Your best & worst of online Christmas shopping

[wuzzles]

Worst : Macy's. I ordered a NF jacket for my daughter the first day of the friends and family sale. They waited until the last day of the sale to cancel my order. They said the item was out of stock and couldn't be backordered because they had no idea when or if they would ever be back in stock. Within three days it was again listed on their website in the exact size and color but without the sale.

2 Runner ups :

AllPosters.com canceled the poster I wanted but shipped the filler item I ordered to get the free shipping promo.

Walmart : Canceled my order for a Zoomer Dog days after it should have already arrived according to their online date range provided.


As for a best no one really stood out as a superstar for me. I shopped at amazon.com, Legostore.com, Target.com, Kohls.com, Crazy8, and a few other places. Most places shipped what they said they would within the time period they said they would. Target and kohls both took 2 weeks or more to get one of my items to me but they did deliver.

 

[My2Qtz0205]

Best: Zulily.com. I only ordered items that had the guaranteed delivery by Christmas icon beside them. I only had one tiny blip with one of my daughter's presents. It was the last to arrive, and on the website it said that it had shipped with another gift, and had already arrived. I waited it out a couple of days before I panicked, and I believe it arrived last Friday.

Also good: Amazon.com (got my husband's present super-fast, and only did standard shipping), Gymboree.com

Fair: Panstoria. Took quite a while to ship my calendars, and they did not notify me when they did ship them. I had to go to the website to find out where my stuff was.

Worst: Kohls.com. They sent me a confusing email stating they had to change my order, but the purchase order looked exactly the same. Then they sent another email stating the same thing, and one of my doormats had been taken off. No big deal--it was a $3 impulse buy. The rest of my stuff arrived in two separate boxes, on two separate days. No shipping confirmation, so that gave me a little heart attack. When my brother's gift (a village house) arrived, I heard rattling inside the box, so I opened it up to find that the light bulb had broken. I did not think it was worth returning it to Kohl's. I just replaced the light bulb and wrapped it up.

 

[doobie11]

Best: amazon.ca, oldnavy.ca, chapters.ca
Worst: Cineplex and ToysRUs.com
Cineplex forgot part of my order. Their customer service number is never answered and the mailbox is full. I have emailed, but don't expect a response based on the number of complaints about this on their Facebook page.
Toys R Us because I ordered something from the US site, and wanted to call customer service about something. Called the 1-800 number on the US site, and after waiting on hold for over 8 minutes, ended up connected to the Canadian customer service. They couldn't help me because I ordered from the US site, so transferred me to the US one, where I waited on hold an additional number of minutes before I got disconnected. Had to call again, wait on hold, connected to Canadian customer service, transferred to US, waited on hold, disconnected. Had to do it a third time, and I asked the Canadian agent for a direct US number (which i thought I was calling anyway). Apparently it's all the same number, but the system recognizes my phone number as Canadian and puts me through to the Canadian agents, even though I wanted US. Turns out the US customer service could not help me at all (told me to wait for a "read to ship" email before I could call again. The email was sent out at 2 am). so alot of time wasted for nothing.

 

[livndisney]

WORST!!! Toys R Us!

I knew I should not have ordered from them. I "thought" it would be ok since I ordered in plenty of time for items to arrive. I did not count on them sending me the wrong item. On hold with them now (for the second time) since I just got an email saying the item would not arrive until the 26. Even though I was ASSURED the first time I called it would arrive no later than the 24th.

 

[CarouselOfProgress4]

Two negative toys r us reviews! I will say that I placed two separate orders with them they week before Thanksgiving and one about two weeks ago and I received them promptly with no problems. As for the brick and mortar store, I wouldn't step foot inside, it has been around for easily 15 years and is very run down.

 

[xlsm]

I'm adding a "worst" for ToysRUs too.

It was the only place I ordered from online this year. I placed a pretty big order and then added on a bluray of the last two Harry Potter movies. The HP was coming from a different warehouse than the rest of the order, and we got it super fast - within 2 days. I opened it and...it was the dvd. So we sent an email to alert them and they said to keep it and they'd send the bluray, but they couldn't guarantee it would be here by Christmas.

UPS rang my doorbell today and it was the package from TRU. I was so excited it made it in time! I ripped it open andddd....it was another dvd. I couldn't believe it.

DH called them and they refunded us our money and said they were going to do a bin check at the warehouse and then send us the bluray.

So DS will be opening a dvd on Christmas morning and I'm just going to tell him he can't watch it yet. He does know there was a problem with one of his gifts.

Obviously it's not a huge deal, our bluray player will play the dvd, but it isn't what we ordered, so it's an annoyance. I feel silly complaining about it, but I'm sure my face when I opened the SECOND dvd was pretty comical.

 

[julieanddanny]

Best: Amazon, Little Tikes
Slow: Lego, Toys r us
Worst: Kohls!!! After 2+weeks received notice that one item was not available. Second order with $25 coupon made during the 'guarantee' by Christmas timeframe the 18th or 19th I think -hasn't shipped yet. It will not be here.

And our Walmart lost our site to store order - that was nice.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Best Buy is now at the top of my WORST list. I ordered 2 iphones for in store pickup. I signed up for a 7 pm appt. Got there 6:50pm and just got home at 10:25. The clerk was not fully trained and had to ask for help for everything to his coworkers busy with other customers. He had to call ATT to activate each phone and did it as separate calls so waiting on hold for 1/2 hr for each phone. Then finally at 9 we were about to leave when I realized my old phone still worked. Somehow they added a line instead of upgrading my phone. So a 3rd wait on hold with ATT to have the SIM changed to my correct #. Then ATT told him he'd have to call another # to have the additional/incorrect line dropped. omg by then I couldn't help it and went bizerk. I get up at 5 for work and basically inhaled my dinner, left dishes with the kids to run out & spend my entire night at BB simply to pick up 2 phones. And it wasnt' due to waiting in line at all.

All this to save $75 per phone, which only 1 was for me, the other was my mom's. We should have gone straight to the ATT store and we'd have been in & out with no problems. They're always excellent service there.
Thanks for letting me vent. You guys are the best.

Happy Holidays to everyone!!

 

[CarouselOfProgress4]

I think the lack in quality of retail service this time of year is due almost entirely to the seasonal temporary workers. Not saying this is everywhere but when it is present this is probably the reason. Especially at a place like BestBuy, where more experienced knowledge is desirable.

 

[ThisIsTheYear]

Best: Amazon

Worst: Kohls because they shipped my DD's toy in the original box with a big color picture of it on the front! I had to sneak it off the porch and into the garage behind my kids backs.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Best: Amazon

Worst: Kohls because they shipped my DD's toy in the original box with a big color picture of it on the front! I had to sneak it off the porch and into the garage behind my kids backs.

This happened to us last year from other sellers as well. I just happened to have a day off when our ds16's computer monitor arrived with the big pic & Samsung logos all over it. Usually our kids get home from school before we get home from work so they would have easily seen it, brought it inside, etc.
UGH! From now on, I get surprises shipped to my parents' house.

I used to do that for everything but it's sometimes hard to find time to keep going over there & try to keep track of everything, open the packages & make sure the correct items are there. It's never a quick visit there.

 

[dbmarie]

Best Amazon
Worst Dell
I ordered a tablet on Dec. 5th with 1 day shipping still haven't gotten it and on their website it now says I will receive the day after Christmas.

 

[KayW]

I don't typically order a lot online, but took advantage of many of the BF sales and an Amazon Prime trial. All of my packages arrived in early December.

Best customer service Disney Store. My DD got one of the It's A Small World dolls from grandma. Thankfully I ordered it because the veil was ripped. Not something that I could fix. I called yesterday and they kindly said a new one would be shipped, but it may not make it for Christmas. Not a big deal since they said we could keep the other one and donate it to a charity after the new one came. The new doll is already on the truck ready to be delivered TODAY!!!

 

[NYCDiane]

District Lines - Mostly band merch. Excellent experience. Had my stuff in 3 days.


The Animal Resue Site - Excellent. Had my stuff in about a week

Met Museum - Excellent. Had my stuff in 4 days

 

[sk!mom]

Ordered about 90% online...
Best- Amazon (as always) Other retailers could learn from them. Stuff arrives so quickly that I'm pretty sure they should be in charge of Obama Care and anything else we can think of. They know how to get stuff done! And run a website.

Honestly though, Vera Bradley, Think Geek, American Eagle, Victoria's Secret, Jon Hart all delivered as promised.

Worst (and only negative)- Forever 21. 21 days between order and delivery. Unhelpful customer service when I called to check on it. They tried to blame the bad weather but all other orders arrived with no or very slight delays. I ultimately had to go out and purchase a replacement gift as the exchange came before the gift. We then refused delivery. It remains to be seen how long before I receive a credit and I'll be out the shipping charge. Lesson learned, in the future no matter how perfect the gift, I won't order from them.

 

[pandamom]

Lots of Best: Amazon, Think Geek, Toys R Us

Worst: Best Buy!!! Did an online order for store pickup. Part of the order included 2 Microsoft Windows Store gift cards. I was in the store for 45 minutes while they tried to figure out how to activate the cards. They finally "solved" the issue by having the cards shipped. Cards came in the mail a few days later. Gave them to my daughters tonight and both cards came up with activation errors. Called Best Buy and was cold transferred 9 times (had to go over the entire story each time) and was finally disconnected by Microsoft rep. So will have to wait until Thursday to go into the store and try to get this fixed. Big waste of time (1 1/2 hours so far) and kids have to wait to use the gift.

 

[aliceindisneyland]

Best: Amazon Prime order in 2 boxes got here in 2 days ordered on 19th. Worst: Amazon but not fulfilled by Amazon ordered 13th with delivery date of 19th still shows tracking in Texas and we're in CA! Mad scramble to find a different item today was not fun. Lesson learned: order Prime or don't order Amazon!

 

[it's kelly]

Worst goes to NoMoreRack.com. After placing an order on December 2nd with guaranteed delivery BEFORE Christmas my item never arrived. I contacted the company on Christmas Eve at 5:45pm and they assured me it still had time to arrive. Needless to say, it's Christmas morning and the item still isn't here. I've now been promised a refund, let's hope that's better then the guarantee delivery date promise.

 

[imabeimabe]

Worst goes to Toys R Us for sending out the wrong toy and then after saying they would send out what I ordered in time for Christmas they totally lied. I called and informed them I had purchased something totally different than what they sent. Was told no problem, they would ship the correct toy out and it will arrive by Christmas (they had 10 days). It didn't come and when I wrote them on Christmas Eve I got a response that it took 2 days to process and 2 days to ship with their fastest shipping. WTH they had 10 days. It was THEIR screw up. They could care less my kiddo didn't get what I ORDERED and PAID for. They lost me for good. I will never make another purchase from Toys R Us.

 

[djmeredith]

Best: Amazon Prime, I ordered a few last minute items on Sunday Dec. 22 and they all arrived on Christmas Eve as promised. I also ordered other things using Prime and they all arrived within the 2 days promised.

Worst: Game Stop, no communication and very slow arrival.