Holiday On-line Shopping Guide

Typically, I do my Christmas shopping on-line. I have found that it is easier for me. I hate shopping due to environmental stressors and my impatience.

Last year 90% of my shopping was done via eBay. There were no issues with shipping, item as described, or broken items. I was pleasantly surprised. It went very smooth. When shopping on eBay, I didn't just go by feedback. I chose local sellers within Michigan. Customer service was amazing. It was easy to get in touch with sellers, on time shipping and excellent products. Shipping on the other hand, was a little steep. I still saved money and my mind.

One problem I ran into last year was with Dick's Sporting Goods. I had ordered a snow board. I paid extra for shipping since it was the 1st week of December. After 14 days on non receipt, I called customer service. Little did I know that this item was shipping from another country. Canada is right next door to Michigan. Even with customs it shouldn't have taken that long. I waited another week. Still no snow board. Tracking was awful. My package went from an estimated deliver time of 8 days to the 1st week of January once the tracking number was updated. I was irritated with this. On-line stores should tell the customer where their product is shipping from. That way the consumer has a choice. The snowboard did arrive. The day before Christmas. Close call.

This year, I decided to do more in store shopping. Mainly to help stimulate local economy. Michigan is in a bad financial blunder.

However, I did purchase from eBay and Target on-line. Very disappointed.

I placed my internet order with Target the 3rd week of November. All items were in stock, and would ship within 3 days of cleared payment. That, in my opinion, is ample enough time to get an item before Christmas. NOT!

I placed an order for the following items: 1 first act guitar, 2 guitar stands with picks, 1 set of Sony earphones, and 2 guitar straps. Payment was deducted from my debit card that day. I paid approx 30 in shipping. Extra for expediated. The guitar showed up 2 days later. However, the others were not yet shipped. According to Target's website, all items were in stock.

I receive an email notifying me that the others would ship seperatly. They would ship within 2 business days. Three days later, another email notification. My Sony headphones would be shipped. Estimated deliver date was January 2nd!

I decided that I would contact customer service and cancel the remaining order. No such luck. Customer service does not exist with Target. The closest thing you can get is the automated, voice sensitive system. No real operators. There is not even a prompt to get you to live support. The only option available is to track an order, and feedback. I tried, unsuccessfully, 4 different options to get a real person. I went so far as to call the credit card number hotline. No dice. I called a local store, no dice. Not one person ( real) could assist me, cancel my order, or tell me why my items would all arrive after Thanksgiving.

Target is a great store. There on-line store is terrible. I will never do business with them on-line again.

Before placing an order on-line here are some basic tips:

1. Make sure to check out the stores Contact Us link. If they do not offer a number, don't waste your time. If the store does offer a 1-800 number. Call it first to make sure that you are able to talk to a real person.

2. Estimated delivery times are just that. Target doesn't get rated for shipping time like eBay sellers do. Target's sales won't be devastated if you never do on-line shopping with them again. Small eBay sellers depend on you.

3. Do your on-line shopping well in advance in case something like this comes up.

What angers me the most is the email I received this morning. Target sent me notification of free shipping. If I make a purchase before Friday of this week, the items are garunteed to get to my door before Christmas!