"Free WiFi for the Holidays" [Google via IntoMobile]
(Photo: quinn.anya)

Poor iPhone. Or, smartphone-like device that resembles an iPhone. According to Verizon, its 3G coverage means that it has no place in this world except the island of misfit toys.

Other commercials declare that AT&T users will experience a blue Christmas, and that only the naughty will receive AT&T phones as holiday gifts. Ha ha! Sigh.

Verizon Wireless Launches Three More Anti-AT&T 3G Network Commercials [Gizmodo]

"Holiday Shipping Deadlines for Christmas 2009" [CouponSherpa] (Thanks to Jeff!)
(Photo: dierken)

As a follow-up to the Starbucks post, we received a couple emails from employees who told us that Starbucks begins using the red cups typically on the first Tuesday of November, but doesn't start offering the peppermint mocha and all that stuff until later-November 17, according to one tipster.

(Photo: TMQ.st.louis)

Looking back through the site and our tipline, we have a couple of data points for when Starbucks first rolls out the Christmas stuff:

An unposted email from last year has a reader who found holiday-themed cups and music at Starbucks on the 4th. He asked the barista if she thought it was weird, and was told they had just rolled out the Christmas cheer that day.

Two years ago, we posted that Starbucks was using the Christmas goods on November 8th.

That's a little earlier each year. Although they're different stores and there's no indication that the day they were spotted is the day they were rolled out, we're assuming that people who visit coffee shops probably do so pretty regularly, and would have noticed and written in earlier if they'd seen Christmas creep earlier. Starbucks is a big chain, so if we can get some more data from other years and stores, maybe we could eventually track Christmas Creep, a la the Big Mac Index. So, readers, if you have any definite dates for when you've seen Christmas creep at Starbucks from past years or this year, or if you can remind yourself to check things out at the end of next October, send in your findings.

It's particularly ironic coming from Hallmark, a company that debuts its Christmas ornament collection around the time that school lets out for the summer.

If this came out as an actual Christmas card, I would purchase it to send to carefully selected friends and family.

Chuck & Beans [Shoebox Blog] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)

Tim says:

For goodness sakes, we're not past Thanksgiving yet! I love Christmas specials, but they're best saved for December.

We aren't even past Halloween yet.

That means shoppers will see more gingerbread houses and peppermint crunch cookies, and fewer exotic teas and flavored olive oils; classic ball ornaments instead of offbeat cowboys or cartoon-themed character figures; and an emphasis on simple festive wear like shimmery tops instead of elaborately beaded gowns.

Traditional Christmas colors — red, green and gold — are also back.

That's a big departure from recent years when stores pushed the whimsical and splashy, from the upside-down Christmas tree fad in 2007 to stockings adorned with mermaids and elephants.

Business Week notes that Saks Fifth Avenue is offering an in-house line of cheaper Christmas ornaments to lure in customers who can't afford the crazy expensive Christopher Radko ones, and Home Shopping Network is pushing modest indoor decorations instead of inflatable lawn crap.

If this is what a recession does to one of the tackier holidays of the year, then thank you recession, here's a candy cane.

"Recession-stung stores plan old-fashioned holidays" [Associated Press via Business Week]
(Photo: albany_tim)

Christmas creep in craft stores isn't normally worth a second glance. After all, if you want to finish your cross-stitched stockings and penguin-festooned potholders in time for December, you need to get started early.

But this tree is different somehow.

It's seasonally appropriate, but also not.

We're confused.

Drop your suggestions in the comments or email them to tips@consumerist.com with "Holiday Headaches" in the subject. We'll round up your answers and turn them into a poll! Yay, polls!

Please be specific. If you're annoyed by website prices not matching the in-store prices, or one particular retailer's marketing practices, say so! The more specific you can be, the better our poll will be. So, tell us, what needs to change about shopping at the holidays?

(Photo:balmes)

UPDATE: Apparently the word "layaway" was, at some point, on this sign, but wasn't when Robin took this photograph. That makes more sense in concept, at least, but is still obnoxiously early for Christmas.

And, as tipster Robin muses, "Nothing says holiday cheer like Christmas shopping at a pawn shop in the middle of August!" Well, tough economic times call for new traditions.

Joe says:

Over the weekend I was shopping at the Costco in Auburn Hills, Michigan and saw that they had the Xmas decorations out. I just had to pull out my phone and snag a photo of it. It's 124 days till Xmas for crying out loud!

This sucks, the Halloween Egg Nog isn't even out yet!

Reader Don says:

So, I walk into my local hobby lobby yesterday to look for a clock, and lo and behold there were 4 aisles of Christmas decorations up already.
I was astonished to see people actually shopping the product...they had baskets full of ornaments and decorations.
I've attached a couple pictures that I could snap when people weren't standing in the way.

We should commend them for not putting out the trees yet, we suppose. That must be taking a fair amount of restraint on their part.

Remember, if you see some Christmas Creep, snap a photo of it and email it to tips@consumerist.com and/or add it to our Flickr pool with the tag "Christmas Creep." Preference will be given to photos that are accompanied by interesting text.

Well, I guess early July is as good a time as any to buy a pre-lit Christmas tree.

Christmas Lane [Kmart]

Steve writes:

So I received a Panasonic TH1211B Link To Cell For Christmas from my mother. It allows you to pair cell phones to home phone and vice versa. I couldn't get the base to pair with either of the 2 iPhones I own. I searched the forums, all over the net, and couldn't find much help, figured it boiled down to a bluetooth issue with the iPhone. Not one to give up, I searched around Panasonics website, and emailed the generic customer service, figuring I would never hear back from them and my request for help would end up in the abyss of auto reply never-ending emails, etc.

A week later, Kevin Crowley, a Product Engineer emailed me back, and we exchanged about 5 emails back and forth troubleshooting the issue. He upgraded and tested with their in house iPhone and swore it worked, he even offered to let me call him to work through the issues. I explained more of my issues and he ended up resolving the problem over email and my link to cell stuff works great.

I haven't dealt with anyone in recent memory over email or phone from such a huge company, that actually helped me, and actually took the time to understand my problem. Maybe the fact that he is a product engineer and not customer service is the reason? Who knows, but I am grateful to Kevin at Panasonic, without him, my Christmas present would be in a box in the basement.

Cheers to you, Kevin Crowley, and the Panasonic front-line email readers who forwarded the message to him. You are customer service winners.

He wrote:

First, I'd like to start by saying that emailing UPS executives is not my first choice in customer service. However, at this point I'm at a loss for what to do and I'm hoping one of you can help. Here's my story.

On December 16, a package was shipped to me via UPS Ground from Los Angeles. The package contained a Christmas gift for my daughter. The target delivery date was originally 12/24. As you may have seen on the news, there was a considerable amount of snow in Seattle at that time and when the local government decided they were unwilling/able to plow the streets most commerce stopped. I understand that this is not UPS's fault and was not upset at the time that my package did not arrive. My daughter wasn't so forgiving but it was a good lesson in the unfairness of life. I refocused her on making a snowman.

But we're closing in on two weeks past Christmas at this point, the roads have been pretty good for most of that time and still, my package hasn't arrived. And all I get when I ask customer service why I haven't received my package is an apology and an explanation that the weather is causing the delay.

This rings hollow to me and here's why:

1Z 7E0 03 4481 146 (Shipped 12/23 from Texas)
1Z 8WX 604 03 8747 (Shipped 12/22 from Pittsburgh)

Both shipped after the missing package, from further away, and both are here at my house.

I've called 1-800-PICK-UPS each of the last few days as your website directs. Their ability to help seems to be limited to reading me the same information I can find at UPS.com and sending requests to the UPS facility in Redmond. My wife was assured twice that someone at the facility would call her by 4 p.m. today and then when nothing came at 4 p.m she was promised 6 p.m. It's 8 p.m. as I write this and still no call. (Her number is XXX XXX XXXX, you can check the request in your message system).

We were assured on Monday that it would arrive Tuesday. However, here's the tracking note from today:

REDMOND, WA, US
11:42 A.M. THE PACKAGE WAS LEFT IN A UPS FACILITY / FORWARDED TO THE FACILITY IN THE DESTINATION CITY
1:19 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY

Do you know what Joe Collier (Tampa) at 1-800-PICK-UPS told me tonight this meant? The driver forgot to put it on the truck. How does one scan it out for delivery and then it doesn't make it on the truck? We're well past weather delays here. This is incompetence.

So, how can you help? I'd like my daughter's Christmas present and I would like it on Wednesday. But at this point it doesn't really even matter anymore. She's forgotten about it and the whole thing will be anticlimactic. And tomorrow the driver is probably going to figure it out and bring it here without your intervention. But I paid a merchant for shipping and still I haven't received anything except non-answers, apologies and unkept promises that it'll be here tomorrow. This sucks.

I would also like an written apology from the director of the Redmond distribution center. I realize it's been a bad month but those two other packages making it here before my daughter's present have ended my patience.

Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate any assistance you may be able to offer.

Sincerely,

Michael

---

Following-up: Someone from UPS corporate customer service did call me today to apologize. She told me that my package is not on a truck for today and they really don't know when it will be. Then she offered me a check for $50 for my trouble. She also promised she'd keep track of this and update me when she could but wasn't able to help expedite things.

We'll see if any of that happens. At this point, I'd be surprised if I saw the package before next week.

$50 isn't bad, but you know what would be better than $50? Yes, $100, but think even better than that. How about finally delivering the gift Michael ordered nearly a month ago?!

RELATED: How To Launch An Executive Email Carpet Bomb
(Photo: belleutti)

Brandon writes,

After seeing your post on the Free Shipping Day promotion, and found myself interested, but wary that I would not receive my order in time for Christmas. Ultimately, I decided to give it a shot anyway, comforted by the fact that all orders were guaranteed to be delivered my December 24. So, I waited until 12:01 AM December 18th to place an order with Circuit City, one of the partners for this promotion, and later received a confirmation e-mail stating that my order would arrive on December 24 at the latest.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. While I did receive one item from my order a few days before Christmas, the other three items did not arrive until December 28th. Normally, a delay like this wouldn't bother me, but seeing as these items were supposed to be gifts for my friends and family, I got to endure the embarrassment of not having gifts for three people, while they got shorted on presents.

After e-mailing Circuit City, I was offered a paltry $5 gift card, which I refused on the basis of being insufficient. Instead, I asked for two $15 gift cards which I could provide to my two young nieces (who were two of the present-less people) on behalf of myself and Circuit City to help us both save face. Circuit City refused.

We'll leave the negotiations over appropriate compensation between Brandon and Circuit City. What bothers us, and this is why we're posting this, is that the company failed to honor its shipping guarantee—a guarantee they made in an attempt to lure shoppers to their online store. Here's what "Daschelle" from Circuit City wrote to Brandon when he pointed out the freeshippingday guarantee:

Thank you for your reply. While we certainly understand how this must have been frustrating for you, the shipping timeframes were listed on our website and in order to receive your items by Christmas you would have needed to order on or before 12/12/08. We can not honor your request for two $15 gift cards. The $5 offer is still available if you would like to take advantage of it.

Brandon also contacted the man behind the freeshippingday.com website to ask for his help, but he said he could do nothing, adding, "There doesn't seem to be much you can do other than return your item and get your money back. I do know that they were advertising free shipping with delivery by December 24th for orders placed up to December 19."

Brandon, you might want to try escalating the matter past the frontline CSRs (NB: skip Schoonover's address) since they don't seem to be aware of their own freeshippingday guarantee. We also think if they won't budge on the $5 offer, you should seriously consider asking for a full refund and find another place to buy your gifts if at all possible. Why give your business to a company that doesn't stand behind its promises?

We also think behavior like this should earn them a big ban from next year's freeshippingday.com group, but c'mon, it's Circuit City—does anyone really think they'll still be here next December anyway?

(Photo: qnr)

We and our sister both asked for, and received, this lovely Old Stone Oven pizza stone for Christmas. They were bought through Amazon. Ours arrived on the the twenty-third, in several pieces, as the above picture shows. Probably because Amazon took the box that contained the stone, which was marked "FRAGILE," and stuck it in another box not marked "FRAGILE," and used a piece of paper as padding. Like this:

Putting a fragile package in another box in such a way that it isn't surrounded by padding probably means that it will break, which it did. Whatever, we called Amazon as soon as we unpacked it, told them what happened, and they assured us that a new one would arrive the next day, Christmas Eve.

It never came.

When we spoke to our sister, we found out Amazon sent her the same stone, packaged the same way, and it broke. We're currently on the phone with Amazon, asking where our replacement stone is, and they've told us that UPS has returned it to them because it broke. That's the third broken pizza stone, and we're sure they packaged it in the same careless, ineffective way that they packaged the first two. Amazon is now out of stock on pizza stones for at least a month, and although we suggested they overnight us one from a Marketplace seller, they've demurred, instead offering to mail us a gift card for the amount sometime next week. No thanks.

We're troubled by this because it's not even Carnival season, let alone Lent. If we don't get to wear this until after Twelfth Night, you don't get to sell chocolate eggs, either.

So, I order some stuff from Amazon on December 6th for Christmas. I though I was doing the right thing, by shopping early. And since I was shopping sooo early, I decided I didn't need the package right away, and choose the Super Saver shipping (free!). All seems to go OK. Amazon says that it shipped on the 8th, says I should get it by the 16th, and I receive a tracking number. After a few days, I check USPS and get the following message:

"Your item was processed and left our FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003 facility on December 13, 2008. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later."

I keep checking, and it doesn't change. Since it's parcel pool, sometimes it takes a while to get to my place, but I've received other parcel pool packages that were shipped after the first one. So today, the 22nd, I email Amazon, wondering if there is anything they can do, since they are gifts. Here is their glorious response:

Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com with your concern.

I'm sorry—it appears that your shipment was lost in transit. I've placed a new order and we'll ship it to the same address as soon as possible.

Here are the order details:

Order Number: xxx
Estimated Delivery Date: December 24, 2008.

There's no charge for this replacement order. I've also upgraded the shipping method to "One Day Shipping" at no additional charge.

Again, I apologize for this situation. I've added some more information below that might help you.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com, and best wishes for the holidays.
(they also have instructions if the original package decides to show up sometime)

Bravo Amazon, my wife will be happy and so am I!

Well done, Amazon. Although we'd expect them to replace a package that was lost in transit, upgrading the shipping to one day delivery so it's there in time for Christmas is above and beyond. Also, BOOO, post office.

(Photo: Getty)

I'll start: my excellent fiancee got me a PS3 and tracked down a copy of Final Fantasy VII on eBay. It's a wonder I've found any time to post.

(Photo: Getty)

Whats perplexing is the lack of explanation behind the change — the original email cited it simply as 'the cost of doing business in New York'. Jessica attempted to find more out herself, with no luck.

I called to ask if there was a mistake and was told that it was not a mistake, and that everyone in the state will be paying extra. I've never received so much as a parking ticket in my life — there is NO explanation in the e-mail for the increase, either. They just tell you nonchalantly that it's time to renew in x months and your premium is X — so Merry Christmas, NY Progressive customers!

Any ideas on why this could be?

Pic: [The Master Shake Signal]

Deep discounts are coming, as a flood of inventory sits unwanted on store shelves.

Retailers' woes were good news for the dwindling numbers of shoppers who could afford to load up on deals. With mounds of inventory still left to sell, merchants are expected to deepen the discounts even more the day after Christmas.

But if 75 percent off before Dec. 25 didn't make shoppers splurge, will even bigger deals do the trick amid mounting worries about layoffs and shrinking retirement funds?

The AP says that aside from a big surge the day after Thanksgiving — shoppers just weren't buying. And when they were — they were buying modest, practical gifts.

Even gift card sales — which usually sustain stores for a few weeks after Christmas as many of the cards are redeemed — are down. Shoppers either found inexpensive gifts that were too good to pass up — or were afraid that the store would go out of business before the card was used.

Analysts have kept slashing their holiday estimates. Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, now expects that sales at established stores for November and December will fall 1.5 percent to 2 percent — making it the weakest holiday season since at least 1969, when the index began.

Yikes.

Last-minute shoppers can't save dismal Christmas [AP]

For the record, we're not trying to shame DiscoverThis.com too badly. They sell cool toys (this page alone could keep me occupied for my entire childhood) and Joe says they shipped out his order pretty much instantaneously. We're just amused, as is Joe, about their decision to wrap his gifts up as one unit. It's weirder still when you notice that the items are duplicates, which makes them even less likely to be meant as a single gift. But it was free!

"To print or not to print" gift receipts around this time of the year was a daily "knee jerk" reaction. One minute the CEO then (Bob Ulrich) would send down a mandate to "print gift receipts on all transactions." Of course the word of Bob was "God" so we'd jump right on that change to implement across the chain of stores ASAP.

The next minute, the EVP then (Bart Butzer) would walk down to the closet Target store (just a block from headquarters in downtown Minneapolis), make a purchase, see the gift receipt being auto-printed (without a customer asking), run back to his office and dictate to someone else on our team "stop printing gift receipts on all transactions." And, of course they'd jump like a "good little soldier" and implement that ASAP. Then, we'd have a team meeting or discover the contradiction and it would go back and forth ... turn this function on/off, on/off...

By that time the "rule of law" ended up being sent down from good ol' Bob Ulrich (he loved getting involved in small little details of the business operations) that he did not want ANY REASON or EXCUSE for a guest to not have a receipt to make a return. So, his mandate won out and we printed them for every transaction (even if you just bought a pack of gum or soda).

However, if you need to get a gift receipt for your purchase, just take the receipt to the Guest Service area of any Target store. They should be able to scan the barcode on the receipt and issue you as many gift receipts as you like.

So there you have it, a little bit of inside track on the furious battle over gift receipts, and a solution if you need one printed. Thank you, anonymous former Target employee, the mystery is solved.

PREVIOUSLY: Target No Longer Automatically Prints Gift Receipts?

(Photo: IntangibleArts)

Of note:

• Circuit City extended holiday return deadlines to January 31.
• Sears pulls back its far-reaching 15% fee to just electronics that are used or missing packaging or parts, mattresses, built-in appliances, and some special order items.
• BestBuy tightens return policy by a week to January 24 for most items.
• Overtsock has an up to 30% restock fee on some items.

2008 Holiday Return Policies: Some Retailers Naughty, Some Nice [Consumer World] (Photo: www.geofffox.com)

You ruined my wife's surprise Christmas gift with your helpful email recommendations for my latest purchase. It's been killing her to know what I bought from Amazon, but since your email recommendations popped up for the TomTom GPS I bought in my IGoogle email widget on our Google homepage now she knows. She didn't even have to read the who email, the subject line alone gives it away. Your email was an awesome FAIL

For people who share computers, how about leading online retailers provide a checkbox during purchase so you can opt-out of upsell recommendations for that purchase getting pushed to you?

Don't feel too bad, Rob, at least it wasn't a diamond ring you were purchasing for your betrothed-to-be...

(Photo: Getty)

FreeShippingDay [Official Site]

(Photo: Michael Rondou)

"Art is subjective, but I didn't mean to cause offense in any way," said Jeremy. "People were shopping at the Wal-mart the next day as if nothing had happened. I was appalled at the events that happened and this was my reaction."

Black Friday [jeremyscheuch]

* The Wall Street Journal lists gifts with a real return on investment. These ideas promise to save or make money for the recipient. Not a bad idea at all.

* Kiplinger suggests giving financial well-being. How exactly is this done? According to them, it's achieved through gifts like a paper shredder, home safe, and (of course) a subscription to their magazine. How romantic. Of course, there is some sense to these for those of you who are more practically minded.

* Bankrate offers some recession-proof holiday gifts including both 12 suggestions as well as low cost alternatives for each of these dozen.

Then again, you may be tried of the commercialization (and expense) of the holidays and are looking for alternatives. If so, you may agree with Free Money Finance's call to celebrate simply, not over-spending and leaving a huge debt for yourself in January. They offer four ways to do this: cut back your gift list, limit how much you spend, decide to be charitable, and determine which activities bring you real joy.

Whatever your plans for this holiday season, we wish you a joyful time, full of happiness and good cheer. Oh, and great deals at your favorite store too...

— FREE MONEY FINANCE (Photo: strobist)

...it's up to the company to ask the bankruptcy court to allow it to continue accepting gift cards. If they don't ask, you're out of luck. So spend them quickly if you get them, and before you buy them, maybe check the financial pages to see if the company is headed for Chapter 11. Aha, you say, I'll just buy one of those ones backed by VISA or the like. Not so fast. If they're backed by a bank or credit card company, they can have all sorts of hidden fees and various ways for them to quietly depreciate in value.

The Gift Card Comes Wrapped in Growing Risk [NYT] (Photo: paper house)