Online Shopping and Tracking the Shipments

[Deleted member 308541]

We have just done our fortnights grocery shop online, you have to be quick to see your debit card get charged.

I clicked the pay button in the checkout, while I got into my bank account it only took thirty seconds and it was in the Pending Transactions section along side Netflix and my pharmacy payment from yesterday.

I wonder why it takes at least two days to put it back as a refund...

 

[SaskiaKC]

Good question.

 

[Sue192]

I've been thinking about doing that for cat food. I just got a coupon from chewy.com in the mail.

I use zooplus for my high-maintenance mog who has to have a special diet and supplements. Much cheaper than the vets. (Not sure they deliver to the US)

 

[SaskiaKC]

I wish zooplus did. They carry some foods my girl likes, plus one I've never heard of but love the name, Meowing Heads.

I've decided against chewy.com; you have to order so much food before you get free delivery, and walking to the grocery store gets me out of the house and into the fresh air for some exercise and meeting people. My older kitty needed a special diet in her last year here but wouldn't eat any of it.

As to online orders and shipping, the blue jeans I ordered last week came so quickly I didn't have time to cancel the order (I didn't really want to but thought I needed to). Now I'm waiting on a shipment from Amazon (just checked my e-mail, it's Out For Delivery! a day early!) and a printer ink cartridge due to arrive on Thursday (the unexpected reason I tried to cancel the jeans).

 

[zauberflote]

I shop on Amazon way too much! I use it as a note-taking thing. I think of something, haul out my phone, find it, put it in the cart, and there it sits waiting for me!

 

[SaskiaKC]

I do the same thing!

 

[Deleted member 308541]

I use a service called MedAdvisor for my prescriptions, which my pharmacy of choice does up. They send a message either by email or through the app on my phone when they are ready to pick up. This is usually in a couple of hours to be ready.

Now as I have been shopping online for our groceries, and now only need to go to the shopping centre occasionally, I got them to deliver my medication.

It's cheaper to get the groceries and medication delivered than going there to shop.

 

[SaskiaKC]

That is true for me too, @Tipetoo . It costs less to pay shipping on an order than it does to take Uber or a cab to a store. And when I can place an order big enough to get free shipping, all I have to do is track it.

OTOH, even when someone else is doing the driving I never get lost on the way to or from the store ...

 

[Deleted member 308541]

That is true for me too, @Tipetoo . It costs less to pay shipping on an order than it does to take Uber or a cab to a store. And when I can place an order big enough to get free shipping, all I have to do is track it.

OTOH, even when someone else is doing the driving I never get lost on the way to or from the store ...

If we spend more than $300.00 on groceries etc we get free delivery, but we do not spend that much so paid just under $10.00 this shop.

The pharmacy sent me a message that they are staring to charge a fee to deliver of $5.00 starting in February.

Still cheap though.

 

[SaskiaKC]

I ordered a new ink cartridge for my printer. The drugstore right across the road carries them, but their price was about $10 more. I ordered one from the vendor who gave me the best price and free shipping (and who sold me my printer a year ago). I ordered one cartridge, price $17.99.

Three cartridges came. I tried to contact the vendor at its website to ask about returning the two extra cartridges but their website is not set up to answer questions, so I called. They e-mailed me a return label. I packed up the two extra cartridges, taped on the return label, and sent it off. A few days later I got an e-mail receipt that the return had arrived.

Then I got another e-mail saying they had refunded me the $17.99. So I called them back and said they hadn't owed me the refund since I had kept one cartridge. The phone agent tried to convince me that either (a) my printer had sent the vendor an automatic alert that it was out of ink and to sent a replacement, or (b) the $17.99 was for the 3-pack (it wasn't, according to their website).

At that point I gave up, kept the ink cartridge, and the $17.99 refund.

When this cartridge runs out of ink I am going to walk across the road to the drugstore and buy the cartridge there (I found out that it costs more because it is a higher-yield cartridge anyway).

 

[Deleted member 308541]

I have just joined up at a store called BWS that home delivers beers, wine and spirits. Spend under $100.00 it costs $10.00 for delivery, and if it's over it's free.

I can see I will be getting some use out of this one.

 

[SaskiaKC]

That is a great deal, @Tipetoo . I need to see if there is something like that here. I can buy beer and wine at the grocery store next door, and even sherry, but the closest liquor store is a mile or so down the road. It would be nice to be able to get some brandy or whisky once in a while. I am working my way through different whiskies trying to see which kind I prefer -- Scotch whisky, Irish whiskey, Canadian rye, Kentucky bourbon, Tennessee sour mash (Jack Daniels) ...

 

[Deleted member 308541]

I have been warned by my partner not to go crazy with the booze, just a carton of beer what I drink and a bottle of Scotland's finest malt whisky she said.

BWS are a subsidiary of the store we do our grocery shopping at, so we get the reward card points there as well.

 

[SaskiaKC]

When I lived closer to 2 liquor stores and had 2 neighbors that drove to them occasionally I bought the little airline-sized bottles as samples. I wasn't raised with liquor in the house, just sherry and occasional wine, so I was surprised to discover that I actually preferred the hard stuff.

But apparently I can take it or leave it, haven't had even a sip in 2 years and only think of it when I'd like some way to treat myself that isn't chocolate or full of sugar.

 

[MikeZ]

No problems here! Our daughter is about to have our 1st grandchild, so now that Amazon knows the situation, (and my wife), they are opening a warehouse in our backyard.

 

[SaskiaKC]

I recently ordered a T-shirt and a pair of pants (trousers!) online. The pants are great, the T-shirt had a hole in one seam (and was too big anyway). I returned it, asking for a replacement. Today I got an e-mail saying they had sent me a refund instead (plus shipping!). So I ordered two more T-shirts, one in a smaller size. I needed pants since all mine are now too big, and after my doctor commented on my too-big top at our last appointment, I decided it was time to go smaller with some new tops too.

Hope and pray the new smaller one will fit well enough for me to wear it when going out and not just around the house. Either way, hopefully it will encourage me to find a way to keep losing weight. I did so well last summer but haven't been able to get any farther down the scale.

 

[Deleted member 308541]

We put our online grocery order in on Thursday for delivery Friday morning between 10:00 and 13:00. All is good, then we got a several emails from the store to activate for these specials, and get triple reward points on our shop. Another was for the secret bargains with extra points on selected items.

I wish they had sent the emails the day before, as we would have picked up best part of 2000 points.

 

[SaskiaKC]

I ordered a bedspread from Ikea, the first thing I've ever bought from them. It came before the scheduled date -- no problems at all! Surprising!

I also ordered a coffee pot from Walmart. Then I got a tracking update from the shipper that Walmart had failed to hand it off to them. So I contacted Walmart, which said they would cancel the order and send out another coffeepot. I asked them to use a different shipper (the first one, LaserShip, has a bad rep). Scheduled delivery for the second coffee pot was March 25.

Meanwhile, a coffee pot (apparently that first order didn't get canceled after all) arrived at my door. A few days later, the second coffee pot arrived (well before March 25!). So I contaced Walmart and asked them to send me a return label for the second one. They have just replied that I can just put the package outside my door and a Post Office carrier will pick it up this coming Monday.

I'm not complaining, as I love the coffee pot -- all this to-ing and fro-ing just tickles me. I read online that when Amazon started its program of 2-day deliveries to its Prime customers, it apparently never took into consideration that UPS, FedEx, LaserShip, or the Post Office might not have enough delivery drivers to keep up with the sudden inundation of packages!

 

[SaskiaKC]

... and the coffee pot saga continues ...

This is a funny story. I hope it will make you laugh. Seriously.

NB: My bathroom is just inside the front door of my apartment. This will figure into the story.

Walmart having failed to e-mail me a return shipping label, they had FedEx send me one. Instead, FedEx sent me a link to where I could print a label. Except that I could not. All I got was a blank screen. I contacted FedEx for help. They said to contact Walmart. I did. Walmart said to print the FedEx label. I said there was no label to print. Rinse and repeat. Over and over. Ad infinitum, ad nauseam.
Until last night. When I CALLED Walmart, and reached a rep who put me on hold 3 times to ask for advice and then told me to just keep the coffee pot.
I spent the evening wondering -- off and on -- who I knew who might like a free coffee pot.
Cut to this morning, when I received an e-mail from Walmart with -- lo and behold! -- an attached returning shipping label!
It printed!!!!!
Then began Part II of the saga -- trying to contact FedEx to schedule a second pickup.
I could not do so on their website. So I called them. The rep was great, scheduled the pickup, saying it would have to be tomorrow. Great, no problem. Would I remain on the line to complete a short survey?
Sure, no problem.
Survey recording comes on. How would I rate my experience? 1 through 5. Only no info as to whether 1 was Completely Satisfied, or Completely Dissatisfied; or if 5 was.
So I gave up and hung up. Didn't want to give a Completely Dissatisfied Rating by mistake.
I printed the label, slipped it into the clear plastic shipping-window-label-holder-thingy, and stuck it onto the package. Made myself a note to put the package out for pickup in the morning.
Went to take a shower. I'm in the shower, happily washing my hair, rejoicing in the presence of hot water after two days without any over the weekend, when I hear a knock on the front door.
What? Who could it be? Did I hear wrong? Could it be the maintenance men? I haven't scheduled any maintenance.
Pounding on door.
WHAT??? Maintenance men are known to knock once, then twice, then let themselves in.
"WHAT???!!!???" I yell. Turning off water. Yelling in hopes of intimidating maintenance man from letting himself in.
"FED EX!" comes the reply. Shouted. "You scheduled a pickup?"
Woman's voice. Thank goodness, but Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
"Hold on. Give me a minute. Please. Thank you."
Dry hair. Pull on bathrobe, which of course doesn't want to go on because ... um ... wasn't made to go on a dripping-wet wearer. Finally goes on. Hair wrapped in towel.
"Coming. Please give me a minute."
Open door a crack.
"Thank goodness you're a woman. I apologize for yelling. It's just been crazy trying to schedule this pickup. They said tomorrow."
Woman apologizes to me. I apologize to her. We are both laughing.
She takes package. She says Thank you. I say Thank you.
We smile.
She leaves. I close door.
Back into shower. Deciding to laugh, because ...
FedEx is efficient!
Seriously.
Sometimes it is actually convenient to have one's bathroom right inside one's front door. I never thought it would be ... until today.
I am all for equal opportunity employment and hiring women to do jobs traditionally held by men. Very convenient!