Light bulb scammers making the rounds ...

I agree with both of you. I thought it was a shipping error. Ann Taylor did promise to research it and have a supervisor call me. I'm sure they would have helped me with a label at that point. But I didn't want to wait because it's a very busy time for UPS and I didn't want to risk the plus size woman not getting her xmas clothing in time. So I sent it back expeditiously. When I spoke to Ann Taylor I got the impression they didn't care if i kept the stuff. LOL

OMG if I had received that package by mistake and the Ann Taylor lady couldn't care less, I would have kept it! Given the stuff away as holiday gifts to my Mom and Aunt. That would have saved me a lot of money (having to buy gifts for them). Why doesn't such things happen to me! I've NEVER received anything from Ann Taylor by mistake; so unfair :(

The most expedient solution was for the seller to simply resend the same order to the correct address, then deal with the misdirected parcel by not dealing with it, which is to say to let you do as you please with the unwanted garments. It is most unlikely that the last jacket or pants of their kind were mistakenly sent to you.

A few times when I've had ordered items reach me damaged or presenting some other snafu, I would ask for an exchange and the seller did some math and simply sent a duplicate of the item, not bothering with a merchandise return process and calling the problem parcel a giveaway. Other times the item was pre-owned or not easily replaced, and the seller merely credited me whatever was appropriate without another word. This of course is a purely economic decision, factoring in item cost and labor they might put to better use.

I am flattered at the imitation. :::eyeroll::::
Looks like it's time for a registered account.
:-)

Got myself a registered account. It was free! Will get a avatar later. But a big HUG to all of my friends.... :)))))) love ya!!!!!

They must be tired and low energy these days :-) We don't mind coming to them with light bulbs or accommodate them by going to a place near them. It will be fun any way. They need to communicate clearly what they wanna do.
There is no way I would ship them back the light bulbs at a huge cost. That is the oldest scam in the world. It is well-known.

I agree but the problem was that they couldn't figure out who the intended recipient was. The invoice was made out to me. It was paid for. And the Customer service rep couldn't pull up anything from the invoice number. She said the only way they could figure it out was if they scanned the barcode on the tag. I returned the items because the return processing would scan the barcode and figure out who it was intended for and re send it. I wrote the situation on the invoice.
The customer service rep couldn't care less if I kept the stuff and I am sure they had a huge stock of items. My reasoning for sending them back was to have return processing scan the items and figure it out expeditiously. By the time the recipient would have called to complain about non receipt of items it would have been too close to the holidays and UPS is slow during that time. The lady on the phone was clueless and I doubt her supervisor who was supposed to call in in 2-3 days would have been any more helpful either....other than pay for the return shipment.

You've not been asked to defend your actions. Your sense of due diligence was greater than from the call center staff. Ann Taylor may lack redundancy in its order tracking or inventory control. Some retailers pour a lot of effort into data accuracy. Others I guess have not planned for all contingencies.

More than likely it was a duplicate order.
All in all you did the right thing as a human, you showed great concern for someone else even at your own expense. Kudos 😇

Alternatively, it could be a neighbor or acquaintance who got hold of your details, put in the order  and was hoping to steal the box off your porch!

Ha ha ... that's a well known scam by kids. Order a lot of goodies in your neighbor's name then steal the stuff when it arrives. If the neighbor is on vacation even better.

PS: and if the neighbor is the guy who screams hey kids get off my lawn .... even better :-)

Doesn't sound likely, because when she called customer support, it was paid for...  Looks like they just typo'd something when they took the order.

I agree. She said she had an Ann Taylor account. I bet so did this plus size customer. The Ann Taylor shipping staff clicked the wrong customer and automatically printed out an invoice and shipping label.
Ann Taylor is really bad with their mail order division. They are also the only catalog company of its stature (price level) that charges you for return. No other company ie, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Saks does this. They include a free return label with every shipment.

Thank you so much for the above information.
I was about to order a gown from Ann Taylor but now I will research other catalogues. In any case I don't have any money --- since some of my customers decided to stiff me.
Really unhappy about it. SMH.