tsk, tsk, Amazon

Well, we found out who it was that gave us the Mystery Gift.  However, we didn’t find out in the way that we intended or would have liked.

You see, it took some doing and a good guess to figure out that it had actually come to us from Amazon.com.  We called customer service and asked if they could verify, via the UPS tracking number, that it had, in fact, come from them.  They did but told us that they couldn’t tell us who had sent it to us without emailing the person and asking their permission.

We decided that doing so was way more trouble than it was worth and that we’d either figure it out eventually or the person in question would volunteer the information.  We also had a short list of suspects in mind.  As we already have a digital weather station that is extremely similar to the one we received, we asked the customer service rep on the phone if we could return it without the person who gave it to us knowing.  She said yes and made some cryptic comment about us, “knowing who the person was.”  That mean nothing to me, but after she assured me that the giver would not know that we’d returned it, we went ahead and did so.  This was after we’d posted here looking for the person who had given it to us to out themselves so we could thank them.

We found out yesterday that the extremely thoughtful person who had given it to us had received an email from Amazon telling them we’d returned it.  OOPS.

He wasn’t mad, thankfully.  He’s about the most easygoing guy on earth.  Geoff explained that we already had one, that we’d talked to the Amazon people, once we guessed that it had come from them, and as there was absolutely no paperwork or other identifying information in the packaging we had NO idea who or where it came from.  Once we’d narrowed it down to Amazon they’d said that they couldn’t tell us who had sent it, only that we could return it or that they could email the giver asking if they could reveal his identity to us.

Our friend laughed, was happy to find out that we already had one and that he had picked well and that we’d used the credit for something awesome.  He had given us something awesome from our registry, FTR, this was an additional gift that was meant to be a companion item and it was a really good choice, we just happened to have one already.

I am, to be honest, annoyed that Amazon, even accidentally, told him we’d returned it.  That’s kind of the point of the registry, no?  That we can ask for what we want and need and if we end up with more than we want or need or someone gets a companion item that is a dupe or not quite right we can return it without them knowing.  I’m a little concerned that if we return anything else to Amazon that they’re going to run off and tell the giver and we’re going to end up with hurt feelings.  We have returned two items so far, this one and another one that had NOTHING whatsoever to do with our registry or our tastes and I am now worried that the giver will find out and be really upset.  I think there’s a phone call to Amazon in our future.

I will certainly remember this when talking to the people who’ve gotten engaged since our wedding.  2 engagements in the 3 weeks since we’ve gotten married.  Very exciting!

~Kelly