Woman claims to not have received a parcel we hand delivered! What would you make of this?

[Dualipa]

I have my own little business in which I make items to sell, a woman contacted me on Instagram and asked if I wanted her to review my items and she'd post them on her page (free advertising) so I thought I'd give it a go.
Turns out she only lived a few miles away so DH hand delivered the parcel through her letterbox.

A few days pass and I didn't hear anything so I messaged her and she said she'd not received anything 🤔
Instantly I thought I'd perhaps given DH the wrong address so he drove back to double check which house he had posted them too and took a photo to send me.

A few messages back and forth and this woman still claiming to not have received them but 3 minutes after I send a photo of her front door confirming where DH had posted she said that her DH had popped it on the microwave and it had fallen behind it and he hadn't told her.

Would you believe her?

Really annoys me when people jump to conclusions before checking all the facts. I work for a music service and the amount of teachers (ours) and schools who ring us demanding to know where something they've ordered last week is. 99% of the time we've delivered it and 1. The person who has signed for it has put it somewhere and 2. The person ringing us to complain hasn't even bothered to ask round before ringing us. Bet she wasn't even apologetic either, OP!

And yes, what @theemmadilemma said!

Nope. And this i# why never accept PayPal for collected items. You have to proof she got it.

Well, that is definitely something that would happen in my house, so I'd probably give her the benefit tbh.

You’ve fallen for a con artist who is trying to blag free goods and services from small traders and has zero shame. The fact she thinks ‘exposure’ is equivalent to cash, shows she’s a cheeky fecker.

The ‘exposure/free advertising on social media’ is pure bollocks, unless she has at a bare minimum at least 50,000 followers.

Honestly, chalk it up to experience and focus on paying customers.

No. She’s lying.

If her story was true, she would have asked her husband if he had seen it before the back and forth between you and before sending you a few messages saying she hadn’t had it. You sending the photo of where your husband posted it wouldn’t be the trigger for her asking her husband and him suddenly remembering where he had put it. If she was telling the truth about it being behind the microwave, the trigger for her asking him if he had seen the parcel would be you asking her if she has it and then saying that you’ve delivered it in further messages. Most people would check with other household members at this point, so I don’t believe her.

A tip the next time someone asks for your stuff for free to give you exposure is this. Tell them:

“You pay full price for the item and I will give you a unique code for 20% off to post with your review. If 5 people buy the item using the code within x time, I will refund you the full cost of the item.”

That sorts out the chancers who want stuff got free from those who actually may have influence.

(You can adjust the percentages accordingly so it could be 25% off for 4 people or 10% off for 10 people depending on value of item. You could even add in an additional clause that if say 20 people use the code the requester gets another item free).

Would I believe her? No chance.

I would give her the benefit of the doubt unless it was something really expensive , I could imagine it happening at my house

A journalist once blagged a high priced item from me £1000+ in exchange coverage was promised in a popular newspaper. I have it in writing. The item was received and used but my emails were ignored. Said journalist is now a politician. It still sticks in my craw!

From that day on I never give freebies to anyone who asks. If a journalist gives good coverage I might send them something small but that is it.

she's trying it on and got caught out. Then again, I can see my OH and I doing something similar. However, we'd ask each other if we picked the parcel up.

I think I’d believe her. She has nothing to gain from claiming she didn’t receive them, assuming she wasn’t paying for the objects.

I would believe her. That’s the sort of thing that happens in my house, plus post is sometimes picked up by the cleaner/cat-sitter. I thought DD’s Dgodmother hadn’t sent her a birthday gift then I found it in a pile of crap in my hall . It had probably just slipped her DH’s mind to tell her.

I would believe it as I’ve had denials that things I’ve sent have been received then have provided proof of signature/photo of parcel in open doorway and suddenly, someone else in the house took it in and didn’t tell them 🤔

On the flip side, I contacted a retailer on monday because something I ordered 2 weeks ago with a 3-5 day delivery time hasn’t arrived; I simply asked for confirmation it had been sent out and whether they’ve had any issues with stock being delayed (so I could organise an alternative if necessary as it’s for a 1st birthday). I have had no contact back from the retailer but received a full refund to my paypal account last night - so can only assume it’s not going to arrive and it’s now too late to order anything else.

@BottomOfMyPencilCase

I don't understand why she'd bother to lie. I could see DH denying all knowledge. Then when faced with a photo of the front door and being told he must have taken it in, to suddenly remember he did pick it up after all.

To get another one...

Yes, I would believe her.

@SpookyNoise

I think I’d believe her. She has nothing to gain from claiming she didn’t receive them, assuming she wasn’t paying for the objects.

She gets to get another item, for free, when she had the neck to ask for the first one for free!

Unless there were other reasons not to, I'd believe her. That's the sort of thing my DH and DC would do. I recently discovered a parcel addressed to someone who does not live in our house in a kitchen cupboard- asked the rest of the family wtf it was and DH says "oh yes that was delivered last week but I didn't know what to do with it so I put it away" .

I'd imagine once you sent the photo of the front door she went back to her DH and said something along the lines of "are you sure you haven't seen this parcel, they definitely got the right house, look" and he suddenly remembered.

@ladyslattern

This could so easily happen in my house that so would give her the benefit of the doubt. What would be the point in lying? It's not as if she'd get a refund for a complimentary item

Yeah I dont understand what she would gain by lying in this situation

I think she's making it up - if I was expecting a parcel and I didn't think it had come I'd definitely ask other people in the house before I said to the sender that I didn't have it. Sometimes I ask the neighbours too!

Why are you encouraging these scroungers who pretend that their opinion is actually important in order to beg for goods?

@mrsBtheparker

Why are you encouraging these scroungers who pretend that their opinion is actually important in order to beg for goods?

^This.

No, I wouldn’t believe her. If I’m looking for something in the house (and that can be anything from a misplaced item to a parcel I’ve been waiting for) the first people I ask are the people who share that house with me, DH and our kids in my case. I wouldn’t go chasing anything up without checking with them beforehand.