We’re getting down to the home stretch on moving to China. We’re working hard to get things done now because we know that time is running out. I’ve got a bunch of things on order that I’m expecting in the mail including our visas, some business software, and a years worth of medicine.
That’s why I wasn’t surprised when I came home today and saw a box on the front step.
I was surprised when I saw the state the box was in:
I could tell right away, before I even got out of the car, that the box was severely damaged, and whatever was inside was likely broken as well. “Oh no!” I though. “I don’t have time to deal with returns and damaged goods!”
I didn’t need to worry though. That’s because the box was empty. That’s right, some company paid Fed Ex good money to ship a totally empty box. And they did it on purpose.
For my business I have a postage machine. You only rent these machines so I wanted to return it to Pitney Bowes before we left since we won’t be using it. When I called customer service she asked if I had the original packaging. I said no, and she said something like “Okay, we’ll send you a box to re-pack it in.” I don’t really know what I was expecting. It’s not a big machine, so I thought it would be a flattened boxed shrink wrapped for travel, or a flattened box in a giant tyvex envelope.
I never in a million years thought they would actually tape up an empty box and ship it that way. (Okay, there was a little paperwork in it, but aside from that it was empty.) Since it had no weight and no interior packaging of course the entire box got crushed on all sides. I’m a little afraid to ship the machine back to them in it, but surely it happens all the time?
I’m sure I’ll see a lot of very strange, odd and unexpected stuff in China. But shipping an empty box by an expensive means? That could only happen in America.
