Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

I have a mystery if anyone's interested

52 replies

LurkYouLongtime · 01/11/2018 21:30

I put this on Facebook when it happened but never received any decent theories. Maybe the MN hive mind can come up with one.

When my DS was born we revieved some cards and a few gifts in the post over the weeks after his birth. A parcel arrived addressed to him, not handwritten but on a printed label and in a plastic posting bag not a brown envelope, so clearly from a company.

We opened the parcel and it contained a spare part for a particular well-known brand of vaccuum cleaner, and a dairy milk. There was no packing slip, no card, nothing just these two items.

There was an indication on the parcel of a postcode it had come from, after some googling we found a hardware shop with that postcode, which was at the other end of the UK. It's not somewhere we've ever bought something from.

The weird elements are:

My DS was only a few days old and so had only been given the name a matter of days before. It is a very unusual name/combination so not another customer with the same name or anything. Not sure how our address would be in their system anyway.

We have never bought anything from that shop. We don't own that kind of vaccuum cleaner so have never ordered that part, or any other kind of spare part. The shops is hundreds of miles away and is an independent store, not a branch of a larger company.

Why did it have a dairy milk in it? That disappeared very quickly in less mysterious circumstances.

Did someone think that would make a good baby gift? I'm sorry to say it didn't, he's never played with it.

I did phone the shop btw but never got an answer. I also asked on Facebook if any of our friends had somehow accidentally ordered a spare part and had it sent to our son. We checked back and all of the gifts in the post (there had been 3 others I think) were addressed to DH and I or X Family and in any event were wrapped gifts inside a jiffy bag with a hand written address on it.

I sometimes come across it in a drawer and mull over how it could have happened or whether it was for some reason deliberate..?

OP posts:
SneakyGremlins · 01/11/2018 21:32

Someone playing a prank?

LuluBellaBlue · 01/11/2018 21:33

I like that mystery! No idea though Confused

LEMtheoriginal · 01/11/2018 21:33

Sometimes our drug orders at work come with free freddo bars. But other than that, dunno

Creaci · 01/11/2018 21:34

I don't know why you got the part but a lot of companies stick a sweet or small bar of chocolate in with their packages.

mumto2babyboys · 01/11/2018 21:35

Did it have your exact address on it?

InfiniteVariety · 01/11/2018 21:36

It sounds like a stupid joke from someone not very clever - vacuum cleaners "suck," dairy "milk", a crass reference to babies feeding? I would give it no more thought

shakeyourcaboose · 01/11/2018 21:37

A similar threads going- someone's ordered you something from Amazon and the wrong thing has been sent?

TheFuckfaceWhisperer · 01/11/2018 21:38

That is strange indeed!

mumto2babyboys · 01/11/2018 21:38

Just that Royal Mail often send my post to the same house number one street over

One is .... avenue and the next street is .... road

Maybe a mix up somewhere in name or address on the company's client list

mumto2babyboys · 01/11/2018 21:38

Oh could be a joke baby gift! Never thought of that

Villanelle123 · 01/11/2018 21:39

The dairy milk would have been a free gift with the part but doesn’t explain why your LO was sent it!

dellacucina · 01/11/2018 21:41

Sometimes companies on Amazon send random stuff to offset delivery fees. That's my guess

Butterymuffin · 01/11/2018 21:42

So did you not get to speak to the shop, or did they refuse to tell you anything?

happinessischocolate · 01/11/2018 21:44

Why do you still have the unwanted vacuum part in your house? Are you a hoarder 😂

StripyDeckchair · 01/11/2018 21:50

Something to do with the courier service? I'm thinking maybe their service includes printing the labels for the packages they deliver and they made a mistake doing it. Meaning someone looking forward to receiving a replacement vacuum part got a teething ring or similar instead but never bothered to follow it up?

StripyDeckchair · 01/11/2018 21:50

And the chocolate was just a free gift as others have suggested.

HuglessDuglas · 01/11/2018 21:51

Was the posting bag sealed and marked from the company?
Just wondering if your parcel and hoover parcel had got damaged and opened and repackaged by Royal Mail - but they usually include a letter to explain 🤷‍♀️

ihopeyouwitchesareready · 01/11/2018 21:54

.

LurkYouLongtime · 01/11/2018 21:57

Hmm ok the dairy milk could have been a free gift. That's nice, I've never had that from a company before. It didn't come from Amazon, as far as I could tell it came from the company directly. When I phoned it rang out. I tried a few times.

Yes I still have it in my house Blush I'm not sure what to do with it in case it was a thoughtful gift... I guess I'll look up the shop again and just post it back.

It had our exact address. For me the weirdest part was that our son had only just been named within the last few days. I was really pleased he had received something in the post with his name on it and was so confused when I opened it!

OP posts:
chocolateworshipper · 01/11/2018 22:04

My best guess:

A friend or family member had 2 things to do - order the spare part for the vacuum cleaner and send a baby card / present to you. They got a bit muddled and accidentally put your DS's name & address on the spare part, and their own name on the baby card / present (they could also have put your DS's name & address on both things).

No one replied on your FB page because

  1. The person who did it is not on FB or
  2. The person who did it was far too embarrassed to admit it

Either way, the person that did it, then forwarded or brought round the baby card / present so that you wouldn't realise their mistake.

HannaSong · 01/11/2018 22:15

It could have come from a 3rd party seller on amazon as the company normally sends the part directly. So it could have been a mixed up amazon order

JaneJeffer · 01/11/2018 22:26

Is his name Henry?

Santaisgettingbusy · 01/11/2018 22:31

Maybe every year on his birthday he will get another part? A fully assembled vacuum for his 18th so he can clean up after himself at last?!

JaneJeffer · 01/11/2018 22:37

That puts me in mind of this Santa Grin

Owlish · 01/11/2018 22:49

*He's never played with it.
*
😂

Swipe left for the next trending thread