Last Christmas we ordered all the children’s presents from Amazon (US) through the Mall for Africa app. We’d never used it before and decided it was more cost effective to do that than buy all the gifts here.

The app was relatively easy to use, I guess. It did annoy me that I could only order a maximum of 15 items (currently reduced to 10) from the Amazon store – but I suppose there’s a reason for that!

Anyway, so we placed our order at the beginning of December – around the 6th, I think. And they say they’ll deliver between ten to fifteen business days. Of course I then started worrying about the fact that they may not arrive by Christmas (and what I would do if they didn’t).

I left for Bali on the 14th, and by the 18th the packages started arriving. Hooray! Relief!

I got back on the 23rd and started opening them and wrapping. The boxes weren’t in good condition – but at least they’d arrived. Then I realised that 3 items were missing.

A cookie jar shape sorter thing for Booni, a farm animal book for Booni and a Melissa & Doug magnetic calendar for Vins. I figured it would arrive at some point.

On January 6th I emailed Mall for Africa about these items and was told (on January 13th) that they were en route. Great!

On March 14th (I kind of forgot in between) I emailed them again. I skipped the pleasantries and asked them to either send the items, or refund me. The reply they sent (the following day) asked for a list of the items I hadn’t received yet, as their database said the order was complete.

I replied with a list of the 3 items and didn’t hear from them again. And again, I forgot (oops).

On Wednesday this week (March 30th), LagosDad came home from work and said a lady had called him. She and her husband had received a parcel from Mall for Africa – one they weren’t expecting – and when they opened it, they found our contact details.

Luckily for us – they actually called and we arranged to collect the items from them at a nearby location.

Vins was with me when I went to collect it and I told him that Santa had delivered the presents to the wrong home. And that those people were kind enough to call us and let us know.

I’d like to use Mall for Africa regularly – whenever I need a bit of retail therapy (all the time) or when we need stuff for the kids (all the time) – but is this a risk worth taking? Yes, they sent the items late. But HOW do you send them to the wrong address? When I collected the box yesterday, LagosDad’s name and our delivery address was VERY clear on the box! Do they not have some sort of tracking system? We were very lucky that this couple contacted us. What if we’re not so lucky next time?