I had a customer call once to complain that a kilt had not been delivered. It was one that I knew had already been shipped (FedEx Home Delivery) so I went on line to track it. FedEx said it was delivered to the address 11 days prior. So I called the customer back to let him know and he said no, it was not delivered. So I got on the phone with our FedEx account representative to try to see what could be sorted out. Worse comes to worse I figure we'd have to file a claim on the lost package and remake the customer's kilt. First step is to get FedEx to do a search for the package.

FedEx is supposed to get back with me in approximately 24 hours. If they can't find it I'll file the claim and replace the customer's kilt.

Later that day, however, the customer calls again. "Oops, nevermind!" he says. He found the kilt. It was sitting on his porch by the front door. Had been for 11 days, it seems. Customer says he always goes in and out by his back door and never thought to check the front porch for the package.

You ship enough things to enough people and you get all kinds of stories like this.... there was the guy whose neighbor signed for a package for him... then neglected to ever tell him. The only way we figured that one out was when he called to say he had not received the package and we tracked it for him. "Seems like it was delevered last week, sir, and signed for by a Mrs. _____." "Oh!, that's my neighbor, she sometimes collects packages for me, I'l' go ask her." Turns out she just forgot to let him know it had arrived.

About the worst I saw was a Christmas present that a wife had ordered to be delivered to her husband's work address. We shipped it to his company, and the company mailroom delivered it -- to the wrong person. Turns out there was another man who worked on the same floor with a very similar name. It took a lot of investigation to figure out what happened in that case, but what floored me was that the guy who mistakenly recieved the package had it for about two weeks and never once thought to walk down the hall and give it to the right guy.