The Saga!!!!

Yesterday's post reminded me that I don't think I've told you the blanket story yet!!!!  (So here we go!)

Last month when we had a stretch of not enjoyable (to me) hot days I saw an ad on social media (I know, I know) for muslin blankets (my phone keeps correcting that to Muslim) promising that they would really help with hot sleepers in the summer.

I did some research, that's the cotton material that a lot of baby blanket/wipe up cloths are made of and I figured I'd take a look at the site (no I didn't click a link but still....)

The blankets were two for one, which I didn't particularly need but I figured I'd put one on my bed instead of my comforter/sheet combo and one on my couch instead of my usual "warm" blanket I use most of the year.  Sometimes in summer I switch to a sarong on the couch but with the air conditioner it's weird.  I'm usually cold for the early part of the day and then with the sun hitting I'm warm so the warm blanket is needed until it's not.  But anyway...

So I ordered a blanket (two).  It was a hundred and something dollars but I was in that desperate to be cool and sleep mode so it was like "well I'm getting two for that price so it's ok right?"

Next thing was that I got the shipping notification.  A week or so later.  It was coming from China.  Ok... fair enough, a lot of things are made in China, but I don't know this shipping company at all and so now I was like hmmm I didn't get scammed did I?  Nah... it's.. probably fine.  (The website looked and felt really legit and no hits came back for scams when I searched before I ordered.)  The website said they were a US based company (boo) so when they asked for feedback I said that I was disappointed they were from the states.  (The amount was in CAD for what it's worth.)

Eventually the blankets arrived.  Not as large as I'd expected (I didn't hand measure my bed to compare... you say it's a "queen size"?  I expect it fits on top of my queen size mattress....) but fine.  I washed them.  (Internet says muslin gets softer and softer as you wash it plus I wanted whatever germs/stuff off of them before I slept/lay under them)

On one of the hotter days I took one to bed and was so super sure it would be as great as I'd hoped but nope.  Much warmer than just my sheet.  Disappointment.  Now I had these blankets I didn't want.  Oh well, I'll return them (even though I washed them, shhhh)

I used the company website to get the email and sent them an email asking if I could please initiate a return as they were much warmer than I'd hoped. 

I still had the internal bags but not the flimsy external shipping bag so I went to Canada Post and bought a mailer bag big enough to pretty much fit them, even though I wasn't able to shrink wrap them or anything.

I got an email back nearly a week later.  "Yes you can initate a return, let us know!"

Um... that WAS?  me letting you know?

I emailed them back (mind you there's a 30 day from delivery return policy and time is ticking here) and said well yes please I'd like to return these thanks.

They got back to me again a few days later and said, ok, here's the shipping address (they don't do return labels like other places) it's in Germany.

GERMANY?  GERMANY????????

I emailed them back... "do you have any idea how expensive that will be to send?  this is starting to feel like a scam.  you're in the states and shipped from China and now I have to return to Germany???"

They got back to me.... sorry for the inconvenience, we're a Swiss company and our return center is in Germany.

Well that sucks for me, and had the website said they were a Swiss company I'd likely not have ordered from them due to this exact sort of situation but it is what it is.

I did the math on the Canada Post site and if I measured right it would be about $40 to ship to Germany so I'd at least get some money back from the return. Sigh.  Ok, fine, I'll suck up the loss, it was my error of judgment anyway to order from a damn social media add, I know better than that.

So off I trekked to a post office with the hand labelled package bound for Germany.  I already knew I was going for the cheapest option and taking the risk not to do a tracked parcel but whatever.  Sigh.

I got to the postal place and handed over the package and that's when I learned that the EU was instituting some new duty fee and that Canada Post wasn't accepting parcels to certain European countries, including GERMANY for the foreseeable future.

Oh man.  (Not their fault, almost amusing at this point, I wasn't mad at them, but at myself for buying in the first place.)

I got home, emailed the blanket company and explained that I was not able to return due to the postal issue and the extreme cost of a private company (which I didn't even look into because yeah...)

They said that again they were sorry for the troubles but were bound by their return policy and so that's how I came to have two muslin blankets that I don't need! Ha!

Notable to me is that their website no longer seems to mention "based in the US" and I am glad it wasn't a complete scam.  The quality of the blankets seems fine enough, they just don't work for me for warm weather.

I gave one of the blankets away and the other one is folded up in my living room for use when it gets too hot for my "warm" couch blanket.

So yeah, that was quite an amusing and annoying blanket saga that has a not particularly satisfying ending!  

Moral of the story is, really just don't buy something you see on an add on a social media site, eh?