came then. It was from a company I have used before, and I happily perused its pages to find holiday gifts and a couple of items for my kitchen. I carefully tallied my purchases, filled out the order form, wrote a check and mailed it all off.

               About a week later, I received their “thank you for your order” email. It said I would get a notice when my order shipped. Another week passed and I received an email that said, “How did you like your order?”  I hadn’t been notified that it had shipped, nor had I received my order, so I quickly wrote back, explaining my situation. To this, I was sent a form letter saying I’d receive a response within 2 business days.

               Six days later, I received a strange email from the company. It was written by someone with a title and appeared to be on letterhead, but the grammar was a tad bit “off.” Basically, it said they had looked up my order and I was $13 short of the total, which is why it had not been shipped. Since I had not kept a copy of my order form (dumb!), I wrote a check for $13, included a copy of her email, and sent off the check.

               The NEXT day, my package arrived. Everything was in it. I was a little puzzled. But I unpacked the box and went about my business. Last week, I received my check for $13 back in the mail, with a form letter saying I had overpaid. Hmmm.

               Also in August, I submitted a little card from the middle of a magazine to start a subscription. I was delighted to receive the next week’s issue almost immediately. I also got an issue the week after that, along with an invoice for the subscription. I quickly wrote a check and mailed that off.

               Then my magazine didn’t arrive. Nor did it come throughout September. I didn’t receive any in October, so I called the company. I chatted with a nice lady (Nancy) who told me they didn’t get my check until September. That’s true. I told her I sent the check the day I received the invoice – September 1 – and that my bank tells me that it cleared September 23. So shouldn’t I have started receiving the magazine at least in October?

               Nancy told me, no. They sent the magazine twice, and since they didn’t have my payment, they stopped it. Now it would restart on December 7. Seriously?  I believe I actually said that to her, out loud. It would take three months to start getting it weekly? She said, yes, sorry, that was their system.

               Then I went out to get the mail that very day, and what do you think?  The newest issue of the magazine was there! November 4. Hmmm again.

               Maybe it’s just the pandemic. Or August. Who knows? But it is strange!