the adventures of smash box!

i had a different bit started here…

…but at least the “moral dilemma factor” has since been removed.

i supplemented my slow season holiday income by selling some of my shit on ebay. this is not NEARLY as “poor mouth” as it might sound – i seriously had waaaay too much shit. i still have too much shit. more will be going out via ebay and craigslist and half price books over the coming months. hell, some of it may go for free all in the name of just uncluttering my shit.

so, one of the things i sold via ebay on january second, which was paid for january third and shipped january eighth (don’t judge me – i had to clean part of it up AND i still fell within my promised “ship within three business days” limit) arrived back at my place on january twenty-second, but looked more like this:

it was no longer in my “sold” list on ebay as i delete things once they show delivered, i leave feedback, and send my standard “i left you cool feedback, kindly do the same” email. so i KNOW it showed just “delivered” but when i researched it a bit at the UFC’s place i found it now showed “refused”. the label on the box showed “delivered, refused, unable to forward, return to sender”.

what the fuck?

the “unable to forward” part said to me that the guy (i assume it’s a guy – the name is “Hussain”) didn’t live or work there…and i was shocked this all went down on the tenth and here it was two weeks later and i was getting the box back looking like it had been kicked and dragged here all the way from florida (where i’d shipped it) and i hadn’t heard anything from the “guy”.

the original bit was gonna be me asking you guys what i should do – keep quiet or reach out? been two weeks – maybe this was some kind of scam? stolen credit card joy shopping? i had my money, i had my item (all be it worse for wear) and i couldn’t figure out why it would be refused by the RIGHT person because, even though the box looked scattered, smothered, and covered (waffle house reference for all curious) none of the contents were actually FRAGILE, save for the glasses and those would be packed well enough in padded bag IN the box to be unharmed.

weird.

but before i could go to the post office the next morning i got two emails from the customer (oddly timed, huh?) that asked where things were and why it said it was delivered but “he” hadn’t recieved it (like i moonlight from my home in texas as a mail man in sarasota, florida) and the second email indicating either poor education, a loose grasp of english, or possibly both, as it just said “what address item sent?”.

maybe that’s that new text speak i keep hearing about?

thankfully i live in a small town and use the post office a LOT lately to ship ebay shit so they felt compelled to make me happy and, even though i had not paid for insurance, offered to re-ship in a new box on their nickel once i verified the address, which after some odd email back and forth i THINK was accomplished (two different suite numbers were sent, and i was finally told to ship to the one in paypal i used in the first place) so all went off in the mail today…again.

guess we’ll see where the adventure takes us – tune in for the continuing adventures of smashbox!