Your best & worst of online Christmas shopping

[ChrisinNJ]

Best, wasn't even a Christmas gift, Drugstore.com. Placed an order at 8:30pm and it arrived at 5pm the next day!

Also great, Walmart.com

Took a while: Target

Disappointment: Disneystore.com Ordered an Alex and Ani birthstone bracelet, came in without the Mickey charm. Called, was told to keep it and they would send another. Got a call the next day that it was sold out and they didn't know when it would be back. Was issued a $30.00 electronic gift card to replace it.

Worst: Alex and Ani Took them 12 days to ship my items, they should be here on Tuesday

 

[jam217]

Best -- Amazon...hands down…Love my Prime shipping. I said to my son that if the drones were flying, they'd have been landing at our house multiple times a day.

Worst -- LL Bean…ordered a $200 dog bed on Dec. 13 which was in stock. On Friday, it was "still processing.'' I called to cancel it because I was just going to order one on Amazon. The operator put me on hold and then told me the bed was shipping that day from one of their vendors. What a coincidence! I asked where the vendor was located and she couldn't tell me. A few hours later, the shipping email came through and the bed was in Mass. It's now in Harrisburg only a couple hours away so I'm hopeful it will get here by Tuesday. When mostly every other company is shipping items in mere days, I don't understand why Bean's orders take at least a week and half to just begin the shipping process.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Also bad .... Target really no precautions to stopping cc info stolen or replacing cards for free???

Off-topic, but yes, of course Target had precautions. The thieves circumvented them. The other part of this comment confuses me; what company or bank is charging customers for replacement cards?

Back on topic: Amazon has been great but not excellent because a number of two-day items have taken three or four. Walmart excellent. HSN and QVC typical.

BCOutlet and Haband, not so much. Orders placed beginning of December still not here. Fortunately theyre for me, not gifts.

And a special "awesome" shout out to UPS - which has been here twice already today!

 

[richmond282]

Kohls worst ever. I am never shopping there again.

My 1st order 121$ great! Second order spending 101$ in khols cash great ....

3rd order 35$ 3/4th shipped ... Used 30$ kohls cash .., Then got an email for 25$ coupon due to late items.... (Note they never arrived when I called. They said nope not coming... They did however see the full value was restored to my kohls cash..., after ganging up I realized when they cancelled the 9$ worth of items. They instead charges at Amex .... 21$. Note kohls cash is still now expired).

4th order 30$ used 25$ coupon for "late items" which they are still not ever sending??? And then cancelled 1 of the 4 items again I assume as well outta stock.

I am livid for the wasted 9$ in kohls cash and the fact they just charged my credit card to keep the. 30$ active ..., on expired kohls cash , I might go to the store but waiting about her 45 mins on the phone to talk to a person whose 3rd language is English is. Or worth my 21$ Amex charge or my 9$ wasted kohl cash

you can use expired kohl's cash in the store. I do it all the time.

I guess I was just thinking Christmas gifts, and I didn't buy any from Staples this year, so I didn't include them in my list; but I agree. I love that they have the form you can leave at your door letting them know whether you want them to get a signature or just drop the package. I've always had my items next day, and a couple of times I placed my order pretty late at night.

Staples goes on my best list too.

I despise Staples. I have ordered from them twice ever and both were horrible experiences. The first time I never received my staples rewards or bucks or whatever they are called and I called multiple times. I finally gave up. The 2nd time I ordered batteries cause how can you mess that up? Well, my 2 packs of 24 batteries were shipped in a plastic bag. Both packs came open in the mail so I had 48 batteries rolling around in this plastic bag when it arrived to me. I figured well I'll just go ahead and use them. The 1st 8 batteries i attempted to use were all dead. I will never never use them again.

Worst for me this year was underarmour.com. I received no order confirmation email, no order #, no shipping confirmation. It took forever for them to ship. When I tried to contact them about my order online (which their website says someone will contact you back within 24 hours) it took over 5 days to get a reply from them. Don't think I will order from them again.

Best: I didn't really have problems with anybody else. I ordered from walmart, amazon, rue la la, cafepress, kohl's, ebay, aeropostle, footlocker, volsnetwork (super fast!) microsoft store (although the actual ordering was a real pain in the backside!)

 

[Poohbug]

Kohls - really bad. Still do not have items ordered 11/22. Will not shop there again.

All the rest have been great. Amazon, Target, Walmart, QVC.

 

[gncntry]

Best: Amazon
Middling: Target
Worst: Kohls

 

[CarouselOfProgress4]

Best: Disney - I had no complaints. It was fun shopping and items received very quickly.

Worst: Amazon - Although I always have decent service from Amazon I had a damaged item, they resolved the problem well, and another problem with being sold out of an item.

 

[StephMK]

Best - Amazon & Virgin Mobile - another fan of Amazon Prime. We love the streaming & I buy as many gifts from Amazon as possible. So easy & most of the time, great prices that are better than elsewhere. I've gotten everything I ordered very quickly.

Great - Target - good shipping and love the Redcard & pharmacy discounts but product availability was out online for several items I might have ordered.

Worst but not horrible - JCP - sent to store & took far too long to get a notice to pick up, plus colors of the curtains & pillows so different in person. I do not have this issue w/other stores so I feel that it's their issue.

Kohl's - cancelled part of my order for 2 rugs with a great discount code & sale. Then they came back in stock 2 days later. I did end up getting them anyway but had to go to my store so I didn't have to pay shipping. On the plus side, they did let me keep my Kohl's cash for originally spending $50 before they cancelled the rugs.

Worst - my mom's order of a sweatshirt for my DD. It was through some sorority company. She ordered it in early November and has yet to receive it. She has gotten the round around & lied to by one rep but found out after hounding them that it will get mailed now.

 

[CarouselOfProgress4]

Oh my goodness that sounds like an ordeal with your mother. I hope she recieves her item soon! That's why I always try to stay with big box sites or big online only stores

 

[momto2inKC]

Best- Target and Amazon...both shipped very quickly with every order I placed.

Worst- Best Buy...3rd year in a row they've sold us items they didn't even have in stock on BF. We won't waste out time anymore with BB online. Same issue with GameStop and the Disney Infinity figures.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

Best Wal-Mart and Amazon - no worst.

Order from Amazon arrived right when they said it would.

The orders from Wal-Mart arrived at site to store early and the one I ordered on 12/17 was going to arrive "by" (according to Wal-Mart) 12/23 or 12/24 - it arrived last night 12/21 ! and that was coming from CA with free shipping. I think they went all out this year!

All orders were correct exactly what I ordered and undamaged. Very happy!

 

[mrsklamc]

Off-topic, but yes, of course Target had precautions. The thieves circumvented them. The other part of this comment confuses me; what company or bank is charging customers for replacement cards?

Exactly

 

[bigbabyblues]

I didn't have any "worst" this year, except one thing that was my own fault. I was looking for headohones for DH on Thanksgiving night. I found exactly what he wanted on Amazon, but i didn't order them because I didn't have my purse and didn't want to ask DH for his debit card at that time. I took a picture of the page with my phone and was planning to order them when i went back to work. Of course, when I got back to it, they were sold out. I couldn't find that particular pair anywhere else online. I assume since they were so inexpensive, they were discontinued.

Other than that, it was great shopping! Everything I ordered came within 3 days. I ordered several things from Amazon, Peebles, and Rockler woodworking.

 

[Green Tea]

Best: Amazon (always!), Target, Old Navy

Worst: JCPenney. Navigating their site is like having teeth pulled.

JCP has been a problem for me as well. Forgot them with my ranting about nomorerack.com. Their website is a mess. I returned one item to the address provided and after a month still no refund. When I called they said that was expected since it had to be sent from OH to someplace else. Why didn't they just provide that address to begin with. Crazy company.

 

[jme829]

Best...Cafepress. I ordered a sweatshirt for dd14 and they sent the wrong size. I requested a return ( well, exchange) request do I could exchange it after Christmas knowing I wouldn't get a replacement in time. I received an email back that since it was their error, they would send me a new shirt at no cost PLUS they told me to keep the wrong one. I not only received the new shirt in time for Christmas, it arrived 2 days earlier than they said it would!

I haven't had any bad online experiences.

 

[CarouselOfProgress4]

My college age nephew works at a local CafePress and he was telling me about how busy they have been. The branch he works at has did not hire enough employees for the season and are now suffering for it. He says its a fun place to work though!

 

[Lita]

I got the idea for the best & worst from another thread complaining about slow shipping. I only have a worst. Nomorerack.com was awful with shipping. I will never order from that site again. Amazon is always good so I guess I will give them my best. Who stood out for you?

I love Amazon! I thought about Nomorerack, but may not buy from them. I may try out a small purchase with them.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[3boymthr]

My worst is actually UPS - why? They left over $500 in packages at my neighbor's house. Luckily she was honest and called me.

On the actual online retailer front I'd have to say Kohl's. They shipped very slowly and never sent any notices on when the stuff was shipped.

My best this year is actually a retailer that most others probably will never use - airrattle.com. They are an airsoft guns and accessories retailer. I bought the items at about 1:30 PM, got free "standard" shipping for spending over $100, and they literally arrived by 10 AM the next morning. I also got a free airsoft pistol for spending over $60 and if I'd paid attention I could have also had a free T-shirt (even tho this was advertised in several places "just add the size you want to your cart" I forgot to add the shirt to my cart so they didn't send it).

My second best would be LL Bean. I got a LOT of mileage out of their $10 off coupons

 

[3boymthr]

Best...Cafepress. I ordered a sweatshirt for dd14 and they sent the wrong size. I requested a return ( well, exchange) request do I could exchange it after Christmas knowing I wouldn't get a replacement in time. I received an email back that since it was their error, they would send me a new shirt at no cost PLUS they told me to keep the wrong one. I not only received the new shirt in time for Christmas, it arrived 2 days earlier than they said it would!

I haven't had any bad online experiences.

My college age nephew works at a local CafePress and he was telling me about how busy they have been. The branch he works at has did not hire enough employees for the season and are now suffering for it. He says its a fun place to work though!

My friend ordered from Cafe Press on 12/9 and was told guaranteed christmas delivery. After many delays, many notices that the items would be shipping the next day then a notice saying her item had been delayed again, she finally got thru to them on the phone. Her items aren't going to arrive until January. She is sooo

 

[Jedana]

Best--I'm going for a tie between Amazon and Walmart. (I know, ...) I haven't waited on a single thing more than a week for either company; everything has arrived packed neatly and in great condition; and no stress in stores!

You could probably add Gamestop on there, as I ordered DS a tshirt with points, and it came in two weeks.


Worst: Blue Box Tees. I will never order from them again. I get they are a small company, but if you say your shipping by xx date, then you need to ship by xx date....or if there is a problem, you need to answer your emails or FB page or Twitter feed. Small companies have to work harder to get--and keep--customers...and they failed. Six weeks, no shirts, and they fought me about a refund. I had to get the bank involved to get it.