Freebies that you didn’t ask for

It didn't happen to me, but years ago I heard a story from a co-worker. Her neighbour came home from work to find new carpet installed in her living room (these were the days before people locked their doors). It turned out that a flooring store had got the numbers wrong on the address. Imagine!

My son, while a student, had a Christmas hamper wrongly delivered. They couldnt find the correct recipient, waited a week or so, and ate the contents!

My doorbell rang on Saturday lunchtime and it was a delivery from Just Eat, he showed me the receipt with the address printed on and it was for a street beginning with same five letters, obviously didn't finish typing the address into the sat navigation. I directed him to the right address, it looked like a cold meal as it wasn't in a padded bag.

Not strictly a freebie - DD2 likes coconut hair/body products and came home from work one day to find a big box of such waiting for her. Right name and address, but no details of the sender. Obviously, she asked everyone she knew, but, to this day, never found who sent the box of goodies.

My daughter came home to find her doorway blocked by an ottoman!
Neither the delivery company nor the makers would collect it. She took it into her hall and then spent several hours over several days trying to get it removed.
She put notices in the lobby of all neighbours but nothing.

She left it in her hall for nearly 3 months and then decided to use it.

Can only assume it is cheaper to send another out to whoever hasn't had it than it is to collect it.

A satellite phone. We couldn’t find out who had ordered it.
At the time we knew an independent customs agent who would have more use for it than us.

at your husband just eating it!

A neighbour came home to find a Mercedes in her drive and on opening the front door found the keys which had been posted the front door.
Confusion reigned until they got a very anxious call from the garage.
There is a road a few miles away with the same name and the driver ,returning it as arranged from a service, hadn’t checked the post code.

In our village the Main street has no name, also tucked away Barn conversions so often get parcels left when delivery men cannot find the right barn. I got one with the label torn and it just stated the village. It lay in our porch after asking neighbours until in the end I opened it and found the invoice and took it round.
Not quite the same but a few years ago I ordered a pre-lit Xmas tree, and they sent four. I phoned the company and they were very harassed and before I could say four they said:" Oh keep it." and put the phone down. So DDs benefitted from their generosity.

I once came home from Christmas shopping in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I'd been in Boots but didn't get much further as I received so many freebies through buying just one item, that they practically made my gift giving for me!
My mum was in awe!!
Now you don't get that these days.

Only once :
I've never seen one before nor since -
a massive cake for funeral !

I put in the fridge where it took up a whole shelf and then had a complete nightmare trying to find , who should have received it .

I tried phoning the baker - no answer .
I tapped on doors .
No one had ordered it .
No one knew who had died .

In the end , I put a massive advertisement up in our local supermarket .
After two days , a guy turned up to collect it He was entirely gung ho about the whole event !

We ordered some more cupboards for our kitchen and the wrong ones arrived, then they sent the right ones. Same thing happened twice, so our garage has a lovely bank of solid wood cupboards which will move into our next house with us. They are lovely and we intend to put in the same design of kitchen so will now have half what we'll need to do so.

My husband ordered some special lighting connectors for his Lego buildings. Not cheap. He ordered six sets. What arrived was sixty. Sent a message and the company just said keep them. I actually offered to pay for them but they said it wasn't possible to do so
Husband still has some of those lights left now , two years on

About 10 years ago an elderly neighbour had a new pushchair delivered and as it concerned him we located the correct receipent but she said she had asked for a replacement as the original had not arrived.I contacted the sender who asked me to take it to the Post Office but I insisted as they made the error to collect it from my address.3 months later after no collection I gave it to my son and wife as they were expecting their 1st child.The pushchair was worth over £130!!

I once received two pairs of boots from the same supplier. I only ordered one pair. I'm still waiting for them to realise their mistake it was a year ago so I think they may have missed it on their audit check. Finders keepers.

Some years ago our next door neighbours came home from work to find a new garage door had been fitted - they hadn't ordered it and had no idea where it should have gone. Their son was at home at the time and assumed they'd arranged the installation! It was much better than the original so they were quite happy to keep it FOC when the company were finally located!

I had some large plastic storage boxes delivered to me for no reason I could understand. When I rang the company they said it was the wrong address but it was too expensive to re-collect so I was to keep them. That was a long time ago and they have been invaluable when I have moved or needed to store big items.

Whilst shopping yesterday I received cooking apples, fresh pizza and cocoa powder free. It was unusually very busy in the shop and the manager had called 4 assistants extra on checkout. I put my goods on conveyer but the scanner wasn't working. All other customers were asked to go to another checkout, but as my goods were out of basket manager told the assistant to type in numbers and if she couldn't read them just to give me. I was over the moon as I walked out with nearly £10 worth of goods. I said I would be happy to pay the extra but was told no.

My son lives in Canada and sends me a hamper for Christmas .(from the UK).
Once he sent me a port and stilton cheese gift in a wooden box . He received a notice to say it had been delivered and and I'd signed for it. Thing was I was out at a Christmas lunch . The signature wasn't mine. He rang the company and they sent another, which was delicious . In February my next door neighbour came round to tell me he'd found a parcel with my name on under his hedge , well away from the boundary . I opened it and there was the missing parcel .The box was fine , The stilton was sealed in a ceramic pot and as the weather was freezing we decided to open it . It was delicious, as was the port .
That same Christmas I had sent my son and daughter in law a Christmas hamper. Two arrived ,one for someone 500 miles away on the other side of Canada . He rang the company and they told him to keep it and enjoy it .They sent another out to the other person .We both got double hampers that year.

A couple of years ago when I was out DH answered the door to a lady who thrust a carrier bag into his hands and said something he didn't quite catch and disappeared. Turned out it was a rather ghastly looking ?breakfast? Hard to tell!

Very recently I found a very large envelope in the front porch delivered from Waitrose by Deliveroo. I rang Waitrose to say it was not mine and was told I could keep whatever was in the envelope and they would send out another delivery presumablyto the correct address. The envelope contained a large bunch of red roses The label said 'flowers and cutlery' but the cutlery was missing

I have just this minute been sent a generous £20 voucher by Brand Alley.

Payable when I spend £100.

Thanks.

I used to work in mental health services, care in the community and one of my clients rang me very distressed, to say he'd been robbed .Someone had broken in and stolen his washing machine. Could I help him call the police etc. I went to his house to find that a brand new washing machine , quite an expensive one , had been plumbed in in place of his old twin tub,which didn't work properly. He had been out for the day and returned home to find it. I told him it must be a "reverse" burglary and not to worry , and rang his family . It was clear that the new machine had been supplied by his family , and he hadn't understood. His sister looked after his affairs and she forgot to tell him. I spent some time showing him how to use it and he was delighted.

I once ordered 2 very smart chests of drawers from Habitat in London
They arrived on time But 2 days later 2 more were delivered & a few days later 2 more were delivered
The store knew nothing about it Maybe didn’t want to own their mistakes So they got passed onto my daughter

Years ago, when digital cameras were in their infancy, I bought a telephoto lens direct from Sony that cost around £350. When it arrived there were two of them in the box. I contacted Sony and offered to return the second one but they told me quite curtly that I was wrong and they couldn’t possibly make that kind of mistake. So I sold the spare one on eBay for £275. Result!