Tuesday, 14 April 2026

They Never Expected That!

In the old days, my parents went into the shop, selected their purchase and handed over the cash. They could see the size. and weight , and quality. Now we order online, and pay with a card, and within a few days, the product we have chosen is delivered to our door. Or is it?

Years ago I had to alter a fancy dress costume for a slim young friend. She had ordered 32/34 thinking it was the bust size. It wasn't, it was the American dress size [bust 60"+]! It could have been a 2-man tent. I altered it for her, and had an awful lot of spare camo fabric left over.

Then there are those people whose supermarket online orders come with very bizarre substitutions. "a birthday cake candle, number 5" being replaced by 2 and 3 [because 2+3 = 5!]  

And others who order patio furniture or cupboards, only to discover they are sized to fit a doll's house. One of my loveliest birthday gifts this last week was a cross stitch kit. At least, that's what my friend thought she was ordering. When it arrived, it was simply the pattern chart, printed out on three sheets of paper. She was, understandably, concerned - she had expected fabric and threads to be included. 

Was it of any use? Fortunately I have some evenweave fabric left over from the 2024 project with Kirsten. And lots of threads- all recently sorted, I can line them up with my DMC shade chart and sort out the exact threads I need. What might have been a disappointment has actually turned out to be an excellent Stash Buster. Thanks C.

Have you ever received a delivery which was not what you expected?




12 comments:

  1. Oh yes! Like my recent embroidery stitchbook... I can't think how to rephrase it and it is moving ever closer to the bin. Or a horrible cardigan which was nothing like the photo or description; from 'Nancy of london', I believe- clothes are a well known scam, and now I'm in the know too. Experience. Experience. Nothing like Experience 😡

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    1. You and Yours on Radio 4 did a whole programme on the Great Cardigan Scam.

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    2. I ordered a pair of leather mule sandals from Amazon and when they arrived they were a completely different style and made of really awful stinky plastic. When I tried to return them the supplier gave me a postal address in China and said I would be refunded postage and the cost of the sandals when they received them back! Or I could keep them for a half refund. I binned them and vowed never to knowingly order anything from a Chinese supplier ever again. They were even too horrible to donate to a charity shop!

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    3. They sound utterly dire!

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  2. My friend asked her husband to buy a patio umbrella. When it arrived it was just an ordinary sized umbrella attached to a plastic pole. She sent me a lovely picture of her sitting under it laughing her socks off!

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad she could see the funny side of it!

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  3. One of my Clara dresses from eBay (Chinese seller) turned out to be made from the most awful material, that sort of papery material that free gifts from magazines came in and under the apron which you would wear over it, they hadn't bothered to include buttons, just one at the bottom so you could have had a wardrobe malfunction with it if you took the apron off!

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  4. Last week I ordered two bags of porridge oats, these were substituted with two dozen eggs! I passed them on to my daughter as she has a large family.

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  5. I was on the phone with my daughter the other day when her instacart order was delivered. As she was going through the bags she realized he must have delivered her the wrong groceries because there was nothing she had ordered and a lot of items that she would never eat. And because it's an app on her phone there was not way to get the guy to come back. All she could do was report it. They do reimburse the person for a mix-up, but then you have to reorder everything all over again.

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    Replies
    1. Oh that is frustrating, especially if you have ordered food for the hungry family

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