"Lock the doors and close the blinds -- we're going for a ride..."

Perhaps I underestimate the quality of service of some large-scale corporations. And sometimes it comes back to bite you in the end.

Let's rewind to about three weeks ago:  we had just ordered "Here Come the ABC's,"  They Might Be Giants' latest kids' album.  It's a hit with Av.  And with us as well. K had heard only wonderful things about their other kids' album, appropriately titled "No!"  It sounded like something we wanted to get.

In addition, I was anxiously waiting for the release of Peter Himmelman's latest album, "Imperfect World" which was released the last Tuesday in March.  And since adding in another CD would give us free super-saver shiping with Amazon, we ordered a "Wiggles" CD for Av as well.  I haven't been a huge fan of the Wiggles, but Av likes singing their songs a lot.

So I ordered the two kids' CDs from Amazon, and I pre-ordered the Peter Himmelman CD. Approximate delivery was set for sometime between April 8th and 13th. Perfect amount of time for me to all but forget about the delivery. We've had only positive experiences with Amazon thus far, so there's really no need to worry.

Go ahead a few weeks to last night.  I'm curious about our delivery. I check the Amazon website and discover that the US Postal Service delivered our package on April 1st. I begin worrying.  What happened to our package?  There were painters in the neighborhood -- perhaps they picked it up? Perhaps they thought it would be a coup d'etat, only to find that they have partaken of The Wiggles instead.

I write an email to the nice folks at Amazon.  I mention that the package is lost, and that I know they delivered it through the post office. And although chances are they couldn't do anything about it, I was wondering if there was a means for documentation and reporting of the incident.  I get an instant reply -- they'll have someone reply to me personally in the next 24 hours.

I talk with K about this a bit. She suggests I get my credit card involved -- they'll probably cover the cost of the lost goods. (And we're only talking about a sum less than $40 here.)  Sounds like things will utimately be okay.

And then I take another look at my order. And I realized that I had made a mistake: instead of having this shipped to our home address, I accidentally chose our apartment address from four years ago!   Could the package possibly be waiting in the rental office there?

I called the rental office and was shocked to get a live body at 7:30pm. (We could never get anyone on the phone after 5pm when we lived there.) She checked and found that, yes, the package was delivered there on April 1. I can pick it up with a photo ID.  It's only about 20 minutes away from our house.  Problem solved.

So I send another email to Amazon.  "My bad," I say. "Disregard the last email from me. I found the package. No need for you all to help me. Thank you very much."

This morning I received two emails from Amazon. The first went something like this: "We apologize for the lost package. These things do happen from time to time.  We've created an order for a new package, which we'll be sending out today -- free of charge to you. And it will arrive second-day delivery. Just let us know if you find the original package and send us an email saying that you want us to cancel shipment.

The next email came a few hours later saying that the package is on its way.

It's on its way to our old apartment address. So we'll have two packages delivered there instead of one!

I'm rather flabbergasted by the wonderful customer service. The email I received was personable, courteous and friendly.  The English grammar was impeccable. Which makes me think that they've outsourced their correspondence team to another country much friendlier and smarter than ours. Or planet. Somewhere civilized.

But now I have a dilemna. I did, in fact, email them saying that the package was found -- but they out another package anyway.  I know the rental office will accept it, as they do any package. Do I attempt to send it back? If so, how do I get that done? Should we donate the kids' CDs to our pre-school?  And I've supported Peter's career for years now -- what do I do with the other CD which I haven't paid for?  Would it be ethical to give it away? To sell it for heroin money?

I guess I should wait until we receive the packages before I make any decisions...