After waiting 56 days for his Dell Mini 9 to ship, reader WantMyDellMini asked Dell for a little compensation, only to be told: “Dell no longer believes in compensation for the purpose of customer satisfaction.” The Mini 9’s shipping status has already changed at least ten times, but Dell claims that our poor reader has no choice but to keep waiting.
SHIPPING
West Elm Excels At Taking Your Money, Not At Shipping Your Items
By 1.15.09
Add West Elm to your list of online retailers who don’t believe shipping should be part of the business plan. It would be one thing if West Elm stated up front that they don’t know when they’ll send you the goods, but we guess it’s just easier to makes sales when you list everything as available for “immediate delivery” on the website, no matter when you plan on shipping it.
UPS Coughs Up $50 But Still Hasn't Delivered Your Daughter's Christmas Present
By 1.11.09
Reader Michael wants to know why it’s taking UPS almost a month to ship his daughter’s Christmas gift from Los Angeles to Seattle. Michael thinks his package might have been eaten by the snowstorm that broke Seattle a few weeks back, but UPS swears that they have the gift and that this is all a simple matter of “the driver forgot to put it on the truck.” Worried that it that it might have been faster for a messenger to walk between Los Angeles and Seattle with his daughter’s present, Michael decided to launch an Executive Email Carpet Bomb at UPS executives.
The Post Office Stole My Woot! Shirt!
By 1.10.09
I ordered an awesome shirt from Shirt.Woot! How awesome? Awesome enough for the U.S. Post Office to tear it right out of the super-durable SmartPost package Woot uses to protect their shirts. The Post Office, bastion of empathy that it is, didn’t want me to miss my order completely, so they delivered my ripped empty package wrapped in an obnoxious “WE CARE” apology bag. Heartbroken, I tried emailing Woot for help…
ALDO Refunds My Sunglass Money
By 1.8.09
A few weeks ago I wrote a peeved post about how I was mad that ALDO wasn’t refunding my money after sending me the wrong pair of sunglasses, broken. Instead, they seemed to be giving a sucker’s prize of only free shipping. My finger was quivering on the chargeback button, I said. But thanks to a few of your comments, I realized that while their wording was unclear about what the next action was supposed to be, ALDO had approved my return, I just needed to either ship it back to them or take it into a store. I did the latter, and they processed my refund promptly. Hooray.
Circuit City's "Free Shipping Day" Promise Turns Out To Be Worthless
By 1.7.09
Circuit City promised that if you ordered from them on December 18th, you’d get free shipping and a guarantee that your order would arrive before Christmas. It turns out that promise was worthless, at least for Brandon—or rather, it’s worth exactly $5 in company scrip from Circuit City. (We love apologies that force you to shop at the company that screwed up.) Circuit City’s CSR even says that the December 18th offer doesn’t exist, despite the fact that their logo is still up on the freeshippingday.com website as of today.
UPS Refuses Your Package On Your Behalf
By 1.5.09
Adam asked UPS to hold a package at his local facility because he knew he would be out of town. UPS sent Adam a confirmation message saying they would hold it for five days. Instead, they twice tried to deliver it to Adam a few hours later. Then they marked the package as refused by receiver and sent it back to the shipper.
Don't Even Think Of Ordering A Pizza Stone From Amazon
By 12.31.08
We’d like to share a personal story: it involves Amazon, Christmas presents, and three broken pizza stones.
90 Stores That Can Still Deliver By Christmas
By 12.22.08
Hey gift procrastinators, Dealnews has a list of…
Amazon Fails At Gift Wrapping Your Nephew's X-Mas Present
By 12.9.08
Matt would like to let Amazon know that there’s no point in gift wrapping a present if you then put the gift wrapped item inside a box that says what the gift is. This should probably be self-evident — but alas — it isn’t.
DHL Cuts 9,500 Jobs, No More Shipping Inside US
By 11.10.08
No more DHL for you, America. They’re cutting 9,500 jobs and suspending domestic mailing operations. This leaves the shipping field back to UPS, FedEX and the USPS. However, you can still ship with DHL internationally from the US, so no need to fret that you can’t keep sending those care packages to Cuba and North Korea.
2008 Holiday Shipping Deadlines
By 11.5.08
Want to make sure your present makes it in time for that special holiday moment? Check out Dealhack’s list of over 130 retailers and their shipping deadlines. By the way, deadlines for sending mail to military post offices are coming up very soon. If you’ve got something heavy, you should probably order it by this Friday, November 7th. Lighter stuff, by November 28. Checked the list and don’t get caught like I did one year, having to write a humorous fable to explain why all my presents would be showing up the week after Christmas.
Overnight Shipping Battle! FedEx Vs. USPS Vs. UPS
By 10.31.08
In the battle of the overnight shipping, which service reigns supreme? Is it FedEx? Or UPS and its long-haired whiteboard dude? Or the folks in blue at the Postal Service?
Shipping Delays For Dell's New Mini Laptop?
By 10.23.08
Reader Steven wrote in to let us know that his Dell Mini’s ship date keeps getting pushed back and he’s starting to become annoyed.
No Power On Earth Can Compel FedEx To Actually Deliver Your Package
By 9.24.08
Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but reader Robbie has done everything short of hire someone to wait for his package, and still FedEx will not deliver it. Instead, despite Robbie’s best efforts, they keep leaving “Sorry you weren’t here” notes outside his door.
Postal Employees Ordered To Stop Offering First-Class Mail
By 9.21.08
Postal employees have been ordered to upsell pricey express or priority mail services to anyone sending anything more than a letter, according to an anonymous tipster. The directive comes straight from Washington to help combat the Post Office’s $1.1 billion operating deficit. To avoid the upsell, specifically ask if there is a cheaper way to ship your package. The anonymous tipster’s letter, inside…
USPS Delivers Just The Cover Of Your Rolling Stone, But Is Very Sorry
By 9.19.08
Reader Dave says that he received just the cover of his copy of Rolling Stone, wrapped in a cute, apologetic plastic bag from the USPS.
Indoo Ships Your Textbooks To You When They Feel Like It
By 9.19.08
Don’t order textbooks from Indoo.com if you need them right away, because they’re a little casual with their shipping. Joe ordered two textbooks on September 5th. Four days later on September 9th, they sent him an email saying they’d been shipped via USPS Priority mail. They hadn’t arrived by the 16th, so Joe emailed to ask what was going on. They responded that actually the books had been shipped on September 11th via USPS Priority and that “the arrival expectation is 4 to 5 business days.” Joe received one of the two books yesterday, on September 17th, which would have been 5 business days after the 11th. Still no sign of the other book.
