For my part, I’m still fighting the battle of the children’s picnic table. I told you about what looked like a happy ending here. And right about that time, I received the following notification:
This is a notification-only email. Please do not reply to this message.
Dear Brad Warthen,
Thank you for ordering from us. Your order number is [bunch of numbers] and has been successfully placed. You’ll soon receive additional emails regarding your order as it is processed.
Here is a review of your order.
Store Pickup summary
The Ready for pickup email typically arrives within 2 hours. Orders placed near or outside store hours may require additional processing time. If you have selected someone else to pick up your order, they will also receive a copy of the Ready for pickup email which provides detailed instructions on what is required to pick up the order….
And so forth and so on. Triumph, right?
But then at 1:33, I got this:
This is a notification-only email. Please do not reply to this message.
Dear Brad Warthen:
Thank you for shopping at Toys“R”Us and Babies“R”Us.
Unfortunately, we were unable to fulfill your order # [same bunch of numbers]. As a result, your order has been cancelled. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your cancellation, please contact Customer Service 1-800-ToysRUs (800 -869-7787) for further assistance.
Order Date: 11/28/11
I’m steeling myself to make that call now.
In spite of this unreality, I’m told that we live in a brave new world of blissful online shopping, and today is that world’s High Holy Day. There are many stories out there celebrating it, such as this one:
A Shopping Day Invented for the Web Comes of Age
Cyber Monday might have started as a made-up occasion to give underdog e-commerce sites jealous of Black Friday a day of their own, but it has become an undeniably real thing — surprising even the people who invented it.
Last year, for the first time, the Monday after Thanksgiving was the biggest online shopping day of the year by sales, and the first day ever that online spending passed $1 billion, according to comScore, a research company that measures Web use.
This year, with a record-breaking Black Friday — shoppers spent $816 million online, 26 percent more than last year, in addition to spending more offline — online retailers are gearing up for Monday to once again be their best of the season…
Yadda-yadda, yadda-yadda, yadda-yadda. I remain less-than-favorably impressed.
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Well, that appears to be the last word. I just got done with a very frustrating telephone conversation, and the upshot is that I can only get this item by ordering it to be shipped to my home, and paying the shipping.
Just to spell out the economics of this for you…
The thing that got me out to the store to begin was was the ad in The State that said this table was marked down from $99 to $69. So I was given to believe I’d be saving $30, and that brought me in.
Now, after vast amounts of aggravation, I’m told that the ONLY way I could get it would be to pay $111.40. For the same item.
“Oh, you wanna save 30 bucks? Fine. You can have the item, but instead of saving $30, the way we promised you, you pay an extra $12.50 on top of the original price. You can thank us later…”
I’m past that kind of purchase until I get grandchildren.
Did mine today in about an hour. And that was only because I was price-shopping between three sites. All of them came in with 10-15 dollars of the other, but Newegg has free shipping!
Ok. you have to look for the stores that are offering free shipping, or at least where the deal outweighs the shipping cost.
Advantages to cyber monday:
To continue:
No need to wait out in the cold for a midnight opening.
No long lines.
You probably won’t be trampled while sitting at your home computer.
You won’t discover that, after waiting outside for hours, then being shoved, pushed, etc in the rush, the person ahead of you grabbed the last one of what you wanted.
No pepper spray.