OCD and autism

[rascal]

I don't know if this falls under "OCD and autism," but it's probably part of the nonstandard way I interpret things:

I recently bought a gift for MrsT off Amazon, which happened to come from a third-party seller. No worries.

However, when I got the gift delivered, and absolutely zero package tracking from the seller, it was obvious that all they'd done was take my order, then turn right around and order it from Walmart.com. It came to my house from Walmart, in a Walmart box, with Walmart sealing tape, and the gift inside had a Walmart.com ordering sticker on it.

That...annoyed me.

I asked around (meaning family), and every last one asked me, "Well, is there something wrong with it? Is it broken or something?"

"No, it's fine, but if I'd wanted to get it from Walmart, I'd have just ordered it from Walmart myself."

"If there's nothing wrong with it, what do you care where it came from?"

"It just seems dishonest, somehow."

Anyway, it kept sitting in the back of my mind, that there's this guy out there, basically taking orders and turning right around and reordering from Walmart, and maybe Target and a whole host of other places. So I contacted Amazon.

"Is this allowable or legit?"

I got back one of those diplomatic non-answers, like, "Thank you for contacting us! I can see how this would concern you, but please rest assured, your order is protected and secure, whether you ordered directly from Amazon or one of our thousands of Amazon sellers! Do you have any other questions I can answer today?"

"Yeah, but doesn't this seem...deceptive? It looks like they just took my order and turned around and ordered it from Walmart."

"Yes! Please let me clarify this very important issue for you! Many of our Amazon sellers will work with you and ship to you directly, providing an excellent opportunity to support small businesses, which is very important right now especially! Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

"No...<sigh...>thanks."

After having it bounce around my brain for a bit longer, I contacted the seller.

"Hi, I got my order today, and I was curious as to why it came to me in a Walmart.com box. Can you explain that, please? Thanks."

I got another non-answer:

"Thanks for reaching out. We ship from the same warehouse as many other retailers. Do you need to return the item?"

I wrote back:

"The item is fine, thanks. I'm just trying to figure out why it came in a Walmart box, with Walmart stickers and a Walmart label. Let me be direct: did you just take my order and turn right around and place an order with Walmart.com? That's what I'm looking to find out."

No reply. First email response came back in less than an hour, now it's been nearly 24 hours, and no reply, which in my mind tells me...that's exactly what they did.

What surprised me, though, is I asked four other people, and no one else saw any problem with this.

I call it clipping the ticket, I've survived doing it for 30 years. People pay for my knowledge. I'm one of about 4 people in New Zealand that have specialised knowledge on a certain product. I got asked to solve a problem at a factory where a bearing had broken on an expensive machine. This held up production at approx tens of thousands an hour. The new part was in Singapore and 36 hrs away. I had them up and running in an hour. My cost $50, my knowledge and charge for two temp fixes (1 spare) $700 each. They paid the bill.

Russ

 

[caseydog]

No, I actually paid a little less, but that's the thing - that's not the point, AFAIC, but then that's where everyone is telling me I'm crazy and to just get over it.

It would bug me, too, but not for more than twenty minutes -- tops. Then I'd shrug is off as "It is what it is."

CD

 

[caseydog]

Here's the thing, though, as far as the subject matter of this topic: since I got this, I've spent way too much time thinking about this. I used a couple of hours researching it online (I did discover that people do make a living buying things from major retailers, usually clearance items, and reselling them, but they do that under their own name; they don't order a particular item from a particular store, and have that store ship it directly to the customer).

I couldn't sleep last night, thinking about it. The first thing I did when I woke up this before, before I even got out of bed, was grab my phone and check my email for a response, because they were very quick initially, but now silence.

Everyone is telling me to relax, I didn't overpay or pay for shipping or get some whacky knock-off counterfeit product, who cares if they ordered it from Walmart or whatever. You paid, they provided the item, transaction done.

It's the lack of an explanation that's eating at my brain, though. Why did they quickly respond at first, then clammed up when I directly questioned, "Did you order this from Walmart?" After that...crickets. Nothing.

The only thing I can think of now is to call them out via a seller review on Amazon and hope they acknowledge that, but I hate doing that.

Tasty, talk to Mrs Tasty about what I'm about to say. I'm sure there are others here who know exactly what I'm talking about.

I used to get really stressed out. My biggest anger was traffic in the big city of Dallas, and would blow my stack when other drivers did really stupid things. Now, I just mutter under my breath, "You f*&*&^ moron" and move on. Done. Forgotten in minutes.

Why the change? In October of 2006, I sat in a doctor's office, and he said, "You have cancer." It changes your perspective on things. To be honest, I was also taking an SSRI medication daily, which helped. But over time, I developed a "Life is too short to be bothered by petty things" attitude.

Also, keep in mind that there is no company or person out their who decided to sell a Walmart package to YOU, Mr. Tasty Reuben of Cincinnati, Ohio. Just like the guy who cuts me off in traffic wasn't thinking, "There's caseydog -- I'm gonna' cut him off and almost wreck his car." He did something stupid (a smartphone probably involved), and he could have almost wrecked any other car that happened to be where I was at that moment.

CD

 

[TastyReuben]

It would bug me, too, but not for more than twenty minutes -- tops. Then I'd shrug is off as "It is what it is."

CD

You know, 10 years from now, when this gift is relegated to the shelf of some closet, I'm going to see it one day, after years of not seeing it, and think, "Why didn't that guy just say he was ordering stuff from Walmart? What was his angle?"