That parcel isn’t for you. It’s for me. An early Christmas present. I should be excited, but I’m not – because I don’t know where it is.

I ordered it online. Amazon of course. Partly because that is what you do these days, but mostly because I wanted it delivered to my home in Ottawa. It is a raclette grill. Shipping from Europe would probably cost more than I paid for it.

Not to mention that anything purchased here wouldn’t work in Canada. We’ve enjoyed raclette in Germany, but won’t be bringing our grill back with us – the voltage is different.

So I ordered one to be delivered in Ottawa. That didn’t work – don’t let that parcel in the door fool you.

It used to be that when someone sent you a package you had to sign for delivery. If you weren’t home they left a notice. You had to go somewhere to pick it up – and bring identification with you or you didn’t get your package.

That is no longer the case. As you can see, the courier company drops it on your front steps and sends you a photo as proof of delivery. I guess they can deliver at least twice as many parcels by not having to interact with people. That keeps costs down.

Mind you, there’s nothing to stop someone from taking your parcel a minute after the photo is sent, but I guess the theory is most people are honest. Though I seem to recall reading that a lot of parcels are being stolen these days.

My raclette grill wasn’t stolen – but I don’t have it. I realized the problem when I got the picture in my email. That isn’t my house.

I realize courier drivers deliver hundreds of packages each day. Mistakes will happen from time to time. This seems just plain sloppy though.

The house in the picture is 1281a, though I don’t know what street. Someone there is probably enjoying some nice melted cheese today. Only one of those numbers is part of my address. If the driver had bothered to actually look at the label, he wouldn’t have left the package there. It isn’t the right street. The number isn’t the slightest bit similar.

How do you deal with such a problem? Amazon’s website gave contact info for the courier company (conveniently not in the email from that company that told me the driver’s name, nor in the one with the photo). The courier company’s website said to contact the vendor.

I did manage to get Amazon to give me a refund, in theory so I could buy the grill again. Except the grill I want is no longer in stock at Amazon – and their partners have it priced considerably higher. I don’t see why I should have to pay extra for someone else’s mistake.

So I’ll wait and see if Amazon gets the grill in stock again. If not, Best Buy has it at the original price – I’ll just pick up one in person when I return to Canada.

After I wrote this and scheduled it for posting, I received a text from my daughter. With a picture. Of the box with the raclette grill. It apparently showed up on our doorstep. Maybe the courier, in response to my complaint tracked it down and delivered it properly. Maybe it had gone to someone in the neighborhood, and they very kindly brought it over.

Whichever, I’m glad to have it. I’m looking forward to getting to use it. Though that may be a while, given the current world climate – my flights home keep getting canceled by the airline. That’s a story for another day.