May 23, 2022

This Package Is Addressed To Me But The Contents Aren’t Mine!

What to do with a package that isn’t yours but has your address? I’ve recently had two packages that were addressed to me arrive at my home but the contents and the invoice inside were addressed to someone else.

The first time it happened with Sephora which was about a year or so ago and more recently it happened with a MAC Cosmetics I ordered about two and a half weeks ago. The address label shows my name and my address but the contents inside weren’t mine. I had ordered a few eyeliners from MAC during a sale and what I got was a powder, two concealers, and two brow pencils. I contacted them via text (Customer service texting is brilliant! Bobbi Brown and a few other Estee Lauder brands do this now!) and they replied immediately asked about my issued, apologized, and said they’d get my order out immediately. I asked about sending the items that weren’t mine back but they said it was fine I could keep them or gift them.

This was all nice and great but I was a little concerned that someone had my order information. I’m not sure how I feel about that. It’s likely harmless enough but I don’t entirely love the idea of my order number, name, address, and phone number out there. I immediately shredded the invoice my order came with which has me hoping whoever got mine did the same.

My MAC experience was pleasant enough but my Sephora one was not and I was reminded why when someone did a Tiktok recently saying she had placed a $942 order and only got an order that was $44 worth of product. The same weird thing happened to her where the package was addressed to her but the contents and invoice inside were not her own.

I got a little skeptical of her story when she said she called to rectify the issue and Sephora said she had excessive returns and they would not be replacing her order. I believe after a few phone calls she was finally able to get the problem sorted but regardless of whatever past issues she’s had with Sephora’s return department, I realized I had a bit of the same poor customer service from Sephora.

This exact same thing happened to me a year ago when I ordered some Perricone No Makeup Makeup. When my box arrived it was addressed to me but the invoice inside was someone else’s name and address and wasn’t anything I had ordered. I’m guessing whoever is boxing items are doing a few at a time and that’s where the mix-ups are happening.

I called Sephora that same day but it was a real run around with them. I rarely return anything to Sephora but they really treated me like I was the one at fault or as if I were lying about what happened. I offered pictures of the contents and invoice but was told I’d need to return it all, re-order the items, and I’d be given a credit to my account after the original order was returned. Mind you, I didn’t expect to keep the items I got but the fact I was out $200 some dollars and expected to do another $200 dollar order without getting my money back from the first order felt really crappy. I did do what was suggested but had to contact them two more times before I got a refund for the order I returned.

Has this ever happened to you?

Have you ever gotten a package address to you but the contents inside are invoiced to someone else?

About the Muse

Isabella MuseIsabella is just an average everyday geeky girl who doesn’t blend her eyeshadow correctly, wears too much blush, and hopes she never finds her holy grail products because she likes the thrill of the chase so much. Her mission is to bring you super honest reviews on makeup, skincare, fragrance and all things beauty. She’s in no way an expert on the topic and she sure as hell isn’t a super model. But she’s passionate about makeup and is seeking like-minded individuals that like pina coladas, getting caught in the rain, and ones that enjoy spending hundreds of dollars at Sephora without feeling buyer’s remorse. If you’re that person feel free to reach out and leave a comment or follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Bloglovin‘.

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Comments

  • Leslie

    What happened to you with Sephora, happened to me with Dermstore. Up until then I had had a great experience with them, but the order I received had probably hundreds of dollars worth of EltaMD sunscreen that I did not order – was likely much more expensive than what I ordered. They acted like it was my fault, and it took 3 calls to get them to send a postage-paid return label. I probably should have kept the stuff and sold it to recoup my costs instead, but I was trying to do the right thing and return it. Probably someone in their warehouse messed up the labeling, but now I am a little wary of ordering from them again.

    • Isabella Muse

      Wow! You’re just trying to do the right thing and they give you a hassle over it? That’s just sad! Sorry Leslie 🙁

  • Rachael

    This particular mishap hasn’t occurred but I received absolutely sh** customer service on my last order placed with Sephora so I absolutely refuse to shop with them again. Such a shame after being a long time customer. They emailed me to say they were processing a refund and when I followed up about it, after never receiving it, I was told I would not in fact receive it because I mailed them back an empty box. Excuse me, what? Long story short, customer service was worthless, told me once the warehouse marks it they can’t change it (um, isn’t that your job?) and she basically suggested I dispute the charge with my credit card company. Which I did, and won. There are more details to this story but the point is they refused to even look into the possibility that the warehouse could have scanned something wrong, let alone that I had receipts showing the box was scanned and WEIGHED by FedEx when I mailed it back.

    • Isabella Muse

      WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA that’s horrible! Sorry you had to go through that!

  • Rebecca

    I will say I’ve been battling with Sephora since April. I received a blush in the mail that was shattered. I returned it immediately. They received the return on April 20th and I still haven’t gotten a refund

  • Dianne

    This happened to me but with an Ulta order. The package was addressed to me and even had the correct invoice inside-but the contents of the box was not what I ordered. I called CS and told to mail the stuff back and I was given a credit. Was bummed about the mess up because now what I had ordered was out of stock! I had gotten a really good deal on one of my items I had ordered , plus a nice gift-with-purchase! Once upon a time Ulta would have said to just keep the stuff-especially since they were the ones who had messed up! I’ve noticed this scenario with damaged merchandise I’ve received. They used to apologize, say to throw away the damaged item, and they sent out a replacement. Now you have to package up the broken item and send it back. Time consuming and a trip to the post office. Guess they’ve been scammed by dishonest folks lying about their orders.

    • Isabella Muse

      you know it’s also about the hassle of returning it all as well! I rarely return stuff because it’s a pain to get to the PO Box or drop off point so the fact you have to do so on an order that isn’t yours is irritating.

  • Caroline

    I’ve never gotten someone else’s order, but I have gotten someone else’s invoice! The contents inside were the things I had ordered, but with an invoice from someone else’s order. Very strange indeed.

  • Jen R

    This happened to me once, several years ago, with an Ulta order. The package was addressed to me, but inside was someone else’s invoice and order. I was actually able to track the person down on Facebook, and went ahead and forwarded the package to them, so that they didn’t have to deal with a return, and I believe Ulta just reissued my order to me.

    For Sephora, actually with my last order I received one incorrect item. Everything else was correct and the invoice was mine, but instead of the Glow Recipe strawberry serum was a self tanner by a brand I hadn’t even heard of before (since I’m not a self tanner user). Luckily with just a quick call they reissued my serum and told me to just keep the self tanner.

    For the issues with the address label not matching the order inside, you do have to wonder how many orders they end up getting off by before realizing and correcting the mistake!

    • Isabella Muse

      that is SO true. How many other orders before mine or even after mine experienced the same damn thing before it was caught 🙁

  • Claudia

    I had an Ulta order addressed to me with my invoice for my T3 Whirl TRIO and received 2 Hot Tools straighteners and a Juvias Place highlighter. Customer service told me to go in store. In store told the manager and I told them they could keep their crap as I don’t want it especially since i have straight hair, I just want my T3 and then they gave it to me. They also let me keep the stuff that was erroneously sent. Someone out there got lucky, their stuff totaled about $130 and my T3 was paid for with points but was like $320 at the time I bought it. I would have been extremely p.o.’d if I lost my points and no item but luckily Ulta isn’t like that.

    • Isabella Muse

      that was awesome CS! glad you didn’t lose your points or your stuff!

  • Gail

    Yes but it was years ago in the earlier days of Amazon. I ordered books to come to me in Australia and when the box arrived it was full of books I had not ordered. But the invoice inside the box was made out to me and showed the items I did order. As I said, it was in an earlier and simpler time and One call to Amazon had them shipping out the correct order with me being told to keep the first set of books. So it was a happy outcome for me. More recently I placed an order for my mom with Walmart with delivery to her. Some clothing and personal items. When it was delivered she received a bag of kitty litter and other cat things. Yikes! That took a bit more dancing around but was finally resolved. We gave away the kitty litter! Lol.

    • Isabella Muse

      Kitty litter? Oh lord! How did they make that mistake?! LOL!

  • Cindy

    I had a MAC order come to me with someone else’s items and invoice. They told me to keep the items and re-sent my order. Not surprised Sephora’s CS is so bad, but you know how I feel about them lol.

    • Isabella Muse

      It’s so weird! I blame the poor people working at these warehouses! they must be exhausted!

  • heather

    This happened to me a few years ago with stitch fix. I received two boxes to my address/name. One was actually my stitch fix. The other was someone else’s. Of course, I tried on all the clothes, but they weren’t my style. I called stitch fix and asked how they would like me to return the wrong order. They told me to use the return bag and put all the customer invoices in the bag. I said sure. But, the bag was too big for my mailbox, which meant I would have to go the post office. 3 days later they are sending me emails asking where the stuff is. I told them they would have to wait until it was convenient for me to get to the post office and they could cool it since they didn’t even know the stuff was in the wrong place until I told them, so I certainly wasn’t about to steal it and they could wait until I was available to go to the post office since as far as I was concerned I was being a good samaritan and doing them a favor. I was a tad annoyed when they didn’t offer me anything, even a 10% off or something like that. I figure I saved them hundreds of dollars of merchandise, they could offer 10% off.

    • Isabella Muse

      OH OH OH! Me too! I got two different stitch fix boxes with my name and address but none of it was mine! And I agree! I HATE GOING TO THE POST OFFICE! AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS! And having to go there is a pain and being hassled, even worst.

  • Tracy

    This happened to me with QVC and they actually made me mail the incorrect items back and wouldn’t actually ship my correct order to me again until they’d processed that return. In the end it took me about 3 months to get what I’d actually ordered from them. I haven’t ordered anything from QVC since because this was such a lousy customer service experience.

    • Isabella Muse

      omg ugh that’s so annoying. I hate having to ship back stuff!

  • Iris

    Sad and unfortunate about your Sephora experiences. They’ve changed a lot from previous. I once got a Moschino collab eye palette with one of the colours smashed. The rep I spoke to via email was originally going to let me keep the smashed palette and re-ship but it’d run out so I was refunded. Still got to keep the palette. I cleaned out the shattered colour and was still able to use it. Another time I got a Playa shampoo which was leaky. They immediately refunded my money, apologised, and I was able to send the shampoo back via paid label at my convenience.

    I do recall ages ago before the internet, I sent away for a free promo item. Buy a clothing item, get one free. I got mine but someone else’s too without an invoice. They didn’t have any contact info other than an address. I didn’t know what to do, being a child, so my mother helped me pack it back up in the envelope and write “return to sender” on it. We hope the other person got their item.

    • Isabella Muse

      That was a lovely story Iris! I love the fact you were so honest about it as a child! Wow! You’re a good person 🙂 and I agree Customer Service, not only with Sephora, but all around, has been very bad lately 🙁

  • Jodi

    I had ordered some items from Walgreens. They were hand delivered and the receipt was correct but the items were wrong. I called the store and they said the other person’s bag was still there with my items inside. They hand delivered my items, took the other person’s items back, and said I would be credited for the inconvenience. I was surprised but didn’t argue. Sure enough, they did.

  • Mary

    Just recently, Amazon delivered a nice Monopoly game to me with my correct name and address. I hadn’t ordered it, and they hadn’t charged me for it. When I called them, they didn’t seem to care if I returned it or not, but I sent it back with their label anyway.

    The game wasn’t sent as a gift, so was mystified by that one. Amazon had no explanation, but all’s well that ends well, I suppose. I have to say I’ve never had a problem with returns or damaged items with Amazon, and that’s amazing in these times!

  • Mariam

    It happened to me with Colourpop. The thing is I’m not in the US. The order I received is for someone in China. I didn’t return them because they didn’t ask for it even though I asked them about it. Eventually they sent my correct order, so I had free make-up which I gave away to a friend and sister. HAH! But I pity that person because the products she ordered was more $$$ than mine.