Online Shopping
As one who celebrates secular Christmas, it's all about Santa, about gifts, about being with and doing for my friends and family. I love having the chance to give, for the same reasons that I enjoy cooking for people. My parents and grandparents send money for birthdays and kids and cousins don't exchange birthday presents at all, so Christmas is the annual gift-giving occasion for my extended family. I look forward to it every year.
I did nearly 100% of my holiday shopping online this year. I picked up a couple of things here and there, at conventions or clothing stores, earlier in the year, but the bulk of my shopping happened by internet. By and large, I've gotten really great deals this year. It's been almost like the first time, back in the dotcom days where deals were plentiful. Lots of companies offering free express shipping, or 50% off on X with any purchase, or Free Nifty Thing if you order $$ of goods. I've gotten free shipping, free photographs, free stocking stuffers, and entire gifts for free. I was shopping around for a Nifty Thing for Kate, when Staples offered me one for free for ordering the printer paper and tax forms I was going to order anyway. Sweet!
The only disappointment is a minor gift, but one that makes me really mad because the merchant lied to me! I placed an order on November 28 because the merchant claimed orders were filled within 10 days. 11 days after placing the order, I received an e-mail telling me that my order would not be delivered until December 16th and if I had any questions I should respond to the e-mail address or call their customer service line (open from 4pm to 1am Eastern Time). I immediately responded that a delivery date of the 16th was not going to work and if my order could not be here by December 14th I needed to cancel. NO response to the e-mail, so I called the phone line and was told that it looked like my package was going to be able to ship a day earlier and I could get it by today. Pleasantly surprised, they told me to call back the next day to be sure and assured me that we'd be able to sort it if it hadn't shipped. I called back the next day and was told it had shipped and that I would receive the package today. LIES! Their automated system e-mailed me yesterday to say the package shipped YESTERDAY and will not be here until tomorrow afternoon...and of course UPS can't do anything to reroute the package or anything, because the package is in transit. I have to call them at 7:00 tomorrow morning, before Shuttle Express picks us up for the airport at 7:25, in order to stop UPS from delivering the package I specifically and repeatedly told the micky fricky merchant I did NOT want to be delivered on the 16th. Thanks jerks!
Thankfully, most of my gifts are being sent ahead to arrive at my folks' or my in-laws' places before we arrive. Even so I still had a box of things that need to be wrapped and carried. By the time I finished last night, I had a depressingly large pile of things to have to carry with us all the way to Boston. I've decided that I'm going to insist that Chris and Kate open the largest of their boxes before we leave, so they can have the items within to enjoy on the trip rather than waiting until we get back to open them. Who doesn't like early Christmas?
I did nearly 100% of my holiday shopping online this year. I picked up a couple of things here and there, at conventions or clothing stores, earlier in the year, but the bulk of my shopping happened by internet. By and large, I've gotten really great deals this year. It's been almost like the first time, back in the dotcom days where deals were plentiful. Lots of companies offering free express shipping, or 50% off on X with any purchase, or Free Nifty Thing if you order $$ of goods. I've gotten free shipping, free photographs, free stocking stuffers, and entire gifts for free. I was shopping around for a Nifty Thing for Kate, when Staples offered me one for free for ordering the printer paper and tax forms I was going to order anyway. Sweet!
The only disappointment is a minor gift, but one that makes me really mad because the merchant lied to me! I placed an order on November 28 because the merchant claimed orders were filled within 10 days. 11 days after placing the order, I received an e-mail telling me that my order would not be delivered until December 16th and if I had any questions I should respond to the e-mail address or call their customer service line (open from 4pm to 1am Eastern Time). I immediately responded that a delivery date of the 16th was not going to work and if my order could not be here by December 14th I needed to cancel. NO response to the e-mail, so I called the phone line and was told that it looked like my package was going to be able to ship a day earlier and I could get it by today. Pleasantly surprised, they told me to call back the next day to be sure and assured me that we'd be able to sort it if it hadn't shipped. I called back the next day and was told it had shipped and that I would receive the package today. LIES! Their automated system e-mailed me yesterday to say the package shipped YESTERDAY and will not be here until tomorrow afternoon...and of course UPS can't do anything to reroute the package or anything, because the package is in transit. I have to call them at 7:00 tomorrow morning, before Shuttle Express picks us up for the airport at 7:25, in order to stop UPS from delivering the package I specifically and repeatedly told the micky fricky merchant I did NOT want to be delivered on the 16th. Thanks jerks!
Thankfully, most of my gifts are being sent ahead to arrive at my folks' or my in-laws' places before we arrive. Even so I still had a box of things that need to be wrapped and carried. By the time I finished last night, I had a depressingly large pile of things to have to carry with us all the way to Boston. I've decided that I'm going to insist that Chris and Kate open the largest of their boxes before we leave, so they can have the items within to enjoy on the trip rather than waiting until we get back to open them. Who doesn't like early Christmas?
Yep, online shopping rocks. I finished 90+% of my shopping in a few minutes on the net. D&D minis for this person, Amazon books for these people. Everyone in the gaming group gor Mutants and Masterminds 2E, ordered off the Gr online store back when it first was available, and I'm going to need to order another one as well.
The only thing I did get online were a number of hardbacks that I stockpiled from a remaindered book place that was here over the summer. I socked away about fifty titles in varying genres I know my friends like to use as birthday, Xmas and 'just-cause' presents.
While I do absolutely love online shoppng, my true motivation is to say, I like your blog. Most of my random blog visitations leave me yawning. So, thanks from a random online stranger.