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Original poster

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:
RainbowsArePretty · 02/11/2018 02:37

Santa 😂👏🏻

Heatherjayne1972 · 02/11/2018 08:19

I bet someone ordered you a baby gift and the company messed it up
So you got the Hoover bits and someone else wanted the Hoover but got a baby present
Some numpty put the wrong address label on

Eminybob · 02/11/2018 08:28

It could be ordered through amazon but sent directly from the company.

My guess is - someone ordered a baby gift from amazon for you. Put your baby’s name and address in and accidentally hit the “default address” button.
The next thing they order is the Hoover part, and they forget to change the address back to theirs, so the part goes to you. The chocolate is just a free gift.

Did you receive any gifts from friends or family that were sent from amazon? If so I’d contact the sender and ask if they are missing a Hoover part.

Cutthedrivel · 02/11/2018 08:38

Don't be too sure his name is unique.
I thought my name was totally unique, both the combination and the particularly weird way of spelling it.
Till I received an email from someone with exactly the same spelling and combo telling me they'd received my e-tickets for my family's trip to Florida, did I still want them or should she consider them a gift 😉
Someone along the line had substituted a 'co.uk' for a '.com'

EduCated · 02/11/2018 08:40

I would guess at someone having ordered something and ordered it to be delivered to you directly, but addressed to your DS (I’ve addressed parcels to babies before, though usually put C/O in case it ends up at the sorting office!). The Dairy Milk was for you, the hoover part was sent by accident instead of what was ordered.

Person who sent it didn’t see your Facebook post.

Kewqueue · 02/11/2018 08:44

I think Eminiybob is right. The chocolate was probably an add-on to bring the total up to a free postage threshold. I often add random low price items on to an order as it is cheaper than paying postage.

Anotherdayanotherdollar · 02/11/2018 08:46

Oh I do hope his name is Henry, as suggested by another poster....

HughLauriesStubble · 02/11/2018 14:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Pr1mr0se · 02/11/2018 14:35

Why would you keep a part for a vacuum cleaner you don't own? Are you just making all this up because you're bored?

Borntobeamum · 02/11/2018 14:36

Oh can I join in with a mystery?
About 25 years ago, I arrived home from doing the school run. We had a porch and the door was very swollen and couldn't close, however the house door was always locked.
As I went into the porch, there was a big box, containing a brand new TV. Sealed up. No address label on it.
I rang my DH who k ew nothing about it, nor did neighbours in the immediate vicinity.
There wasn't even a store label so couldn't phone asking why we'd been handpicked for this gift!

We left it in the box in the garage for a month waiting for it to be claimed but it never was! Result!

Racecardriver · 02/11/2018 14:38

Someone who sent you s gift had the part on their shopping basket on amazon. They then put the gift in their basket and accidentally checked out the whole lot addressed to your son. We have had similar.

mumto2babyboys · 02/11/2018 14:39

I could be wrong but I think there is a law about being sent stuff accidentally you get to keep it m
There was a lady in the times once who got sent the same toaster every month, month after month and she kept writing to the company but it was a automatically system that made the error. She never got charged for more than her original toaster as nothing was signed for

April2020mom · 02/11/2018 15:26

Do you have any pictures of the package or not? My theory is that there’s been a mix up somehow. It could have been sent by a third party on Amazon. Do you have any estranged family members or not? Or a third possible scenario is that a confused family member or friend accidentally mailed the package to you.
It’s worth finding out. If I were you I recommend contacting the company to find out for definite.

DontCallMeCharlotte · 02/11/2018 15:53

A friend who personalises ceramics always used to put a chocolate coin in their parcels which was slightly disconcerting as it made the item sound as it was broken.

JessieMcJessie · 02/11/2018 17:26

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!

GrinGrin Brilliant!

Original poster
LurkYouLongtime · 02/11/2018 17:31

Borntobe that is so not fair, wish mine had been a telly Grin

No I haven't made this up. Hmm I can think of far more exciting things to concoct. It's not that difficult to believe I've still got it. We received it, realised it wasn't for us, appealed to the sender and our Facebook chums to try to find out who it belonged it, chucked it in a drawer of 'stuff' while we waited to find out what to do with it, and got on with the rest of our lives.

It definitely wasn't an Amazon package but guess it could have been a marketplace purchase and someone has made a mistake somewhere along the line! I'll just post the part back to the shop when I'm next at the post office, I can remember the town it was sent from so can hopefully find the shop again online...

OP posts:
Original poster
LurkYouLongtime · 02/11/2018 17:33

Also DS has had another birthday and hasn't received any more parts of the hoover otherwise that would have been a great theory!

OP posts:
JessieMcJessie · 02/11/2018 17:35

With the name only being a few days old it has to be someone who would have received a birth announcement. Did anyone else send you a present addressed to your DS? Just going by the theory that they somehow sent you something on Amazon but somehow made your address and his name as default by mistake.

Tattandthis · 02/11/2018 23:10

This is so fucking weird

The EXACT same thing happened to me Confused Shock

UrsulaPandress · 02/11/2018 23:17

😱

Aus84 · 03/11/2018 05:42

Someone has ordered something for your son off a third party type online store like amazon. Amazon takes the order and payment but the third party business sends the order direct to you. Amazon (or similar company) has mixed up the order. The person who ordered the vacuum part has been sent your sons gift.

Ive had this happen to me before but as I ordered something for myself I was able to call the company and they explained what happened. The chocolate is probably just something the vacuum part company does for all their orders.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 03/11/2018 08:01

It's either a curse or a blessing.

Do you know any witches?

SchadenfreudePersonified · 03/11/2018 08:06

I could be wrong but I think there is a law about being sent stuff accidentally you get to keep it

It the Unsolicited Gifts Act. I knew a lot about it 30-odd years ago because I had a problem with a firm which did this and then invoiced me, threaten court action etc.

You have to inform the firm you have the item, that you didn't order it and won't be paying for it, and that you want a label for its return. You have to give them a reasonable amount of time and warn them that if they don't do anything you will consider it a gift under the Unsolicited Goods Act (I think it used to be 3 weeks - could well have changed, as all legislation tends to be a moveable feast) and if they haven't sent a label/collected it within that period of time . it's yours.

It was amazing how quickly they shifted their arses after months of prevarication and threats.

Original poster
LurkYouLongtime · 03/11/2018 09:12

Tattandthis what? The exact same thing? Shock

OP posts:
Original poster
LurkYouLongtime · 03/11/2018 09:12

Wait, are you my DH?

OP posts:
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