okaybee

If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that online shopping doesn’t always work in your favour.

For starters, why is it always the times that your panic buying an outfit for a big event that there’s delays, or it comes in the wrong size, or actually just never arrives? Today I’m going to tell you about a few of my worst online shopping occasions:

That time the outfit never arrived.

Yes this actually happened. I was going to the Galway Races for the first time and was so confused about what to wear. After procrastinating for weeks (standard me), I ordered a dress from Topshop. I wasn’t 100% sure about it to be totally honest. It was the kind of dress that would either be totally perfect on me and I’d wear it to death for many years to come, or it would look like a cheap school project that I had pulled together in art class. There was no in between. One of those dresses. It was supposed to arrive two days before I headed to the races. No sign. The day before. No sign. I was actually walking to get the train to Galway, and still looking up and down my road the whole way for any sign of a postman or delivery man. Nothing. I had my back ups, but I was pissed. Not only that, but it wasn’t even there when I got home, three days later. Needless to say it was returned immediately. I don’t need that bad karma in my life.

That time I didn’t have cash for the taxes and duties.

Ok, firstly, it’s 2018. Taxes and duties should be included in the price. I shouldn’t have to be handing cash over at the door to delivery people for extra charges. I had ordered a dress from an Australian brand, and couldn’t wait to try it on. It’s still to this day a favourite item of mine. I was home when the delivery person arrived at the door. I took the parcel, signed, thanked them and went to close the door. “Um, sorry but you need to sign this form too, and we also need €43.79 in cash.” You should know that I never carry cash. Literally never. If I can avoid it, I will. I actually get surprised if I open my purse and find physical money in there. So needless to say, I didn’t have cash on me that day. I tried asking if I could pay online or something, but it was cash only. We stood on my doorstep for several minutes, trying to come to an agreement when my mom luckily drove up. Thank god she had the cash on her, otherwise the delivery person said they were going to have to take my package back!

Those times you’re not home to answer the door.

Ok this is an ongoing thing for me. Sometimes it’s my fault as I really should learn to just post things to work. But other times, I know the package is something that can be put through the letter box, I’m looking at you SD card delivery person. It so frustrating to get the “We’re sorry we missed you” slip in the post as you know you have to go another day without that item. Inevitably it’s something you urgently need too! One thing I do love however is the DHL pickup boxes that appear to be pretty much everywhere. I have one down the road from me and it’s so handy to be able to just pick up my packages from there. Shout out to Parcel Motel too!

That time the outfit you’re excited about is all wrong.

It’s too big, it’s too small, it’s not the same colour as online, were those sequins there online, what is this pattern… We’ve all been there. Sometimes it just doesn’t look like the photo on the site. It’s frustrating. Sometimes the sizing is way off (cough, H&M). Sometimes, there’s a weird pattern on your boots that didn’t show up at all on the app (see video above). It’s frustrating. One of the worst things about online shopping is having to return, either to the store, or package it all up, bring it to the post office, pay for the pleasure of hating the item, and go home. It sucks.

That time the driver hide the parcel and didn’t tell me.

You know how sometimes the delivery service says that you can fill in an alternative place to leave the package? Like, behind a tree, or in a neighbours house? Well a few years ago I was having a lot of stuff sent to my neighbours house. To the point I had to buy a Christmas present to thank them, and eventually, stop getting stuff sent to them altogether. Well, this package was in the “don’t send to the neighbours” era, so I left no additional instructions, which would indicate if we weren’t home, to bring it back to the depot.

The day rolls around for delivery and I tracked it on my phone. I saw that it said it had been delivered so when I got home later that day I asked my mom where it was. She had been out and hadn’t signed for any package, and no one else had been home. Weird. I figured it was with a neighbour. So I went to my usual neighbours for packages. Nope. Went to the next option. Not with us. I went around to all my neighbours. No sorry. I rang the depot who said they had record of it being delivered but didn’t know who it was left with. That particular driver wasn’t around so I couldn’t ring him to check. Three days go by, nothing. I would like to note at this point that this was near to Christmas, and I tend to do a lot of my Christmas shopping for friends and family online as it’s a crazy month in work. So there was a missing parcel, filled with gifts, that no one had any sight of. Cool.

On day four, I was pissed. I finally got through to the driver who said he couldn’t remember. After wracking his brains for 10 minutes, he said “Oh yeah, I left it around the side of your house”. The side of my house. Where he would have had to open a gate and leave a parcel? The side of my house that is barely used? The side of my house where a package had now been sitting in four days of rain? Yeah. That side of the house. After apologising zero times for opening our gate, leaving a package where he didn’t have permission to leave it and then not leaving a note to say where it was, he basically shrugged down the phone and hung up. Un-f**king-believeable.

I could go on, but you get the drift. I’ve had my fair share of online shopping situations. To make me feel better, I would love to hear that I’m not alone in this! Leave your online shopping stories below and we’ll all vow to never shop online again, only to break that vow immediately.

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