The Empty Box
We had the oddest thing happen. We ordered four books from Blackwell’s in the UK. We do this every other month, buying books we won’t get in the US for more than six months (or not at all). We got a notice that two books had shipped, and we received another message when they reached the US and entered our postal service.
All seemed well.
One morning, I received an email that the package was there. I went to retrieve it, and it was… an empty box. Completely flat. As if someone had broken down the box to put it in the recycling bin. The words “received without contents” and “received damaged” were stamped all over the outside of the box.
There are a few possibilities. The most likely one is that someone opened the box and stole the books at some point. The box is opened too neatly, like human hands ripped it vs. a machine. I guess that’s the other option — a machine ripped open the box, the books fell out, and they’re lost somewhere in the machine. The odd thing is that Blackwell’s sends their books in boxes that state: Blackwell’s | For Learning * For Life. Super clear that the contents will not be sexy electronics or jewelry. It’s going to be books. So I like to think that someone out there coveted our British history books.
In any case, we have a message to Blackwell’s with photos of the box to figure out what we do next because we need the first part of our order. But isn’t that odd? Have you ever received an empty box?
4 comments
I once ordered the complete set of Calvin and Hobbes in Spanish from amazon.es (Spain) and the box came filled with random stuff – a used printer cartridge, a set of beading tweezers (I still use those ones actually) are two items I remember. They had sent it via the Spanish International mail and it had been pillaged. They sent it the second time via DHL and it arrived fine.
When I lived for a year in Spain I sent myself a box of things I couldn’t fit into my luggage. When it arrived in the US most of it was missing. I lost a box of 8×11 photos that I had developed myself (I took a lot of photography classes there) and my little book of Spanish words I had to look up a lot. It was a book with A-Z dividers and I had written all these words in there, all organized by letter; and I couldn’t fathom why anyone would want that. A book of random words that some girl needed to look up too many times. But they took it. And that time again they filled it with random stuff. Old books and what not. It was the first time anyone stole things from my mail, and I was really upset about it. But I guess it’s really common in Spain.
We received an empty shipping envelope once. The contents were very slim and light, a memory stick I believe (not yet used). The envelope had come unsealed – I think a seam actually ripped – and the contents had obviously fallen out. I don’t think anything nefarious happened but it was confusing. The shipper immediately sent a new one. I really hope you get your books soon!
The end of the story — Blackwell’s didn’t seem as thrown off as we were, and they’re shipping out another copy of the books. I guess they’ve dealt with this before.
Oh, I’m glad to hear they’re sending you another shipment! But sorry you have to wait extra time to get your hands on those books!