Linda ordered a computer for her mother as a Christmas gift on December 12^th, and paid extra for two-day shipping. Unfortunately, she placed this order with Kmart, which is part of the massive anti-capitalist organization known as Sears Holdings Corporation. This company pretends to run massive retail operations, but actually exists to stand in consumers’ way when they try to exchange money for goods. At least that’s how it seems from Consumerist’s mailbox. She only learned once it was too late that “2-day shipping” meant that Kmart planned to ship the computer out on December 24th.

As a Christmas gift for my mother, I ordered a computer from Kmart.com. I placed the order on December 12 and paid for two-day shipping. On the 15th, I still hadn’t received the delivery. So I looked at my confirmation email (which I probably should’ve looked at upon receipt), and noticed that the expected shipping date was December 24!

I emailed Kmart.com’s customer service asking for an explanation, especially considering that I paid for two-day shipping. This is from the response that I got:

We owe you an apology for the inconvenience caused. As per our records I see that your order is processing. Please be noted that 2 Day Air shipping is counted two days from the day the order got shipped and not from the day you placed the order

I found this to be absolutely ridiculous. Have you ever heard of such a thing? What sort of Web site offers two-day shipping and doesn’t deliver the goods in two days from the order date? If the product is coming from an outside vendor, then they really shouldn’t offer speedier shipping on that product because it’s not in their abilities to meet the expectation. I have since asked to have the order canceled, and this is from the Kmart response:

“I have submitted a request to our fulfillment center to cancel your order. Please allow 5-7 business days as we will contact you by email once we have received a response. Please contact us for the further assistance.”

A week to cancel the order? It seems like nothing happens quickly at Kmart!

To be fair, sometimes “2-day shipping” includes an extra day or two in there for the item to get packed up and leave the warehouse. Generally, though, it doesn’t include an extra dozen days.

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