Hollywood Megastore Online Store

I found this site while searching for a pink star pillow that said "Hollywood" on it. It was a special request for our adopt a family and I searched all over to find it! I was happy to find it on this website and knew I had no other choices if I wanted to get this pillow.

Shopping at the site

While shopping at the site I found quite a bit of cool hollywood things including a ton of Film Accessories, Street Signs, Mugs and T-Shirts. There were a few things that looked cool such as an Elvis Mug, Director's Chair and some fun picture frames... however I was all done with my Christmas shopping so I didn't need to buy anything more.

The experience wasn't an easy one. If you click on "Mugs" for example, you see two mug images. At first I thought that was all there was, until I scrolled down and saw some text containing links to more mugs. This was confusing and not very well designed. You shouldn't have to scroll down to see the full list of products, this should be on top. Otherwise it's easy to forget that there are other links down there. I ended up "shopping" the store twice. Once I didn't notice the links, and then I saw some links and went back through all the pages to see if there was anything I missed.

Things I found while checking out

When I was satisfied that there was nothing else worth buying, I went to check out with my Pillow in the cart. It was only 12.99, but the total was showing as 20.64! I knew shipping was high for a plush pillow, but I also knew I wouldn't find it anywhere else so I continued to Check out. At the next screen a message appeared "Sorry, your order is below our minimum of $15.00 (u.s.). You may still place your order, but are subject to a $5.00 small order fee."

You must be kidding me. Charging me 5$ because I spent 12.99 instead of 15?? Of course I wasn't having that so I went back to shopping to find two cheap items to push my total over 15. I ended up getting two matching "pillow" keychains for 1.99 a piece. When I went back to check out my total was 24.82 which was ok since I actually got something for the extra 4 dollars.

You fill in all your information on the one page form and that's it. There is no double check after you enter your info. I don't like that at all! I tend to have typos and I like the final "this is your order, this is where it's going" screen so I can make sure I got everything right. I got over it, read my info in the form before submitting, and everything seemed to go through okay.

I got an order confirmation on Dec 5th

This is an automated message acknowledging successful initial processing of your order placed on the World Wide Web.

You may check your order status by writing to:

webmaster@hollywoodmegastore.com

For inquiries, please reference order# xxxxxx

Visit us often at: http://www.hollywoodmegastore.com

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That sentence about "you may check your order status..." threw me off but I still thought they'd email me a delivery confirmation or something. However after a day of no info, I emailed them to see the status. After another 2 days of no info, I emailed them again (see below)

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email 1: Is there any info on this order? Do you know when I will get it by b/c I have to get it real soon. Please let me know!

email 2: This is my second inquiry about this order. I need it asap so please let me know if it is being shipped and when I should receive it. Thank you.

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I finally got tracking info on Dec 8th. Those two emails must have stressed how badly I needed the item because I got the following Delivery information right afterwards with my second email attached to the bottom.

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Important Delivery Information

Scheduled Delivery: 13-December-2005

Tracking Number: ****************

Click here to track if UPS has received your shipment or visit http://www.ups.com/WebTracking/track?loc=en_US on the Internet.

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December 13th was only 2 days before I needed it. It was cutting it close but I was confident I'd still get it on time. Since I ordered on Dec 5th I figured 10 days was plenty of time. BUT for a whole week the tracking didn't change! I checked the tracking religiously as I usually do when I place an online order and couldn't believe after a week that the tracking info still said the same thing (see below)

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Tracking Number Status Delivery Information

*UPS has received shipper's billing information electronically. Billing information received does not indicate shipment pickup or drop-off. Please contact the shipper for more details.

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I'd never seen that before when I ordered online so I could only assume it had something to do with Hollywood megastore. So on the 12th I emailed them again asking them to let me know if the order had been shipped since the tracking never changed. I got a response on the 14th (the day after I was supposed to receive it)

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Dear Suzanne

We contact UPS and found out that this package was sitting in the shipping center however they have located the package and will continue with the delivery you should have this before Xmax

Best regards,

Ofir

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Oh yes, I got it in time for Christmas... but I needed it by the 15th! And why did it take you two days to respond to my inquiry? Actually why'd it take you 3 days to ship it out? If it wasn't for these 5 days I may have gotten the item on time. The UPS tracking finally updated saying I'd receive the item on the 19th which I did. It was in good condition, but the box was way bigger than it needed to be. I ended up giving the pillow as a gift to another girl because I don't like pink and it was too late to give it to the adopt a family.

In conclusion, was it UPS or Hollywood Megastore's fault that I didn't get this in time for the Charity gift?

I'd say both. Hollywood Megastore would try to make me believe it was all UPS's fault, but the fact that the store took 2-3 days to get back to me each time makes me think it was also their fault. If they had responded to me sooner each time I may have gotten the gift on time. So my recommendation is Yes, shop here but only if these 2 facts are true:

Fact 1 - You can't find the item ANYWHERE else, and you looked all over, and you have to get it there.

Fact 2 - You don't need it right away.

Otherwise, I would say don't shop here.

Note: I found out a few days after shopping that I would have gotten 7% back if I would have remembered to go through Ebates to get here. So remember - look in ebates first and go through the links there so you can get cash back!