Ice Cream Cone-undrum

January 22, 2017 2:44 PM

This is an entirely different kind of "should I eat it?" question. Two pints of gourmet ice cream were delivered to my house on Wednesday evening, packed in dry ice. But! They are not for me, but the previous resident. Sno-coneflake inside.

I bought a house in October that was occupied by tenants. Their lease expired in mid-December and we moved right in afterward. Mail forwarding seems to be in full effect, but we came home on Wednesday night to a box of fancy ice cream, addressed to previous tenant. Since I knew it wouldn't survive sending it back, I unpacked it, put it in the freezer and emailed them to let them know. I haven't heard back.

I do have their forwarding address. Should I bring it to them? Should I call the company to let them know? Or can I just eat it?

posted by pazazygeek to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

Best answer: Call the company, who will probably tell you to eat it and re-send.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 2:46 PM on January 22, 2017 [14 favorites]

Eat it now as advance payment for whatever inevitable damage the previous tenants did (broken outlet, booger wall, etc.) that you shall discover in due time.
posted by Drosera at 3:06 PM on January 22, 2017 [7 favorites]

Wait a full week, then eat if you haven't heard back. Or, alternatively, call the company and let them handle it, then eat. If I lived far from someone, I wouldn't want to bother with the ice cream; if I lived a couple of miles away, I'd probably stop by and get it, politely offering a pint to the receiver.
posted by Frowner at 3:12 PM on January 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

(srsly tho, the company will probably tell you to go ahead as: shipping it back and forth is more expensive than the ice cream (and it will melt) and free sample/advertising)
posted by sexyrobot at 3:40 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

I would wait until Wednesday, one week after you received the box, before figuring out what to do. If you haven't heard back by then from the previous tenants, then you can contact the company to see what they think.
posted by sockermom at 4:21 PM on January 22, 2017

You are way overthinking this particular plate of beans. Enjoy the ice cream if that's your thing. It's a perishable item and would not survive a reship (and even if it did, most people would look askance at getting an opened food product forwarded to them from strangers).
posted by killdevil at 4:54 PM on January 22, 2017

Best answer: BEST QUESTION!
For sure call the company, and I agree they are most likely to tell you thank you and to eat it! Why wait a week? (Also, if they don't tell you to eat it - even though I really think they will tell you to eat it - I am very sorry and you can send me a MeMail and I will send you an ice cream something if you are very sad*.)

*This offer expires in two weeks. Unless you're REALLY sad, even about something else.
posted by Glinn at 5:03 PM on January 22, 2017 [16 favorites]

This happened to me, in that an edible treat sent to me showed up at my old address. Oddly, I received an email that it was coming, and when it never showed, I called the company and found out they had my old address (my brother never updated his address for me). I said, "What do I do?" They said, "We'll let them know to go ahead and eat it, if we hear from them, and we will ship you a new package."
posted by routergirl at 10:41 AM on January 23, 2017

We get a Junior's Cheesecake sampler pack every Christmas addressed to the guy we bought our house from 4 years ago. The first year I tried to give it back to the UPS guy, he couldn't take it. I called Junior's Cheesecakes and they said they didn't care who ate it, they just mail them to the address they're given and couldn't tell me who had sent it. I called the guy we bought the house from and he said he hated those cheesecakes and don't give them his new address. Now my son looks forward to them every December.
posted by hollygoheavy at 3:51 PM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]