query

[alexseanchai]

I shipped a shitton of books to Hellenion's librarian, Suz. The package, which I filled to the brim, weighed in at 55lb when I mailed it. (I paid a premium for media mail shipping of that heavy a box.) I distinctly remember the box containing Garland's The Greek Way of Death and Mirto's Death in the Classical World.

These two books, along with a few others I'm reasonably confident were in the box I sent Suz (and also one that I have legit never seen before in my life—I mean it's en Español! ¡Español! ¡No habla Español!), turned up today from the USPS. There is a Priority Mail address sticker on the box; like fuck am I shipping a books-only box anything but media mail. The address sticker states this address as the return and Hellenion Library c/o Suz as the delivery. The handwriting is not remotely mine. The delivery address was covered with RETURN FOR POSTAGE stickers, there being no postage on the box. How I might have got the box into the postal system without paying postage, I do not know.

Suz tells me a very full 55lb box of books has safely arrived on her doorstep.

...what the fuck happened here?

Comments

[redsixwing]

...bzuh!?

I'm going to be even more curious if Suz has the named titles in their shipment.

[alexseanchai]

mmyup

hang on

[wohali]

?!?!?!?!?!

[tptigger]

That's is really freaking strange.

[finch]

There was not enough weirdness involved in this move and Someone decided you needed more, I guess?

[alexseanchai]

—entirely plausible

(my friend Lyssa is convinced Hermes is fucking with me, and I can present no evidence to the contrary)

[madgastronomer]

Time to make an offering to him?

[alexseanchai]

Have done, though more wouldn't hurt

[finch]

Not my practice but that sounds 100% legit.

[madgastronomer]

Have you opened the box that was returned to you?

[alexseanchai]

Had to, to see what was in it

[pauamma]

"'Curiouser and curiouser', said Alice."

[alexseanchai]

Indeed

[kittydesade]

I am very sleepy and had capoeira today so I am even sleepier but as far as I can tell from working in shipping for ten years, when weird crap like this happens it's usually because a box popped open in transit and then they scrambled to shove things into another box, sometimes regardless of whether or not it was the original box.

This leads me to believe, depending on what books Suz got, that maybe your box got swapped with a Priority box, but the label on the priority box popped off so they figured "hmm, greek books, this thing, must have been this package."

(This may not actually make sense, I'm going to go to sleep and try and apply some shipping experience to it in the morning. Alternatively, Hermes is having a laugh, which is also possible.)

[alexseanchai]

...I guess that makes sense?

[kittydesade]

We received a box of knitting supplies once that had two pairs of pliers in it. No invoice entry, no note, just two pairs of pliers. The box had been retaped (UPS uses cheapass clear tape so you can tell, I'm not sure what the post office does) so we just assumed it had broken open in the warehouse and the pliers got tossed in in the course of putting it all back together.

Weird shit happens in those warehouses, I tell you.