I was in the market for some quality tools to send as a gift to a family member on his birthday.  I found everything I needed online, added them to my shopping cart, and proceeded to complete the order.  Much to my chagrin I had to pay for shipping because the free version would have taken 14 days and the package would have arrived after the special day-obviously I wasn’t shopping with Alexa and Amazon.  Anyway, I entered my credit card information, confirmed the order, and hit purchase.  I received an email receipt that listed all 5 items, another email with tracking information for all 5 items, and a final delivery message that also listed all 5 items.  All was well and someone would be able to get to their home repair work in just a few days, or so I thought.

It seems that Reuben, Reba-the Mail-Lady’s twin brother, must also work in the mail delivery business, but in a different part of the country than his sister.  Otherwise, there is no explanation for what happened on ‘birth day’ when the gift was opened and it only contained 4 items and paperwork showing a credit for a returned set of pliers.

After waiting on hold for entirely too long, the retailer told me that according to her records, I returned the pliers.  “Well that’s interesting” I said, “because I never had them. They were delivered directly to the recipient and the delivery message said so.” “Well someone returned them,” she said “and if it wasn’t you and they weren’t in the delivered package, who did?”

After much contemplation I’ve decided there was only one logical explanation for what happened. After rummaging through the package, Reuben-the-Mailman decided that the birthday boy didn’t need the pliers. While I don’t agree with his decision, I am grateful that he went directly to store, returned the pliers, got a return receipt, credited my credit card, and then sent on the rest of the tools, along with the return paperwork, for an on-time delivery. Makes perfect sense to me considering that I’ve dealt with his sister in the past. Actually, his sister could learn a few things from him about finally making deliveries.  And no, Reba, Zoe doesn’t want the baby bikini and flip-flop towel after your kids used them all summer. You can keep them.