A big question mark

A few weeks ago Ned's rather unloved - because it was a replacement for his adored surprise birthday present one that got stolen - chainsaw seized and nearly broke his shoulder when he tried to start it. "Pah, rubbish chainsaw, I never liked it" was his attitude, and he searched the net and eventually splashed out and bought a Quality one which he likes much better. And it starts too.

Then the other day, whilst searching for some Very Important Papers that had been put in a Safe Place, he found the delivery note and warranty for the broken one, and much to our surprise the guarantee still had several months to go. So we boxed it up and called the manufacturers to find out where it should be taken. They organised a courier and it was collected on Monday. Today the doorbell rang and a driver from DHL (remember that) wanted a package signed for. It was addressed to us and from the chainsaw company, but was rather on the small side for what we were expected. Anyway, we opened it ... and discovered a dimmer unit for a marionette theatre.

We phoned the chainsaw people to tell them that the wrong parcel had been sent, and we phoned the marionette theatre people that we had their dimmer unit - did they have our chainsaw? No they didn't, and luckily they were only in the next village and came to collect their package. We managed to piece together part of the story; both our packages were collected on Monday by the same courier - from Target, not DHL - and it seems both were delivered to the chainsaw factory in Droitwich. It was realised that the dimmer unit should have gone to Birmingham for repair, was repackaged and by some insane logic, sent to us. The chainsaw people assure me that the saw is still in their workshop being repaired and should be back with us next week.

The most curious bit of all this is why and how DHL (the worst company in the world to deal with, according to the poor chainsaw woman who was trying to sort out the muddle) got involved at all. The marionette people used Target. The chainsaw people used Target. Yet the package arrived in a DHL van, the delivery label was a printed DHL label, but with the Target sender reference number. Are they one and the same? Was the driver moonlighting? They must be in cahoots somehow, or else how on earth did the second company know anything about our shipment?