So, I pretty regularly order from Amazon. I ordered a few things last week, and they came a fairly large box. It was a cat bed liner that the Amazon packers chose the size for, but the other three things in that shipment were fairly small - maybe baseball sized.
I got home last Friday and it had been raining, so I grabbed the soggy box from my porch and left it to dry out a bit just inside the door. Finally decided to open it yesterday...and it was heavier than I expected. And it had more taping on it than Amazon usually does. I figured it was because the 3 smaller items were bouncing around inside the large box (with no real padding, either, unless you count the cat bed liner
)
At that point, I couldn't exactly remember what I'd ordered, so I just opened each thing as I pulled it out. And the first and
heavy box I pulled out ended up being 12 copies of a recently released hardback book! I was grumbling that here I'd have to return something to Amazon that they'd shipped by mistake....turned the box over and it had a UPS label from Penguin to Barnes & Noble! The address was for a nearby shopping center.
I suspect my box was inadequately taped, and the little items bouncing around in it broke the initial seal. The UPS guy just picked up the 'little loose packages' and shoved them back in....and included one that didn't really belong to me.
So what was my "awkward situation"?
Since the B&N store is very close to where I work, I decided to drop it off myself after work, rather than arrange for UPS to come pick it up and deliver it themselves.
I walked into B&N and had to say, "So I got this package from Amazon...."
Oops!
(Actually, I called the store when I first got into the office to let them know I had the package. The guy I talked to was very nice, and he laughingly ended the call to say maybe I should give the B&N website a chance next time.
)