Undelivered

[Opti]

"Personally, I have NO sympathy for people whose stuff did not arrive as scheduled. There is NO reason to wait for the last second and count on overnight delivery. The amount they probably saved was probably eaten up by the delivery charges"

While some are choosing to assume the problem is all because people
ordered late. I don't. I don't know if I've ever paid extra for expedited
delivery. Many of my catalogs have must order by day X to be delivered
by Xmas Eve and that includes the category of paying standard delivery
charges and needing to order usually two to three weeks before Christmas.

Some companies give themselves huge shipping windows. I have seen
things like 6 to 8 weeks, so I'm not roasting anyone, and if they are
willing to pay lots extra and order late - isn't that supposed to be a great
boon and money-maker for the companies involved? I'd be mad if I paid
lots of extra money to guarantee delivery in time and it didn't happen.
Getting a refund on the extra charges would help, but not that useful
if you or your gift recepient was in the area for just a day. Not common,
but I can think of several scenarios that would cause the orderer additional
time and money to get the gift now to the recepients address. I think I
have flown in Christmas Eve once and flown out the morning after Christmas
so there would be no deliveries in that time period. I also used to drive from
NJ to IL and when married to WI as well. I only stopped at friends in Indiana usually
on the way in, so had they bought me a gift and it didn't arrive in time the
only option would be to send it to NJ.


(Who's going to like *my* post? )

[bean29]

Count me as one of the idiots who thought if the Merchant "Guaranteed Delivery" by Christmas that they would deliver by Christmas. 

My Son Asked me on Friday December 20th to Order a coat for his GF for Christmas and go in with him on it.    Eddie Bauer was the one that set the order by date.  Bad weather in the Midwest, Meh, yeah we had a storm on Suday but that is normal and expected in Dec in WI.  We have the equipment to clean the roads and get to work.  Around here if we have a major storm you are still expected to show up for work, you can come in a few hours late, but the city does not shut down.  if we shut down for bad weather we would hibernate in winter.

So I placed my order Friday and after we cleaned our driveway on Sunday, DD and I went shopping.  I was standing in the store looking at one of the items I ordered, but it never occured to me that I would not get it by Christmas, so we left.

I did not buy anything else for the GF.  The other 2-3 items I ordered were not really needed as X-Mas gifts.  So when I called an complanined that I did not get my "Guaranteed Delivery by X-Mas package" they gave me $10 off my order.  My order was $500 so that comes out to 2%.

PS.  I on-line order from EB all the time.  I am short and they carry Petitie sizes on line but not in the store.  I just expected them to deliver as promised.  I expected something like 20% off for the failed delivery.

I am very dissatisfied.  I won't trust their X-Mas delivery promises in the future but I will continue to purchase stuff from them.

[Tennesseer]

Dec 27, 2013 13:24:04 GMT -5 Opti said:

(Who's going to like *my* post? )

I 'Like'd your post only because it was begging to be Like'd.

Bottom line -  if you wait until the very last minute to order and expect delivery the following day, Christmas Eve day, you may be disappointed. Who knows what type of delays and the reason why the delivery companies may have.  Not all the packages delayed were due to last minute ordering, but many were.

[grits]

I do not know where people get their info that the post office was way behind but they weren't. People were told to mail priority mail by a certain date. After that date it added 1 to 2 working days for delivery. Sunday, the day you mailed it, and holidays are not working days. For example, if you ordered something from New York, and it was mailed on December 23rd, the 24th was working day one, 26th working day two, and the 27th was working day 3. Today I delivered just such a package. 

A lot of online retailers were promising people that if they ordered by X date, it would be guaranteed by Christmas.  Well, UPS could not handle the volume.  Evidently the weather combined with inadequate seasonal help caused the problem.  The post office hired back former workers as seasonal help.  You had temps coming in at 6:30 am to be on the street before 7 am.  They did great help in delivering packages.

Tuesday of last week, you could have built a small house out of the packages I delivered.

Also, I have no problem with UPS. I have had a problem with FedEx.  Their driver didn't even come to my door one Christmas eve.  They left solid gold earrings outside the closed apartment managers door.  Thankfully, I walked down and found them.

Lest you think the post office won't take a kick in the teeth, every time the public gets mad at the government, they attack the post office.  If stamps go up one penny, they scream bloody murder.

[Artemis Windsong]

Thank you for delivering Grits.  I agree, people need to plan better.

A lot of people who paid extra for the delivery from Amazon will get their money back for the extra shipping.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Online retailers being dishonest about actual delivery times while chasing the almighty dollar.. what is the world coming to?