Online retailers you've been impressed or NOT impressed with this holiday season

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

Impressed:
AMAZON. I absolutely love Amazon, and have more than gotten my money's worth out of the prime membership. I did have to return a few things this season, and had absolutely no problems doing so.

BEST BUY..Love the free shipping, and everything was shipped within 24 hours!

WALMART..I never pay for expedited shipping, but everything I've ordered has arrived within 2-3 days.

ZAPPOS..Next day, free shipping...can't beat that!

Not-so Impressed:
DISNEY STORE..I placed an order on Thanksgiving, and it was just delivered today. I was really surprised that it took several weeks to get a few things mailed.

 

[Lintasare]

Impressed:

QVC.Com - Ordered a Keurig when it was the Today's Special Value on a Saturday and had it on Tuesday.

Kohls.com - Ordered in Black Friday and had it by the next Thursday

Amazon.com - Ordered in Black Friday and had it Tuesday with Prime

Sephora.com - Ordered on a Sunday and had my order on Thursday

Unimpressed:

Disneystore.com - Took forever to ship two items. I emailed them after a week and a half had gone by and it took them 3 days to respond. And wouldn't you know they responded the day it shipped. Ugh.

 

[4shinystars]

I've been mostly impressed with my online experiences.
trollbeadsjewelry.com is awesome! I ordered on a Saturday night and it arrived Tuesday am! Free shipping, and great customer service.Owners are MaryKaye and Tom Small and are located in Lake Placid, NY. I visited the shop this summer and also had a great experience.
hottopic.com has been good, fairly quick shipping and items I needed in stock.
Sephora.com good discount, shipping not too bad.
BN.com best prices for the books I needed, free shipping.
Threadless.com 40% off and free shipping, love their stuff.
sosohappy.com my dd loves them, and now that hot topic doesn't carry much, it's worth the shipping to order from them.

 

[lilmrsellis]

Most impressed: Sears. My order was ready for pickup (free shipping to store) before the expected date. When I went to the store to get it the system was automated by simply swiping the credit card I charged it on. In about 3 min (there was a timer on the screen) my order rolled out and was stuck in our truck!

Least impressed: I got nothing! I order 99% from Amazon Prime, so it's at my house in 2 days and the 1% was above!

 

[theworldneedscolor]

I surprised everyone is so impressed with Amazon. We have Prime, and it still takes a long time to ship to us. I have been fairly annoyed with them, actually.

 

[Cindy B]

I surprised everyone is so impressed with Amazon. We have Prime, and it still takes a long time to ship to us. I have been fairly annoyed with them, actually.

I agree. We actually cancelled our prime. The Super Save shipping (pre Prime) would take almost two weeks -even though the warehouse was only 45 minutes away.

Past Christmases we were constantly ordering from Amazon. I think I only ordered one thing this year.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

Disappointed in Amazon, yet again. My replacement order has yet to ship & I am a prime member. I will not be renewing.

 

[naomi78155]

So far, so good for everything I have ordered!

Impressed:
Amazon, great prices and super fast shipping, as always
Walmart, super fast shipping and free personalization
J. Crew, super fast shipping
Boden, super fast shipping and great deals
Personalcreations.com, fast and free shipping

 

[PHXscuba]

Impressed:

1. Amazon. Big selection, fast shipping. I ordered most everything from here. My UPS driver may not love me as much for that!

2. Disney Parks merchandise (1-877-560-6477). Technically a phone call not online, but they helped me get a Perry the Playtpus Pillow Pet when everyone else was out of stock (I panic early). They found and sold it to me without a horrendous markup like the one third-party seller I had seen.

3. Shutterfly -- I made a photo book for DH and it came within a week of my ordering.

So-so:

Disney Store -- slow delivery mostly. But good prices for what I wanted

Unimpressed:

K-mart's buy-online-pick-up-in-store -- Cheap slippers, but the time it took me to pick them up wasn't worth what I saved. I remember why I don't shop there.


PHXscuba

 

[ajh88]

I know I already posted once, but I've had a couple of other experiences...just today in fact.

NICE - FedEx - OK, so I know they aren't an online retailer, but I had 2 packages delivered today from Claire's and my street address was off by 1 number. The FedEx guy actually called me on my cell phone to make sure he had the right address (DH was home and had gotten the packages already by the time I got the message). I thought it was really nice that he took the time to call me, although maybe they do that regularly.

NAUGHTY!! - JCPenney - apparently, DH and DD went there on Black Friday to buy something for me. Local store didn't have it in stock and the girl offered to order it and have it shipped to our house. DH has been checking on it for the past 3 weeks. He called them Monday because it hadn't shipped and they said it would be shipping this week. He called yesterday and they told him it would be arriving today (it didn't) and then today, he got a message that his order was cancelled. He had paid in-store with a gift card when he placed the order. He asked the rep how he was going to get his money back - she tried to tell him he hadn't been charged anything yet. Eventually, she told him he would just have to go back to the store to get a refund. What is hilarious though is that he checked the website to see if they showed the item in stock - not available online, but in stock at our local store. They have it on hold for him to pick up tomorrow. Seriously, what a mess. I'm glad I wasn't the one dealing with it! Never again with them.

 

[richmond282]

Impressed:

UPDATE 12/13
Opened up my email account this morning; received an email from E.L.F.: They shipped my order today. To the school address that I asked them not to ship my order to (twice). To the address that I will not have access to after tomorrow. I emailed to complain (phone lines still down), and have not heard anything back; however, there are no returns at E.L.F. So mad. I'll have to replace these items now in order to have my sister's Christmas present in time for Christmas, and I won't even get my money back on the other order. I'm hoping that they acknowledge my complaint and either give me a very good discount on a re-order, or give me my money back (allow a return, perhaps) on the order they shipped to the wrong address. Either way, I will never be ordering from E.L.F. again.

I have had something like this happen before. Just write "REFUSE" on the package when you get back to school and stick it back in the mail. They have no choice but to refund your money if they receive the package back that has been refused.

I've had problems with the online Disney store, although maybe they weren't completely behind it. Most recently I ordered a few things from the site I tracked the package everything was fine until I noticed the package had been marked as received. But I did not receive it! I asked my family and neighbors, no one knew anything. I first contacted Disney store via email got no response. I contacted ups they were no help, just said the package was signed for and received nothing they could do, I felt as though I was fed misinformation and just being blown off. I contacted the store again and was told it was not their mistake. :/ well that's a disappointing loss of money.

I would assume you paid for this with a debit or credit card. I would contact them to get the charge taken off. It most certainly IS Disney Store's mistake and they are responsible for making sure the package gets to you.

 

[Swirly girls]

Amazon has been awesome for me....really fast shipping and sometimes free shipping.

Not impressed with shipping speed from :
Gilly Hicks placed order thanksgiving weekend, it arrived yesterday.
Hollister placed order thanksgiving weekend, and it's scheduled for delivery Monday.
Amazon, I love the products I have ordered, but shipping on some stuff didn't qualify for free, in fact with some things, the shipping was more than what I bought! Too high shipping costs in my opinion. And, it's takn plenty long to arrive considering what I bought.

Impressed with: Ugg, and Vera Bradley.

 

[LadyBeBop]

Impressed:

Macy's: Ordered sheets from them, received them within a week.
Victoria's Secret: Ordered a bridal shower present from them, got it within a week.
Best Buy: Again, got my order within a week.

Semi impressed:

Amazon. I'm not a member of prime. Usually, I get my super-saver items within a week. However, my two orders each took about nine days. I'll cut them slack...it's the holidays. I'll order from them again...possibly even this year.

Not impressed, however it's minor:

Disney Store. Somewhat slow. Also we ordered personalized Minnie ears for my DGD, and they weren't personalized. Haven't had the opportunity to ship them back...I still have the receipt. Time isn't of the essence though...it's for our Disney trip next fall.

Not impressed:

Groupon. Ordered a refurb Nook from them. Took nearly a month to get it. And this is the second time I ordered something from them, and the shipping is slow.

Not impressed, and pulling out my hair:

UPS. I knew I was receiving a package from Amazon one day, so I wasn't surprised to see the package. However, DH wondered "Where's my package?" It seemed he ordered some medicine, and was having it shipped overnight by UPS. After a half hour of calling UPS and the online pharmacy, we got a phone call from our neighbor the next block over. UPS delivered the package there instead of our house. Ugh.

 

[AngieMouse86]

Been impressed with Amazon, as usual. I'm a Prime member but this close to Christmas I tend to stick with ordering things "Ships from AND Sold by Amazon", to cut down on any potential third-party slowness.

Thoroughly unimpressed with Cost Plus World Market. I placed an order yesterday for a few mini coffees and a shawl. All these items said "In Stock", on their product page and throughout the order process. Checked out, card was charged in full, got me email confirmation. About an hour after that I got a Backorder Notice, that the shawl was not available and they'd let me know when it was, charge my card then and ship it.

Well, 1) they already charged me for it and 2) the same shawl still shows "In Stock" online! I only ordered from them because they had a free ground shipping promo and I figured it was an easy way to get this 1 gift out of the way, but now I don't even think I'll have it in time for Christmas. Emailed customer service, so we'll see what they say. It's not a big charge or anything, just the principle; I wouldn't have even bothered if I knew it was on backorder.

 

[christygobar]

LIke most of you, I am Amazon Prime so I never have a problem with them and they are a cut above the rest.

I usually never count on ANY Zulily purchase to make it to me in less than 3 weeks. I've just learned and I'm fine with that because the deals are usually good. However, I was super impressed earlier this week when I ordered from their KidKraft sale and the toys arrived the NEXT DAY. It helps that KidKraft is a Dallas company and it just went across town, but that seriously never happens on Zulily. So color me impressed.

I was not so impressed with Crocs after their Black Friday deal. Good deal (B1G1), but 2 1/2 weeks to receive. I'm sure it was a backlog, but still.....

Also, just having overall issues with Fedex. I ordered Shutterfly 2 day shipping and now it's 5 days later and Fedex still has it. They only just tried to deliver it yesterday, but that's still 4 days on a 2 day shipping.

 

[Planogirl]

I'm not an Amazon prime member but I haven't had any problems with their shipping. I do avoid the third party retailers like the previous poster. Plus Amazon's customer service is just a joy to work with if something does go wrong.

 

[delmar411]

Amazon has been good as usual and shipped in a way that ensured the electronics I ordered from them did not get delivered when we weren't home.

American Girl was awesome as the doll I ordered through the $50 sale ended up being stolen off our front porch in the middle of a Saturday morning and when I discovered the tracking said delivered, they immediately processed a replacement order. This was a gift for someone else's child so a huge relief that they were so wonderful about getting that replacement out right away. I received the replacement doll today.

Walmart has been quick to ship this year too so that was impressive.

I haven't had any issues with orders processing or being cancelled this season. The most issues I've had is with B&M stores!

 

[SCDisneyMom]

Impressed:
Amazon
Forever 21
Toms
Nordstrom...Most impressive this season. I chose the cheapest shipping option and my items still arrived within 3 days.
Keds
footballfanatics.com
soul-flower.com
modcloth.com

Not impressed:
Old Navy...I will probably never order online from them again. It took nearly a week for my order to be processed, and once it finally shipped it took forever to arrive.

 

[cheap traveler]

Impressed:
Amazon - If I ship to my house, my deliveries are usually the exact date they estimate, BUT if I ship to work (to keep away from prying eyes) I get the items 3-4 days faster! I am 1 zip code over from a new Amazon test-market, where people can get their orders the next day via the USPS, and it seems to be speeding up my deliveries as well.

Old Navy - ordered my girls new winter coats, shipped for $5 and arrived very quickly (and the package wasn't handed off to the post office, so it was actually at my door when I got home)

Unimpressed:
my Half.com order took forever to arrive, but that is the individual seller, not the site. It arrived the same day I decided to email the seller, luckily BEFORE I emailed.

Walmart - store pickup is always 2-3 weeks for me, though I know the item could be there the next week (or may even be in stock.) I deleted my shopping cart twice after seeing the pickup date. I also HATE my local store, so I rarely go there anyway, so this just saved me I guess.

And thank you to everyone for the heads-up on Kohls.com. I have never ordered from them, and now I know not to if I'm in a hurry! I did try to order something 2 weeks ago at the kiosk in the store, but the item was out-of-stock online just like in-store.

 

[Jedana]

So far, Barnes & Noble and Amazon are on the nice list. We'll see if Amazon stays there..I have packages due early next week.

Naughty: Twinings. I ordered some free samples in September. I still haven't received them. Yes, they are free...but if I like them, I would order some. I usually order Chai and Earl Grey, from them, because I can't get them here at the local grocery. (could probably find them in Jax, but I spend less on shipping than I would on gas, so it works for me)