I bought a rabbit hutch from ebay.
After a week I drop the seller an email and ask about shipping. He admits he only just posted it out but gives me a tracking number. Should be there in 24 hours. Nice. Though I didn’t think I’d be waiting a week for him to make the hutch or something…
So TNT are the courier, and I wait in all day for nothing. No card, but the online status says to call them for re-delivery.
I ring them.
“Looks like you weren’t home.”
“I was home all day long. There’s no card.”
“Oh wait, the package was put on the wrong van! It was a failed delivery. We’re sorry. Let us rearrange delivery.”
It’s my holiday time, so I put my feet up for one more day. They swear up and down they'll have it to me. But the next day rolls by and still no package.
I call again.
“Sorry, it was put on the wrong van.”
“Please can you get it to me tomorrow? I can’t waste anymore time on this.”
“Yes, absolutely. I’ll call the depot now. Can you hold?”
*Holds*
“Yes, it will be with you tomorrow AM. ” Fo' srs.
Day Three = no package.
I ring them and tell them to return to sender because this is just a piss take. They apologise. Turns out it was put on the OMFG wrong van again. But this time it was then taken off, then forgotten at the depot altogether.
I let the ebay seller know that TNT messed up big time and I’d be sending the item back. Sorry that he lost the business, but I was back to work and couldn’t spend any more time sitting about for invisible parcels. Not even for the lulz.
The seller says Ok. The tracking number is still valid, and I watch it tracked back and received no problem. However, when the seller delayed a refund, I gave him a gentle reminder via paypal. I wasn’t about to forget my £70.
They freaked out and threaten “legal action” if their paypal account became “suspended” due to the refund. I wasn’t even sure I knew where he got this idea about a “suspended account” from. His attempts to scare me failed terribly.
Since I had the tracking reference and they had my hutch and money, I wasted no time posting a paypal seller dispute. I got a refund and apology. Though TNT never could explain why they royally screwed-up three times in a row. Tricky thing, vans.