Let’s start off with some good deals: Kodak C813 8.2MP Digital Camera $89.77, Amazon.com Movie Downloads for $0.99, $15 Off any Purchase American Eagle Coupon, Free USB Powered Desk Lamp.

I ordered something from Amazon.com on Dec. 15th and received an email the other day saying that the item was in stock so I would not have it by Christmas.  That didn’t really fly with me because on Amazon’s site they had plastered all over the place banners saying if you ordered by Dec. 17th it was guaranteed you would have it by Christmas eve.  I wrote Amazon.com an email and reminded them that I am a good customer who trusted Amazon.com’s guarantee, and if they couldn’t live up to their guarantees then I would take my business in the future elsewhere.  I received an email 24 hours later saying that they were going to locate this item for me and ship it Fedex (at their expense).  I just received this item an hour ago on my front doorstep.  Now that is some quality customer service, normally I have to get pretty angry and yell at some people to get the ball rolling but this was one of the best service experiences I’ve had in quite some time.

There is a website called Brring.com that is going to Pay You to get phone calls.  Their service is just starting out so it’s not in every state yet, but it is definitely something to keep your eye on.  How it works: Brring will give you a free phone number and they link this number into your home phone line, so whenever someone dials the Brring number it will ring your home phone.  Ok, so you give this phone number out to people (or to telemarketers, hehe) and when they call your Brring phone number, they will have to listen to a ten second advertisment before they get to talk to you.  Brring will pay you between $0.05 to $1.00 per each call you receive.  If you get a lot of calls at home, you could probably pay off your phone bill using Brring!  I have yet to test this site out, I only just heard about it from a friend and I checked out their homepage, but I will look into this more after the holidays.

I thought I’d rate my experience with all the stores I dealt with during my Christmas shopping this year.  This rating has nothing to do with prices, it has to do with my Experience (i.e.  timeliness of receiving the order, customer service reps if I had to talk to any, any problems with my order, etc…), so here’s a little report card:

Amazon.com: A

Fast shipping, good responsiveness to my emails, problem resolved quickly

CircuitCity.com: A+

Surprising as I’m not a CC fan, but my orders were shipped within 24 hours after they were placed and they were received quickly

DeepDiscount.com: D-

Orders took a long time to come, they shorted me an item on one order, waiting for their customer service to answer the phone is very frustrating as it takes FOREVER

FYE.com: F

I ordered something over 2 weeks ago, WHERE IS IT FYE?  They also do not provide any tracking information which is frustrating, and there is no customer service number that I can find

Sears.com: D

They really need to work on sync’ing up their online site to their store.  I always have a problem when I purchase online and choose instore pickup.

Walmart.com: F

I ordered something which said ‘in stock’.  A week or two later they say it is out of stock so the ordering is cancelled, what is up with that?

I’m a tough grader, but I’m a fair grader.  I think if these retailers received grades more often then maybe they would get their acts together and provide better service to the customer.

Dinner tonight: Fried Chicken (I’m cooking it, watch out for the grease fires)

Have a good one!