A Texas farmer was expecting a surprise gift from a friend, who purchased the gift on Amazon. What they received was a piece of conveyor belt equipment instead.
Christian and Lisa Seger, who co-own Blue Heron Farm, and specialize in ethically-farmed goat cheese, told Gizmodo in an interview that the nine-pound belt roller arrived in an Amazon package that was haphazardly wrapped. Christian and Lisa took to Twitter and Facebook to document the bizarre experience as soon as the package arrived. Christian posted his observation on Blue Heron Farm’s Facebook page:
This appears to be a part of Amazon. Like, literally, part of Amazon. Part of the belt from the warehouse.
Christian told Gizmodo that due to his familiarity with “mechanical doo-dads,” he was immediately aware that the piece came from some heavy-duty equipment. The package was sent by Segers’ friend Jay Roussel, who mentioned sending Christian and Lisa a chicken book through Amazon. Amazon confirmed that the package delivered to the Segers was the one that Roussel had attempted to send by checking the tracking number.
At some point, the book he was supposed to be sending got out of the box and what wound up in the box we’re pretty sure is part of their conveyor belt system from the warehouse.
After taking to social media, Amazon was quick to offer an answer to their dilemma, although the answer they received was not what they had been expecting. The Segers were told to send back the roller or pay $19 for another book. In the end, it would have been their friend who’d pay the $19, since it was his card on file for the purchase.
Roussel told Houston real estate news website Swamplot about the ordeal.
There is an option [on the website] to say that you got the wrong item. But not one to say that the item I got was completely random. If my friends didn’t send the roller back, I would essentially be charged for the item twice (at least that’s how I read it). And another friend said that if I called them, he’s quite sure that they would have cleared it up in their system. Just not a prompt on the website to handle such an odd case.
Despite the initial response from Amazon, the Segers remain good-humored about the situation.
According to the Segers, Roussel has since purchased and shipped another copy of the book, and UPS came to pick up the roller within 24 hours. However, the Segers tweeted that Amazon customer service called to tell them the company couldn’t be sure the roller came from Amazon’s warehouse, stating it could have come from either UPS or the US Postal Service. Amazon did, however, overnight the second copy of the book to the Segers at no additional charge.
Amazon has had no comment about the incident.
What are your thoughts? Are you expecting any Amazon packages for the holidays? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.