Some Vancouver Island residents are experiencing a strange turn of events where their packages are being marked as delivered when in reality they are not.
Multiple Facebook groups have now been created to help unite customers with their missing items, which have been found on roads, in bushes and on lawns.
Jaime Knowles had ordered something from Temu about three weeks ago, which contained about 19 gifts.
None of them arrived.
“I received an email stating the parcel had been delivered, I did not recognize the house that the picture was (of), sent to me, it was just a random driveway,” she told Global News.
“I popped into the local Facebook group in Cedar here and just put out a little ‘hey if this is anybody’s house, can you let me know because my kid’s Christmas presents have been delivered there’.”
Knowles said someone came forward and said that was their house but when they checked their driveway, the packages were not there.
She said she spent about $250 and Temu was quick to provide a full refund.
Knowles said some of the gifts were personal ones, including a memorial item for a pet who recently passed, and now she cannot replace them.
The packages were marked to be delivered by a company called StraightShip.
StraightShip did not respond to Global News’ requests for comment in time for deadline but did send a statement on Friday evening.
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“Straightship takes seriously its responsibility to carefully and successfully deliver our customers’ packages,” the company said.
“To be clear, we expect all our drivers and local delivery partners to handle each and every package with due care – with no exceptions. We apologize for instances in which our service did not meet the quality of care standards our customers have come to expect.
“Our local delivery partners are required to strictly follow Straightship’s Standard Operating Procedures when completing deliveries. However, we acknowledge that there have been instances of packages not reaching their intended destination – either through driver error or due to other unknown reasons – and we are investigating every incident so that we can find a resolution for our customers and prevent potential issues from reoccurring. We opened an investigation into this matter as soon as we received intital reports of missing packages in the Vancouver Island region. As a result of these investigations we have already taken action to remove a number of delivery drivers from our network who have been found to have not fully followed our service SOP.
“Customers who have not received a delivered package should immediately let us know through our website by selecting “Delivered Order Not Received” in the Contact Reason window at the top of the page.”
“I joke to people who ask me about it that this company is kind of like our Christmas Grinch,” Knowles said.
In a statement, Temu said “We expect all our business partners to adhere to our Third-Party Code of Conduct and the required standards of customer care. We’ll hold them accountable if standards are not met. We have communicated with StraightShip and understand they are taking steps to resolve the situation.”
In some cases, the packages were delivered to the wrong address and in other cases the packages were just tossed or discarded.
“It does seem very odd,” Knowles said. “And I’m wondering, like, if they’re just overwhelmed this time of year. I’m not, I couldn’t even begin to speculate why.
“But it’s strange. Like people are finding things in ditches, on roofs and over fences and public parks, I’ve heard. So it’s just a bizarre thing to do.”
Knowles said it will be a January Christmas for some items she was able to reorder but her family will focus on being together and enjoying some good food.
“The economy is hard and people work hard for their money and this time of year especially is challenging for a lot of families,” she added.
“And you know, these are parcels that are meant to bring joy to people to just toss them like garbage.”
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