Buyer Beware

 I have had a couple of Ah--Ha moments regarding money in the past couple of months.

First, I saw an ad for a

Pre-lit Artificial Christmas Hanging Basket - Flocked with Mixed Decorations and White LED Lights - Frosted Berry-BUY TWO, FREE SHIPPING

• I think the ad was on Facebook and it popped up several times, each time drawing my interest.  I finally gave in and order two of the baskets.  I imagined them looking very pretty on my front porch.  I placed the order on October 31, 2021.  
• Listed below are the updates for shipping, and as of today, they have not yet arrived.  I am now assuming that the origin of these baskets is somewhere in Asia.  As you can see, they had to travel by air for part of their journey.  It will surely be interesting to see what condition the baskets are in and if they have any resemblance to the photo above.  I'll keep you posted.
• Arrival at Regional Sorting Center

  Dec 16 2021 04:24 am

• Arrival at Transit Sorting Center

  Dec 16 2021 04:24 am

• Arrival at Destination

  Dec 14 2021 10:47 am

• Arrival at Processing Center

  Dec 14 2021 10:47 am

• Arrival at the Destination

  Dec 03 2021 06:34 am

• Handed over to the Carrirer

  Dec 02 2021 06:22 pm

• Received by the carrier

  Dec 02 2021 03:05 pm

• Flight Departure

  Dec 02 2021 08:04 am

• Handed over to the Carrirer

  Nov 20 2021 06:04 pm

• Dispatched from Office of Exchange

  Nov 12 2021 11:10 am

• Depature from Local Sorting Center

  Nov 09 2021 06:05 pm

• Package Received

  Nov 09 2021 04:09 pm

I have sent an email to the vendor asking for help tracking down this order.  I'm not very optimistic about a delivery before Christmas, if ever.

Secondly, I had a mix up with PayPal Credit.  

It was a confusing mystery until today.  I have this card but rarely use it.  I got one of those notices that said use it or lose it, so I used it to buy a couple of small items.  I assumed I had been making automatic payments using electronic bill pay through my bank, but they were not received nor credited to my account.  Today, with the help of PayPal customer service, we determined that I was sending my payment to the old company.  PayPal Credit has been sold to Synchony, my payments were going to Comminity.  Supposedly, the old company forwards these payments, but that has not happened in my case.  

I was probably notified of this change, but it didn't occur to me that my EBillPay would have had the wrong address.  Now that is cured, the missing payments have been credited to my account, the late fee waived and I only have to discuss with my bank to provide some needed documentation.  

It was a good reminder to me to pay closer attention to my accounts. 

It all comes back to that word 'assume'.  It can get you in trouble.

A little addendum...now as if by magic, those checks are showing up at the correct location.  One had been returned to the bank and was destroyed by the bank.  When I considered stopping payment on the 2 missing checks, I learned there is a $32 per check fee involved.  So, that made no sense.  Anyway, it appears that these checks have made their way to the right place, and all is well.  Crazy.

Closing in on Christmas now.  

Barley is mildly interested in the tree.