Satin. Part One.

Meghan my daughter did her research and told me, “For your curly hair satin pillows is good for your hair,” So I bought lovely satin pillows from TKMaxx. Meghan then got me a satin item to also wear on my head, at night when I was not at home, to wear when I go to bed.

This year Meghan introduced me, and set it all up for me, on a fantastic on-line shopping site. I have bought some lovely things and sold some of my items too.

In the winter, I love wearing hats! Meghan said, “The type of hat you wear Mum is not good for your hair, you need one that is satin lined inside.”

I was looking at the hats on the site and found the perfect hat, that was exactly right that would get me to get rid of my trusted winter hat and start using the satin lined one. With excitement, I paid for it. It would be delivered to me in 2-3 days, then when it arrives, I have three days to collect it, if it is not collected within 3 days, it goes back to the seller. For anything on this site to be delivered to my home, it is more money, so items are either dropped off at a designated shop or a post office or in a metal box, these boxes from there you either post items, or collect items from them. I can’t choose where my items will be sent to, unless it is to my home, so it is a bit like a pot luck! Usually it is near my home, walking distance.

In general, this site is very well organised when it goes well, I give it 10 out of 10, when it doesn’t, I give it 0 out of 10.

I get an automatic text sent to my phone to let me know, it has been posted, the second it is barcoded from the seller’s end, I get a notification, that it is on the way. When it arrived at the place where I am to collect it, I get another notification, with a barcode to either show the staff at the shop, or post office or scan at the metal boxes, that have suddenly appeared all over the place.

My lovely hat that is satin lined, quickly arrived, it was at a new place that I had not been to before, it was 10 minutes’ drive from my home, so quite far! It would probably take me 30 minutes to walk there.

As I didn’t know where the shop was, I put the sat nav on and off I went, with my barcode on my phone. The notification came on a Sunday afternoon, just as I was about to go to work, to let me know it had arrived, I decide I would go and collect it after work the next day.

I found the shop, quite easily, but there was only one stressful parking space. I went into the shop, and showed him my barcode, he scanned it, and went next door, I followed him, there were lots and lots of large cubed shape bags with large barcodes on the outside, I would say about 50 of them, each of these cubes shaped bags were about 4 feet wide, 4 feet high and 4 feet thick! It was like a spare room for parcels to be collected. He opened one, and was looking inside, I said, “The parcel is small.” I came back out of that spare room and went back into the shop. A few minutes later he came in to the shop and told me, “It is not there, it was sent back this morning.” I said, “It should not have been sent back this morning, it should have stayed here for 3 days.”

I left the store, and went to my local supermarket, in there, I got a text from the company it told me, my item is at the shop, to go and collect it. I wasn’t going to drive all the way back there for nothing, so I googled the phone number of the shop, and eventually I was able to find a number, no one answered the first time I rang, I rang again then it was answered. I explained why I was ringing, he said, “I have your phone number, I will look again and will ring you back.” He didn’t ring me back.

The next day, I had another text from the company that my item was there at that address and that I needed to go and collect it. I kept the seller of the hat, fully informed.

I then had another text from the company to let me know my hat is still in that shop to go and collect it. So, off I went, back to the shop, thankfully again there was only one stressful parking space left, on the busy street. I went inside, and again showed him my barcode on my mobile and he went again next door to the huge spare room to look for it, he came back a short time later and said, “It is not there,” I said, “The company that has sent me texts to say it is,” I showed him the texts, he said, “Something is wrong, for you are not the only one who has come here and your parcel is not here, I can’t put my finger on it.” I said, “OK.” And left.

It made me wonder, what could be wrong? I let myself think of one of the possibilities. Would it be possible for the deliver driver to be near enough to the shop, for the wi-fi barcode to connect to that shop, without it actually been delivered? If that were possible, it would certainly show the company that it had arrived when in fact, it didn’t even get into the building! Then because the company got the info that the items has been delivered, then it automatically sends it to me, and when I get there, nothing is there, I leave with nothing that I have paid for, and the poor shop owner, is left scratching his head, while they the delivery driver is laughing, and getting away with theft! At first, I wanted to blame the shop owner, but when he told me, “Something is wrong, this has happened to other people who has come here, it is not just you.” I think a loophole for theft has been found, I hope the delivery driver will be caught sooner, rather than later.

Then three days later, I got a text from the company, that because I didn’t collect my item, it was now on its way back to the seller, I let the seller know, I said, “When it arrives, can you relist it, and I will buy it from you again, but I will need to have a refund first.” He said, “Of course.”

I then added, “Just imagine if my little satin lined hat was there all the time, and it was saying in a tiny voice, “I am here.” The seller that that was funny too, for only the little hat that he posted, knew where it was, be it in that store, or in the delivery man’s bag!

The little hat, still has not arrived back home from where it started off on its very long journey to me. So, this morning, I have asked the company for a full refund. The good thing is, the company knows, I have not had it, for the second that I get it, they get notified, the seller gets notified and I get notified too.