Retailer Stars, Good Enoughs and Duds This Holiday Season

[maxiesmom]

The biggest problem is that I returned an item that earned Kohls cash. So I only got a $10 refund for a $25 item, because I "unearned" the KC (which I already spent). Ok, that's fair. But I asked what would happen if I had to return an item I purchased using the KC. I should get the full refund in cash back, right? Because they just converted my Kohls cash to ACTUAL cash by keeping my $15. Nope, I won't get a full cash refund, because I paid with KC. And the employee acted like I was being so difficult or trying to pull one over on Kohls. I'm not trying to come out ahead, but if I return EVERYTHING I bought, I should recoup all the money I paid. Instead, at best, I'd get most of my money and some store credit (Kohls cash for a future purchase).

The way to make it make more sense is to think of Kohls Cash as a coupon. It was never money you spent, it was a coupon they gave you.

 

[poohfriend77]

The way to make it make more sense is to think of Kohls Cash as a coupon. It was never money you spent, it was a coupon they gave you.

But today they charged me real money for the "coupon" that I already used. I get it, but it still doesn't feel fair. I'll just consider it a lesson learned and spend my money elsewhere next time.

 

[MomToOne]

The biggest problem is that I returned an item that earned Kohls cash. So I only got a $10 refund for a $25 item, because I "unearned" the KC (which I already spent). Ok, that's fair. But I asked what would happen if I had to return an item I purchased using the KC. I should get the full refund in cash back, right? Because they just converted my Kohls cash to ACTUAL cash by keeping my $15. Nope, I won't get a full cash refund, because I paid with KC. And the employee acted like I was being so difficult or trying to pull one over on Kohls. I'm not trying to come out ahead, but if I return EVERYTHING I bought, I should recoup all the money I paid. Instead, at best, I'd get most of my money and some store credit (Kohls cash for a future purchase).

There's a lawsuit in CA about how Kohl's doesn't play even on returns on items where Kohl's cash was earned and spent before the return - here's a good description of the problem: http://couponsinthenews.com/2017/07/11/kohls-accused-of-massive-fraud-in-kohls-cash-lawsuit/

 

[goodeats]

Yes, that's my big pet peeve with Kohl's cash and why I refuse to play their game. Their non-discounted prices are super high so it makes you feel like you got a good deal. They had a hairdryer priced at $40 that I was able to get at Costco for $19.99. I'd much rather just pay Costco (and get my 4% cash back) then deal with using coupons and Kohl's cash at Kohl's.

 

[zoo2tycoon]

Ralph Lauren- ordered Friday arrived today
Amazon- no issues with Prime delivery
Best Buy- no issues with deliveries
Sam’s club- fast delivery no issues
Kohls- slow delivery shipped in multiple shipments for same order- no biggie
Bon-Ton - slow but everything on way also multiple shipments from same order
Williams Sonoma- great in store (Keystone in Indy) staff

So far so good

Now UPS- package goes from CA-KY-CA-TX on way to Indiana

 

[havaneselover]

Re:Kohl’s cash—you definitely need to know how to play the game. I did really well buying an Apple Watch, 12” copper frypan, two sets of dish towels, and large yankee candle for $375 with tax. Got $25 back from Ebates plus $10 rebate on fry pan. So my net price was $340 for a $330 Watch and other items plus I got back $105 in Kohl’s cash and $15 in Kohl’s rewards. Used the Kohl’s cash on stuff coupons don’t work on (Nike sneakers, Nike sweatpants, converse).

My strategy would be not to spend it unless you are certain you won’t return the original item(s) and use it on stuff coupons don’t apply to. But I’m sure a lot of people don’t do this.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Winners:
- Kohl's - Everything arrived. Prices were the best on Vet's Day. No worries burning Kohl's cash (since I didn't earn any). Got a virtually free Food Network 12 inch cast iron pan on Black Friday with the $10 free money. I'm happy.
- Target - Combined the 20% off coupon with the 10% off gift card to do well for my daughter's birthday party (and a few Xmas things) today.
- Best Buy - Everything shipped and arrived perfectly. Very happy all the Lego Dimensions stuff came, since that sold out fast, but I got it and extra $1s off for pick up.
- JCPenney's - 3 coats ordered and arrive perfectly - 1st order I placed with them in years - very happy and may shop again!
- Land's End - great deals on tankinis and pants combined with coupon codes and all shipped and arrived in piece - happy!
- Victoria's Secret - everything arrived and on time - great deal here!
EDIT: - Harry and David's - ordered their early $10 shipped small pear boxes (around Vet's Day period). While I wasn't that impressed by the quality, the other 4 folks who got them were gushing about how great they were...so, $10 gift that was perfect and liked has to be a win for singles and couples who have everything!

Mixed:
- Amazon - 1 late product and 1 totally wrong product - they gave me a benny for the late product, so I'm happy. I've done little Chistmas shopping here, except for gift cards for my mom and the 2 above products...too hard to shop and find any good deals, now that most of my kids have specific toy and item desires. But I am still doing a nice subscribe and save for groceries/personal items, and that should probably go okay...although sometimes their boxing of the s&s leaves something to be desired...
- Bath and Body works - Was annoyed that they canceled 3 bottles in one order without letting me replace them, b/c I would have bought 15 bottles when I was paying shipping even if they were different scents. Other order came as ordered, so mixed...

Man, I haven't shopped many places...most money spent is a tie between Kohls and Best Buy...

 

[Nayan]

My total dud wasn't a store, but Bank of America. I placed orders a Walmart, GameStop and Amazon. Got confirmation emails of my orders and thought all was good. Checked email around two and got notices that they couldn't process my card and to call the bank. So I called and had to approve every purchase I made that day (never had to do that before). I almost lost out on some good deals.

Stars were all those stores mentioned above. Got everything on time.

 

[ullen]

Three major duds: (Normally have great experiences with all of them!)

Best Buy: Ordered two iphones on Black Friday to get their deal. We did not receive one of the phones, instead they shipped an ipad. Had to go to store thinking this would be a simple exchange. But because the phone we never received was linked to our verizon account, I was there over 2 hours to try and straighten everything out. Definitely worst shopping experience ever! After the fact, decided to complain to the overall company (since it was not local store's fault and did the best they could to rectify) and could not get through on phone or chat without waiting for hours. Just not worth it!

Gamestop: Ordered some games through Ibotta to get the extra 20% cash back. Ordered some additional pre-owned games so the shipping was free. For some reason, my credit card got declined. They said it looked like unusual activity and unlocked it for me as soon as I called. I realize that was not Gamestop's fault but then when I called and waited for over an hour to talk to someone, they resubmitted my order. But have no clue what they did. $25 was a gift card with the rest on credit card. They only used $7 something on my giftcard and charged two different transactions on my credit card. And I'm still waiting on the major game I purchased and because of the credit card issue, I never got the 20% cash back.

Target: This is not for the holidays, but used the 20% off coupon I received to purchase a bunch of household items we needed about a week ago. It said it was shipped but it has not moved from ups notified since last week and delivery date keeps getting pushed back. In the meantime, I needed some of those items and had to go out and buy them again. And have received all my other orders from them with no problem. Some even being ordered after this one.

I order alot of things online over the holiday seasons, and most orders have no problems, but this by far has been the worst year. I spent more time on these few issues then I would have just going in person and purchasing the items.

 

[elgerber]

The only real dud I have had this season is UPS! I have had two different deliveries on trucks and out for deliveries, that have gone back to the warehouse and not been delivered. One of them was not delivered until the 4th time! The extra dumb part about that one, it was supposed to be Surepost. It sat in town for two days, without moving, then they said since we are going to be in your neighborhood we will deliver it, instead of giving it to the post office. Then it took 4 days of being out for delivery before they finally brought it. If they would have just given it straight to USPS it probably would have been on time.
I did have one Target order go on backorder, but I was able to get an equivalent item at the same price.

 

[wenrob]

I got my bed bath and beyond shipping notice yesterday and when I click the tracking button it says it should arrive Wednesday. So hopefully you will get yours soon too.

I checked again last night. Says estimated delivery 11/29-12/5 but still says processing. *sigh* They’re Sistema Bakery Boxes. I was hoping to have them when DD starts her cookie baking. It’s not looking like that’s going to happen.

The only real dud I have had this season is UPS! I have had two different deliveries on trucks and out for deliveries, that have gone back to the warehouse and not been delivered. One of them was not delivered until the 4th time! The extra dumb part about that one, it was supposed to be Surepost. It sat in town for two days, without moving, then they said since we are going to be in your neighborhood we will deliver it, instead of giving it to the post office. Then it took 4 days of being out for delivery before they finally brought it. If they would have just given it straight to USPS it probably would have been on time.
I did have one Target order go on backorder, but I was able to get an equivalent item at the same price.

Surepost is THE worst. I think that one would be on your retailer. IMO the definition of Surepost is “we might get around to delivering it to you someday.”

 

[richkaryn]

So what problems are people seeing this year? Who has exceeded your expectations, and who is a hot mess?

My Stars:
- Canon: Approved a return (and even paid for the return shipping!) even though I had opened the box so I could buy a different model that they had a better sale on. And they were nice about it!

Good Enoughs - delivered what I ordered, on the timeline they estimated:
- Staples
- Best Buy
- eBags
- various sellers on eBay

Duds:
- Kohls: shipped a wrong size for something I ordered during the Veteran's Day sale. Ok, things happen. So I called back and got them to replace the order, and AGAIN they shipped the wrong size. They clearly had a SKU issue on the website. That appears to have been worked out now, but the Customer Service folks can't understand how I could possibly expect to place an order for a different SKU (the right one for the size I wanted) at the same price as my original order. They keep trying to say it is a new order because of the new SKU, and they can't give me the discounts I had. The Facebook reps are useless too.
- Amazon: out of 3 orders I placed between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, only 1 showed up correct and on time. I'm still waiting for one item to ship because they shipped the wrong item originally, and what I really ordered was then backordered; today the backorder was extended further. The second package is late being delivered - again. So much for Prime. Their excuse? "It's busy this time of year". Umm...last I checked I was paying for Prime year-round, not just during the slow season. Amazon customer service agents are almost always useless; at least the AMZL phone rep was more helpful, providing more information on just where the package was stuck and being genuinely sorry about the delay (as opposed to most agents who you can tell are just reading from a script). Note my issues have all been with items sold by Amazon directly; marketplace orders not fulfilled by Amazon have all been fine.
- Target: Had a ship to store order where the store didn't process the order after receiving it for 4 days, and then tried to lie about it, even after I told them the website support team had given me the package tracking information and I knew the exact time they received it and even who signed for it! They actually had the nerve to tell me I must not know how to read UPS tracking information. And this was a few weeks before Black Friday, so it wasn't that they were overwhelmed.

Ugh, Kohl's....happened to me with a shirt I ordered for my son. I ordered what was supposed to be a youth small (8) according to the website and it was like a size 4 kids when I got it. So went to return in store so I could just exchange and make sure I get right size (nearest Kohls is an hour in either direction from me). Find out they don't carry that particular shirt in store, but they can order it for me and have it shipped to store for free. I explained that ordering was how I got in that mess in the first place and if I ordered and did that and they sent wrong again, then I had also wasted an hour each way of my time to come up there just to find out it was wrong again. So in the end I ended up just returning the shirt for refund, but I was out the $8 I had paid to ship the stupid thing in the first place. Guess they have sizing/sku issues a lot online.

 

[richkaryn]

Make sure you get your free month of prime for each package that didn’t arrive on time by amazon!

Every time I complain to amazon about my prime packages that don't arrive on time (which is at least 5 times a year) I NEVER get a free month. And it states that you are supposed to in their policy and I even pointed that out to them once and I still didn't get a free month. I wonder what I'm doing wrong.

 

[lovin'fl]

I checked again last night. Says estimated delivery 11/29-12/5 but still says processing. *sigh* They’re Sistema Bakery Boxes. I was hoping to have them when DD starts her cookie baking. It’s not looking like that’s going to happen.

My Bed Bath Beyond arrived yesterday, a day sooner than stated. So they are on my nice list.

 

[elgerber]

Surepost is THE worst. I think that one would be on your retailer. IMO the definition of Surepost is “we might get around to delivering it to you someday.”

Except it was UPS who decided not to give it to the post office and deliver it themselves.

 

[richkaryn]

Stars: Macy's- I had my package 2 days after ordering during a holiday sale (Wednesday before Thanksgiving...had my package Friday).
Walmart.com (they will also fall in dud category, but more on that later). One item I ordered at 11:01pm Wednesday before Thanksgiving was at my house on that Saturday. Super fast!
Target- Had to wait in a line for 5 hours to get a new phone Black Friday. They came around offering free bottles of water, gave everyone in line one of the 20% off coupons that were being given away with a $50 purchase (gave just because we had to wait so long-- we all got another one for actually spending $50+ when purchasing our phones), and just overall did everything they could to make it a more pleasant experience for all of us waiting.

Good Enough-

Duds- Walmart- returned item that arrived Saturday after Thanksgiving because it was a gift for my dad and he had gone out and bought himself same item and opened it already. I printed return form and took item in packaging to local store. The lady processed my return and as I was about to walk away says "Now you have one item coming that isn't eligible for in store returns." (I knew it was the pogo stick as I'd seen this on my account when I'd printed that return form and it was a Santa gift for my son who was standing right there). I immediately said "I know exactly which item that is" and shot her a "don't you dare say it out loud in front of him" look. She continued on "It's the...." My husband and I both said" Shhhh" and were shaking our head and gesturing toward our son and she went on to finish with "pogo stick". Bam! The kid hasn't asked for much this year as he has so much and never plays with half of it, and his bday is 2 weeks before Christmas......so Santa was just bringing that and a kayak. Thanks lady, now he will get the pogo stick for his bday and it's not a surprise and I am stuck coming up with another Santa gift.

Target: Bought Star Wars Christmas pjs for entire family. Bought our normal sizes. I get home to realize that the pants on mine look huge (as in way bigger than my husband's XL pants.) I check tag and they say medium....I try on and they fall back down around my ankles they are so big in the waist. I return them on my way back in to Nashville (target is 45 mins from my house) and go look at what they have left. I look at 2 pairs of mediums and they both have smaller looking waists than pair #1, but both of those have at least an inch difference in the waist as well. I try on this time and find the pair that fits. What a racket!

Old Navy- order took forever to arrive and they don't even give you tracking info, just say that your order has shipped.

Amazon- 90% of what I've ordered prime the past several weeks has taken 4-5 days to arrive. And much of it is that it isn't shipping out until the day after it was already supposed to be to me. And they've never given me a free month when I have complained in past (even after pointing out to them that it is posted in their policies).

Shop Disney-- took forever to ship (and it wasn't a Dooney). But on the plus side there was an extra pin I didn't order in there.

 

[richkaryn]

Star (so far) surprisingly, Walmart ship to store. Final judgment pending delivery of an intact sewing machine and case. I love the new online pickup area separate from the customer service area, it never has a line!

Star as always, Amazon. All items have arrived 2 days or less. I live in Phoenix so I think that helps.

Dud: Google Express. Lost my $20/$50 Amex deal because Walmart "could not fulfill" an item on my order so they cancelled it. Really? I ordered same item myself and picked it up same day! Google is great but will never beat Amazon at the shipping game.

Dud Target for cancelling items on online orders for items they do have in stock! Also waited 30 minutes (once I checked in) for them to find my online order. Offered to shop for it again myself, would have taken 90 seconds! They were mad at the person who put it in the wrong place so said they couldn't do that. Should have just walked away to rebuy and let them cancel that order. 12 people behind me not happy either! That was day before Thanksgiving. Target is also charging my online orders in bits and pieces as they are shipped so it's hard to tell if I've been charged correctly and have to match up each item to my bank account.

Dud Kohl's, as always. No idea why I buy anything from them. Parts of orders cancelled after 5 days. Orders come in one item at a time weeks apart. Customer service line is always a nightmare. Done with Kohl's.

Yes I noticed the charging funny thing with my last order. Odd thing is, it was only one item, and it was $8.51. I have a charge for $5.00 and a charge for $3.03 from target.com in my account though

 

[amyg1975]

Yes, Target with their separate charges is killing me! I thought my account was hacked at first because I had all these charges posting on Monday, but then I looked into it, and it was just each shipment was charged separately!

 

[MomToOne]

The only real dud I have had this season is UPS! I have had two different deliveries on trucks and out for deliveries, that have gone back to the warehouse and not been delivered. One of them was not delivered until the 4th time! The extra dumb part about that one, it was supposed to be Surepost. It sat in town for two days, without moving, then they said since we are going to be in your neighborhood we will deliver it, instead of giving it to the post office.

I just heard a news story that UPS is saying they are ALREADY behind on deliveries. Goodness help them as it gets closer to Christmas! I had one issue with them, where they didn't scan a package that I dropped off at a UPS store after they picked it up. Looks like it was sitting around the local depot for a full day before they scanned it as being there. But eventually they got to it and sent it on it's way. And once it was moving, they managed to catch up to the delivery timeframe (it was a 3-day package)

I personally hate it when they decide to deliver a Surepost item instead of giving it to the Post Office for just the reason you said. I've had the exact same problem happen too, or they just decide not to even put the package on the truck for delivery once they decide to handle it. My post office is great, once the package is in their hands, I know I will get it ASAP, with all the scans done at the correct times. I know lots of people have problems with USPS, but I'm usually relieved to see them handling a package.

Of course, that said, I have one package USPS is handling that seems to be travelling all over the state of California. I think it got misrouted somehow. It's nothing too important, so I'm just waiting it out. Funny thing is it was a package from China via ePacket. It made it from China to San Francisco faster than it's going to make it from San Francisco to Sacramento...

 

[maxiesmom]

There's a lawsuit in CA about how Kohl's doesn't play even on returns on items where Kohl's cash was earned and spent before the return - here's a good description of the problem: http://couponsinthenews.com/2017/07/11/kohls-accused-of-massive-fraud-in-kohls-cash-lawsuit/

I'm sorry, but only an idiot thinks it is really cash. Heaven forbid someone read it so they know and understand the rules.