"'Guaranteed delivery before Christmas' is a dirty lie."

As a mum of three young children with no car and a husband who works long hours, I thought online shopping was going to be my saviour this Christmas.

It’s so simple: order the things, put in your credit card details and they arrive on your doorstep like magic. The wonders of modern life!

It’s all fun and games until a parcel doesn’t turn up… and you don’t realise it hasn’t turned up until you’re wrapping stuff two days before Christmas.

Even worse is when the MIA parcel contains a good portion of your kids’ Christmas presents, and the courier company currently in possession of said parcel basically gives you the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ in response to your queries.

If you’re an online shopper, you’ve probably noticed that in the lead up to Christmas, as the postal system becomes overwhelmed, your parcels are being delivered by myriad different courier companies. This is where my problem currently lies.

A couple of weeks ago I was wrapping the gifts I had already purchased and realised there was an unequal distribution of presents between my kids. Or, my daughter had around 50 bazillion presents and my two boys had one. Between them.

It was meant to make things easier... Image: iStock

Alas, there is one parcel from the order now somewhere in Brisbane with a company which, for the purposes of this article, I’ll call “Couriers No Thank You”. (Post continues after gallery.)

A representative from Couriers No Thank You advised me that the parcel has “an incorrect or insufficient address” and they can’t do a thing about that. Despite the fact they have it, and they also have my correct address.

Amazingly, when I look at the tracking it would appear they have had my parcel in their possession for quite some time, but have not bothered to try to contact either me or the sender to clarify the address (which, given the rest of my order arrived hassle-free, clearly has the correct address).

At the time of writing it is now the 23rd of December, and I’m completely frazzled at the thought of having to attempt to get to the shops tonight in order to complete my Christmas shopping. Because there will be hell to pay when two kids get a Beanie Boo and one misses out.

A quick Facebook search of the term “Couriers No Thank You” shows me I’m not the only one being given the run around by this company.

There's a couple of presents ???? #Santa #christmaseve

A photo posted by Kelly James (@kelly.elizabeth.james) on Dec 24, 2016 at 3:42am PST

One Facebook user wrote on Wednesday, “Do not use [#couriersnothankyou] ... three packages have gone missing in the last week with them and they have fed me nothing but lies and false promises.”

Many more users have written of parcels not turning up, being delivered to the wrong address, and being given the run around from the service when they attempt to follow up.

Next year I’ll be doing my Christmas shopping in January. Hopefully 11 months will be sufficient time for the courier to find my house.

This is an extra stress I just do not need at this time of year.

Listen: The best passive aggressive Christmas presents ever, on This Glorious Mess.