Here's your feel-good story for the day - a grandmother located in the US was recently gifted not one but six Nintendo Switch.
Deborah Lewis mistakenly received six Switch OLED model consoles in a larger than expected delivery, but didn't have any luck when trying to return them to a Target store located up the road from her house.
Fortunately, her problems were solved when two target employees showed up on the doorstep and told her that she could keep all six units:
"On behalf of Target and your local Target store right up the street, we want to give these to you to give to your grandchildren or whoever you want"
"From the bottom of our hearts, Target is so proud to do this for you, and we want to say thank you”
The 68-year-old grandmother of eight was in tears over the retail giant's generosity and intends to gift them to her "grandbabies" in Chicago. We're sure anyone would be thrilled to score just one OLED Switch at the moment, but six? Wow, it truly is a Christmas miracle.
Have you ever received something you had to return and in the end got to keep it? Have you got your hands on a Switch OLED yet, or are you hoping to find one under your tree over the holiday season? Leave a comment down below.
[source 12news.com]
Comments 59
A Switchmas miracle!
Though my inner cynic suspects that this could be a very clever PR stunt.
Six Nintendo Switch OLED for free ?!
Woooow...! 😲😲😲
How dare you not believe in Santa now, grandma?
Lenovo once accidentally sent me a desktop computer.
That grandma must have a heart of gold
And that’s why I love shopping at target ❤️
Now this is a well-deserved accident. Perhaps a certain someone in red dropped by.
Imagine if that she would have given 6 ps5 😂
Wow.
That's nice of them
Updated story in a week's time:
Meet the oldest Scalper on eBay
8 Grandkids and only 6 Switches. Who do you love most Grandma?
No I still play the New Switch Model.
Imagine if she was secretly a scalper and she sold the rest on ebay.
What a wonderful story, and now her family and friends can have a merry Christmas. I love stories like this.
She suddenly looks like my long lost grandmother
39 U.S.C.
United States Code, 2011 Edition
Title 39 - POSTAL SERVICE
PART IV - MAIL MATTER
CHAPTER 30 - NONMAILABLE MATTER
Sec. 3009 - Mailing of unordered merchandise
From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov
§3009. Mailing of unordered merchandise
(a) Except for (1) free samples clearly and conspicuously marked as such, and (2) merchandise mailed by a charitable organization soliciting contributions, the mailing of unordered merchandise or of communications prohibited by subsection (c) of this section constitutes an unfair method of competition and an unfair trade practice in violation of section 45(a)(1) of title 15.
(b) Any merchandise mailed in violation of subsection (a) of this section, or within the exceptions contained therein, may be treated as a gift by the recipient, who shall have the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender. All such merchandise shall have attached to it a clear and conspicuous statement informing the recipient that he may treat the merchandise as a gift to him and has the right to retain, use, discard, or dispose of it in any manner he sees fit without any obligation whatsoever to the sender.
(c) No mailer of any merchandise mailed in violation of subsection (a) of this section, or within the exceptions contained therein, shall mail to any recipient of such merchandise a bill for such merchandise or any dunning communications.
(d) For the purposes of this section, “unordered merchandise” means merchandise mailed without the prior expressed request or consent of the recipient.
(Pub. L. 91–375, Aug. 12, 1970, 84 Stat. 749.)
Most I ever got was an extra box of supplements.
@zbinks TL;DR they didn't "let her keep it" as some Christmas miracle, that was simply her basic rights as a human being and customer/recipient of mailed goods.
Had anyone else received 6 switches purchased anywhere in the US, but only actually ordered 1, they'd get to keep them as well.
@Blizzia Either way I'm happy for her.
It's not a Christmas miracle as made to be by the Target company, but the accident itself is pretty lucky. Even if I do hate old people, I'm happy for her
She used to be simply old, now she is OLED!
…I’ll get me coat…
Six OLED?! Wow! Now I hope she doesn’t have like 15 grandkids, cuz that’d be awkward 😅 lol thanks for sharing @NintendoLife 😊
I got a free order (laser tag kit and a truck) for my kids the other day because Target thought I didn't pick it up. My wife said she wished it was the SWOLED. Lol
Target employees, regardless of employment level, do not show up at someone's house!
And here most of my orders at target wind up having items missing...
Those warehouse workers suck...
@AzzyC For sure - the important bit is just that we don't fall for the bs media spin.
This isn't a miracle bestowed upon a lucky person by the charitable Target, it's simply law.
That she accidentally got 6 is a miracle, but whoever sent her those 6 is probably having a bad Christmas as they no doubt got fired.
And Target shouldn't get any positive PR from something that is basically required of them. They had no say in the matter, and they took no actions to deserve the praise.
And here it cost me $420 just for the Switch OLED tablet and joycons. No dock or AC adapter, lol
Bit harsh on the 5 people who missed out on their orders...
was recently gifted not one but six Nintendo SwitchES
Switches is the plural of Switch
How were the shipped? We're they in a box addressed to her? Those things can affect whether she could hav kept them regardless
To the above commenters who are pointing out it was her right to receive and keep unordered goods… this is a nice story to read at christmas. Let’s just leave it at that shall we. I got a good kick out of it anyway.
Smells like Target advertising itself before the Holidays to me.
@Spider-Kev They do if Corporate sends them.
How did the commercial go? "Now you're playing with CHARITY."
In unrelated news I just found out that I am this woman's long lost grandbaby. So gimme a Switch!
@Silly_G they definitely did this for the PR, lol. Maybe they didn't plan it all from the start (how could they have known this woman would have a bunch of grandkids to give the Switches to?), but I bet when they found out the situation, someone realized this would be an easy free advertisement opportunity for a retail giant smack dab during holiday shopping.
I had this same thing happen except I got 6 apple series 7 watches. I ordered one and the day I got the delivery I wondered why the box was so large and heavy. I was convinced someone stole the watch and put a brick in it. But nope seems like they have people packing that don't know what they are doing and sending out whole boxes instead of one item.
I once made a big purchase of games, a decent Samsung tablet and other stuff only to receive a box full of some security cameras. I took it back whereby I explained what happened so I had to organize a resend of what I actually ordered.
Although I didn't get to keep those wrongly shipped items I imagine someone is else got a nice package and I have no idea if they also did the decent thing of returning it.
That's awesome for her!
Yet here I am, waiting for mine to arrive from Gamestop via FedEx and it's more than a week late. Yay for the holidays...
And Hopefully those Switches weren't others PreOrders and waiting for them that would be the worst thing that could happen as well. Because I think the backstory is some of those were probably Target customer preorder and now Target has to explain why they are missing their PreOrder for Xmas presents.
Nintendo once sent me two packs of colored Wii remote straps from the old Nintendo rewards program back in the day!
Good for her! That's a really awesome story.
Something similar happened to me a while back; my grandmother and I ordered some Joy-Con for my birthday and GameStop accidentally sent her two pairs of them. Easy birthday gift for my brother, haha.
To everyone saying she "legally could keep them" yes, perhaps, but can, and ethically should are two different things. It's someone else's property inadvertently conferred to her by mistake. Legal technicality says she can keep it without repercussion. Ethical behavior however says keeping 6 expensive objects on the down-low that are in scarce supply and high demand that only made it into your possession by mistake shouldn't qualify for "finders, keepers" and should be returned to the real owners.
Which this lady did try to do. Which is what makes it a nice story, that the company officially declined to have it returned and officially gave them to her, no guilt-strings attached.
Too bad things like that can't happen more often
Removed - inappropriate
@ModdedInkling mario??!!!?
@NEStalgia yes, but have you considered that nobody wants the Switch OLED and it's terrible?
I would have just returned them for gift cards, much more useful considering her age
@Arckadius
Hahahhahaha man i felt that comment 😂😂
good marketing
now i know why I haven't been able to find one!
I have a Switch, my best friend and I both have a Switch Lite, and my brother and cousin both have a Switch, so I'd keep one and give my mother my original Switch, one to my best friend, so he can give his Switch Lite to his brother, one to my step-cousin, one to my cousin so he can give his Switch to his girlfriend, one to my brother so he can gift his Switch to his fiance, and mail one to my other cousin.
@Blizzia “basic rights as a human being”? How is it a basic right to keep something mistakenly sent? Looks like it’s a law but not a right. You should have the right to get something back if you sent it by mistake.
Other than that, yep, no kudos to Target on this one but free PR. I do see NEStalgia’s point of view however.
Wow ***** hell lucky her. Why doesn't lucky things like that happen to me 😭still chuffed for her.
Grandma is now selling them on eBay to fuel her bingo addiction.
@Magrane I didn't write the law, so I'm not going to answer your question on why it is the way it is. The law makes it your right. Simple as that.
@Clark2k Particularly after getting run over by a reindeer!
So we have to ask what is Target doing now to replace those other that are waiting for their OLED units? Letting her have them is one thing but how are they going to fix their *((&(&(& mistake???? Notice how quiet Target is on that one because the preorder people are probably slamming Target CS and asking where is my Order and if you can give ours to hers why can't you gets ours to us????
@Blizzia when you added the adjective “basic” and the description “as a human being”, you made it sound like it was comparable to drinking water…….but hey, we are all masters of our narrative. I definitely do not see in the same realm as a human right 🙂
@Blizzia I don't see how the law would stop someone from voluntarily returning the item(s). Target could have taken them back since it was at her request, which would qualify as discarding as she sees fit.
I would love to get my hands on the new switch. I still have the first switch that bought at Toys R Us when most stores were sold out after the first couple of months. I got that and bought Mario kart 8 as my first game. I have a library now totaling 104 games and is still growing.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...