My experience predates Christmas rush.

Macy's has NOTHING in their stores. The only fresh merchandise must be 'returns'. Online orders take weeks to arrive. An XS fleece top arrives and is a roomy M. I have to retun it and order it again...next one could pass as a S. Another XS fits; same/style/same brand, just different fabric. The good fit was made in Jordan; the two miss-marks, Viet Nam. I can't do a store exchange because...there's NOTHING *in* the store. How is this a "better experience" than ordering from the old Sears catalogs?

Not online, but my personal real life observations is that Macy's is a shadow of it's former self. My last two shopping experiences there were less than satisfactory and the store was deserted both times. They'll be going the way of Sears if they aren't careful.

Online, I haven't had any bad experiences this year. Not a Christmas gift, but a couple of weeks ago I ordered cotton lined jewelry boxes from two different ebay sellers and both packages arrived within 3 days.

Hubby hasn't had very good luck with Home Depot. Twice lately he's ordered something that was supposed to be two day delivery and it took weeks for the times to arrive. We ended up returning both because he got what he needed at other stores. I will say that the return experience at Home Depot was excellent and no hassle. They were pleasant, quick and efficient both times.

DH and I had a refreshingly positive experience yesterday with an Amazon order: clothing item received was too small, and instructions for free return were to finalize the return request online (a couple of mouse clicks), then simply drop off the item at a local, participating Kohls (ours was 15 minutes away). Kohls would take it from there. Sure enough, as DH walked through the doors, a huge 'Amazon' sign was apparent -- no lineup at all, and the entire transaction took minutes to complete.

Ours went well. We had one package ordered through Amazon that was lost for about a week but then suddenly the door bell rang and it was a very nice postman that wanted to make sure we got the package. Shook hands with my husband and wished us a merry Christmas. Everything else went smoothly. Most orders were through Amazon.

Everything was OK except for my husband's main gift from Amazon. He wanted a season of Dr Who on Blue Ray that arrived with a cracked case...it won't be available to reship until after Christmas around Jan. 9th. BOO!

RE: Macy's, MIL took a seasonal job there for some extra money, and she said it is a nightmare with this online shopping and in-store returns, that they end up with one of an item and these go to an area that is like an outlet/TJMaxx area. Not surprisingly, she had a lady who returned 5 red dresses that were ordered online in various sizes. She worked 6 p.m. until midnight on Sunday, and has to be there at 6:45 a.m. on the 26th. OTOH, we got some nice new towels with her discount. :)

Most of our Amazon online went OK other than sometimes we did not get notifications of delivery. DH ordered me a top from Sundance and we actually got it overnight. I ordered cardboard Christmas cat scratcher houses from Target online since they were sold out in stores, and I got them shipped free and arrived on Christmas Eve. So, that went well.

Got some promo offers from Shutterfly so I got "free" wall calendar, mug, and plaque that needed to be ordered last Saturday. With some minor upgrades and shipping, it came to about $25 so I guess that is fair. The calendar has already shipped. I am not paying for any expedited shipping since I drive past a huge Shutterfly facility every day I go to work.

I ordered items from Amazon and all arrived on time and in good shape. I also ordered from Popcornopolis and they were awesome...fast and free shipping. I ordered online from Williams-Sonoma for in-store pick-up and was very pleased with the process. They had lots of associates checking people out and my helper was cheerful, fast and accurate.

Good with Kohl's, JCPenny and amazon this year. No complaints.

JCP = good

Amazon= range hood said out for delivery, I stayed home & waited for it, never arrived, took 3 phone calls to find it had been damaged & shipped back. I had to reorder IF I still wanted the item & NO refund until the damaged item arrived back & shown as received.

Home Depot= good

Wayfair=good

Build.com=good

Ordered a few dresses from Macy’s for a wedding in a cold climate. I live in Florida so long sleeved velevet dresses aren’t readily available. Picked three out that I thought might work. The shipping was quick but it all 3 came from different parts of the country. All 3 were also balled up and in a plastic bag stuffed in an envelope style bag. At least velvet doesn’t wrinkle but still they could have tried. I did return 2 of them to the store where I imagine it will be a tough sell for Florida.

My problem with online shopping was me. I ordered biking socks for my son in the wrong size because I wasn’t paying attention and a book for my BIL in large print. Dumb.

Macy’s did fine by me delivering a sweater for my mom and sheets for me exactly as promised.

I ran into problems with the delivery services. I got two packages that were meant for neighbors. One was huge so I had to call and ask that they come over and get it. I also sent five Priority Mail letters that were guaranteed to arrive by the 22nd. One came on the 23rd after the recipient had left for the holidays and the other is still in-transit. Boo USPS.

Only had one bad experience and that was with Chinese merchant via Amazon. When I ordered one item for my son, it was supposed to be here long before Christmas. Now it's not expected till maybe January 9th. I didn't know it was coming from China and wish there was something on the front page saying it was. Someone might have commented on it in reviews but I never saw it. I did order another box of persimmons from the same company in California, through Amazon and it was due here between the 31st and January 3rd or something. It came yesterday! It and a book I got for my daughter. I had to go to work and the mailman was running late so I was a little worried the book (which I knew was coming) would still be there when I got home at 1 am this morning. There have been people stealing here in our little town, made the front page of the paper. Up until this year I hadn't heard about it happening here.

Catticus:

"Still waiting for my refund from Eddie Bauer on their falsely advertised hooded sleep sweater. Took them forever to respond to an email."

Falsely advertised? How so? I ordered three for family members. My only beef was they discounted them even more after TG....lesson learned.

I had good online ordering experiences with everything ordered....EB, Wayfair, Overstock, Amazon and a few smaller stores. Only problem was USPS put the EB box in the wrong cluster mailbox...took two weeks to finally figure it out.

I did all my shopping online and had great service.

Amazon, Sephora, Williams-Sonoma, gift cards dot com where I get Visa debit cards. I know there's more but I forget.

I had a great experience with American Girl via phone. Their website is so hard to navigate I decided to call, and it was on a Sunday. They must train their telephone associates better than anyone else. The lady I talked to knew everything about each product I ordered.

My Amazon orders arrived just fine and one was even a few days earlier than they predicted, so that was good.

The bad: surprisingly, ManCrates. Last year I ordered four for birthdays, and they were a big hit, so, I ordered two more for two of the same guys. They arrived quickly. I took them out of the outer box but not out of the heavy-duty corrugated inner box. Should have, because both (puzzle boxes) had the padlock already unlocked and one had a panel of the box broken off. I looked at the website for the reviews (there were none yet for this new product when I ordered) and all the reviews reported the same two issues. But, like my guys, they also liked the gift other than that, and ManCrates customer service was excellent and responsive. So, I have to contact them in the morning.

Meanwhile, the calendar I ordered from Calendars.com, as I've done for 15 years, has not arrived after 3 weeks. They said they were slow this year, but this is ridiculous. Another contact to make in the morning.

daisychain, funny you say that about The Bay because I've also had a couple of incidences (none recently, though) with them not removing theft tags. I live a couple of hours away from them so it's not convenient for me to just jump in the car and take things back. I do like shopping from The Bay, though, although the returns aren't free. Just wish they were still Canadian. I love online shopping at Roots Canada, but the one thing I don't love is that the return shipping isn't free. I had good luck with amazon.ca this year, plus they have free returns. I like The Gap and Banana Republic, too (free returns). I'm also a reluctant online shopper and prefer buying locally, if possible.

Costco has been wonderful, did what they said, delivered on time, good prices on Leggoes.

Had some terrible Amazon experiences, but some good ones too.

I find that more and more of my shopping/buying is online and local small stores. I purchased nothing at the malls but hit some discount big box stores and the higher end outlets (an oxymoron?). I like the buy/pick up service- had very good experience with Target, Walmart, and Best Buy and BB&B. Good experiences with Amazon, Macys, Nordstrom, Lands End, LL Bean, Eddie Bauer, Lulumom, Costco, Williams Sonoma, and an orange grove in Florida. I have learned to avoid purchasing items shipped from China at Amazon. A dead giveaway is when the listing says prime but delivery in several weeks. I want free shipping and returns or at least being bale to return locally. Most of the time I am successful. Online shopping is not without its challenges. The inability to feel and inspect an item is a downfall. I used honey and several time it came up with promo that I had not found already. The large pop up was a little annoying.

Some interesting facts about Macy's shipping. Different stores are used for shipping online items out. In our store, they do shipping out of the shoe department. Every morning they check a printer with on line orders and ship these shoes out. So Luk the shoes you received may just have been tried on in the store and not a return, I am assuming that other stores do this for other departments. I believe Nordstrom's operates like this also. The annoying thing as a consumer is that it may split your order up into several smaller shipments. This is a $$ saver as the companies do not have warehouses full of merchandise tying up $$. I did get things fairly fast from Macy's, one plastic mailer was ripped open but it appeared to have skidded across concrete.

Irritating miss--Eddie Bauer. Tall slender DD wants a new winter coat. Ordered a tall L coat for her from EB. Too tight. Reordered another style L and XL tall. Sleeves tight in the upper arms in the XL, L fits roomier? Different colors made in different plants? Hard to believe DD who wears a misses 10 or 12 is an XL.

All shopping done online. Patagonia, Apple, Revolve, Amazon, Bobbi Brown, Nordstrom. All arrived on-time, even when ordered quite late. All had free shipping. Could not have been happier!

I ordered a gift from https://trendshaven.com/ on November 11th. A week later, I emailed to ask if the item had shipped yet. Only then, did I learn it was a hand crafted item and would take 10 days to make, then ship. I was assured it would be here for Dec 23rd, as that's when I told them we were celebrating Christmas. Last week, I emailed them again. Where was my item? Well, they "just" sent it to their 'crafter'. It would take 10 days then had to ship. I emailed them again on the 23rd to let them know my son didn't get his gift as they promised (I took a screen shot of the email they sent me assuring me I would have it). If I don't hear back from them by Friday I'm calling MasterCard to file a dispute to get my money back. I will never recommend them to anyone.

I did have one funny incident where I ordered a blouse from jcrew. When I ordered it said it was back ordered until January. But it arrived right away. A few days later I got an email saying it was no longer available and would be cancelling my order. I totally forgot to check to see if I was charged.

Dee, that is so frustrating, but not limited to online either. When my DD opened her gifts this morning the two adidas shirts I got her from the bay still had the security tags on them. I don’t remember the alarm going off as we left the store either.

I had only one bad experience with Amazon. I ordered Halvah and a box of gourmet jams.

Halvah is a sesame candy that is oily. I ordered a dozen individually wrapped candy bars.

They put the 12 bars in an open bag. They were jostled around the bottom of the box was oily! The wrappers were greasy. I was also afraid to keep the jams because of the condition of the candy. It must have been kept in high heat conditions.

Amazon refunded my money. I threw the items away.

Although they did the right thing, I don't like the idea that they did not know how to wrap my items. This was a Christmas gift. Halvah is a select item and I had to go to a town 25 minutes away to purchase. I thought I could save some time. So, it this was a time constraint, getting my money back would not help with me being timely for a gift.

All my other purchases came relatively quickly. Madewell, Abercrombe, Urban Outfitters, American Eagle, Lands End and Anthropologie.

I agree about Macy's It is a shame. Starting at 18, it was my go to store. It hasn't been a good store for years. I do like tit though for sheets and get some really good sales on those.

RNMom, thanks for the information about Macy’s. It helps to know that. I wonder how much of the money they say they are saving from not having a warehouse is eatten up by all the returns not to mention the cost of extra staff to deal with them at the stores. When you think of how much business they’re loosing because their customers aren’t happy it doesn’t seem worth it IMO.

I should also mention LLBean’s awesome fresh wreaths. I ordered one for each of my aunts and they were full, fresh and well-made. I was a little wary because sometimes fresh wreaths arrive dried out and falling apart, but not the ones from LLBean this year. I’ll probably order again next year. I love the idea of gift that I don’t have to wrap and that the recipients can discard after enjoying it.

Although I am trying to do more local shopping as I do not want my local stores to disappear and to be honest I have been disappointed to many times when ordering online. When I can find the things I want locally I will buy from the store. That said local store inventory is just not that great lately, so I did buy online too. All my orders came through fine this year - Amazon, Macy’s, Target, JC Penney and my favorite Uncommon Goods.

I must be very lucky. I did a lot of online shopping, everything came in a timely manner (often before promised date), and as ordered.

Merry Christmas!

eBags- ordered a snowboard bag for my son, arrived on time great online shopping experience.

Sierra Trading Post - great as always

Local, I also like eBags and order suitcase organizers from them last year.

I forgot all about Sierra Trading Post. Will have to start looking at them again.

I forgot about both Uncommon Goods and Tradig Post! I used to use Amazon as my go to for everythig but converted back to local shopping sometime ago as well. But with my work schedule, online shopping was just easier for the holiday stuff. This next year I’m going to try to start buying a little bit at a time during the year, so shopping locally won’t be so much of a challenge time wise.

Good: Target order and pick-up. Target order and deliver, although they sent the gift cards separately, each in their own envelope. Lands End, faster than normal. Nordstrom, Sephora, but they are usually fast all of the time.

Horrid: eBags. Ordered a bag the Friday after Thanksgiving. Have ShopRunner (got it for free on a promotion from a conference), expecting it no later than the following Tuesday for 2-day delivery. Never an indication that anything was wrong. No status change by the following Thursday. Sent email on Friday. Monday, finally get email that the bag was out of stock and couldn't be sourced anywhere. Get email from customer service 4 hours later with same. I could have placed an order directly from the manufacturer for the same price that day, but have had good service from eBags, plus future discounts. Bag was by then out of stock from the manufacturer too. :-(

Most of my experiences were great, starting with Black Friday and right up until Christmas.

I ordered from Home Depot, Target, Anthro, Nordstrom, Neiman, REI, and of course Amazon. One Amazon item was a problem but it worked out ok. I also ordered some other random things like sheets and other deals I found from some other vendors.

I ordered two C.C. Kids hats on Dec 9, different colors and different vendors to get the colors I wanted. One came right away. The other wasn’t shipped until Dec 12, and after a week I still had not received it. Tracking kept saying it would arrive between Dec 18-21, then changed to the 22nd. I needed it by the 22nd. So I went back on Amazon, found the same hat on Prime that could be here by the 21st so I ordered it. The original finally arrived on Saturday (too late to give to my great niece) but I gave it to DD to give to a friends daughter so it worked out. I am going to give some lousy feedback to that seller.

Falsely advertised? How so? I ordered three for family members. My only beef was they discounted them even more after TG....lesson learned.

Joanie, it was the hooded sleep sweater. The color was not as depicted and the material content was totally different. If I had known it contained wool I would never have ordered it. Felt like a bait and switch. The sweater was supposed to be 55% cotton/34%acrylic/10%polyester/1%spandex. The sweater I received was 58%cotton/18%acrylic/17%polyester/7%wool.

https://www.eddiebauer.com/product/womens-hooded-sleep-cardigan/24503052

Catticus.....that's the one I ordered and I didn't pay attention when I opened them and wrapped them. Now that you mention it, the colors are not quite the same as pictured. Maybe that's part of the dyeing process? It never occurred to me to check the material. I'm surprised EB gave you a hard time.

I had pretty much all good experiences - JCP, Burlington and of course Amazon. Only one glitch - I chose the free delivery that takes longer than 2 days - I think I got a $1 digital credit. Anyhow, a gift for a friend sent to her house and I didn't want it to get there too early... and of course that's the package they thought "might be lost" when it didn't arrive when it was supposed to. But it did eventually show up and it was before Christmas so all was well!

I had good experiences with Macy's, both delivery and in-store pick up. I ordered a cashmere sweater in the wrong size but was eventually able to get the correct size. After seeing it, I wished I had tried one for me -- but cashmere does make me itch......sigh. My only issue with Macy's this year was that they had almost no stock in outerwear at our store -- just a few faux leather jackets and very few leather in one style. I had to order online and bring the store to me -- times two for two sons. I will be returning several, but I did try to buy in the store.

I had good experiences with Amazon, Best Buy, Target, King Arthur Flour, Penzey's -- pretty much all that I dealt with with one qualifier:

The Not Great: One third party vendor (drapery supplies) on Amazon failed to ship some curtain rods until after I submitted a claim for a lost item and asked them to resend. They told me they reshipped, but they actually finally shipped the original package some 3 weeks later. The tracking number on the package matched the original one they sent me.

The Ugly: Other than above, the only issues I had were all on USPS and I wish vendors were more open about how they will ship or give you options. I had priority mail that would travel the same path in 2 days take nearly 2 weeks -- and tracking it showed that it was parked for days at a sorting facility. Without fail, Fedex delivered as promised or a day earlier, UPS -- as expected and USPS was 2-4 times the normal transit time and very stressful.

Great thread!

That's too bad about eBags, as I've had excellent experiences with them. This was the first year I didn't order from Sierra Trading Post, nor LL Bean. I usually get many boxes from Sierra before Christmas.

Shopping for a generator, I looked for an online source that doesn't charge tax. The amount of the purchase was over $2,000, and PA sales tax is 6%. I found one website that looked and sounded great. Fortunately, I checked with resellerratings.com before placing an order. I found out this particular generator dealer is a good place to stay away from. Terrible rating, and loads of consumer complaints.

I did find a reputable source that doesn't charge tax, but ended up ordering from Amazon anyway. I'll get 5% back in Amazon points because I use an Amazon Visa, and I have confidence in them.

I had my DIY Christmas cards printed by Mpix.com, as usual waiting for their annual 50% sale. I did the design late at night, and did it wrong. Called first thing in the morning to make the correction, and learned my cards had already been printed and shipped. But they offered to reprint them for free, and upgraded their shipping, also for free. I highly recommend Mpix!

I hardly ever go to Kohl's, but ordered a pair of slippers from them to be picked up at the store. Waited on line 35 minutes, which doesn't sound all that bad, but it was at the end of my shopping day, and my back was really bothering me. I told Kohl's about it on the rating questionnaire they emailed me.

Good experiences with Etsy, including two pair of lovely earrings that arrived promptly from Israel. Good experience with BestBuy with Cyber Monday deals--my first order from them, I think. Super fast shipping. Good deals and fast shipping from Woot.

Only one of my many Amazon purchases arrived with defects: a small drum I bought for my grandson. Because I bought it in advance of Christmas, the return window had expired. But I called Amazon, and they agreed to a return at their expense, and a refund.

Sent two books from Amazon.uk, both arrived early (in the UK) and the price for the two books (quoted in pounds, paid for in dollars) was less that one of the books on Amazon.com.

I ordered from Macy's, Ebay and Amazon that I can remember! Everything came in good time. Seemed like Macy's was a little slow but I did order on Black Friday so to be expected. One package from Amazon was torn but the item inside was fine. Most of my shopping was done online. Only trouble I had was finding cocoa dusted chocolate truffles in stock at Aldi.

I had good luck with all my online orders. I branched out a bit from Amazon - Kohl’s, BB&B, HD - and all the experiences were good. I like the option to just return to the local store.

Ordered from Target for the first time. A little slow getting here, stuff just thrown in a cardboard box with minimal bubble wrap. The glass decanter I ordered was smashed. It wasn't in a box of its own. It wasn't bubble wrapped. Just put in the box with about 5 other things that all had individual boxes! They refunded my money. So then had to find another gift.

The worst experience I had was in-store. The check out clerk was RUDE. I was pissed. I kept my mouth shut because it's Christmas. Honestly I kept telling myself maybe she's sick, has a sick baby at home or parent that's sick. Maybe she's stressed about money or family problems. Maybe the person before me was ignorant to her and I got the brunt of it. She's lucky I talked myself out of saying something. I was polite, thanked her for her help and said Merry Christmas. She didn't respond!!! The older lady behind me smiled at me and said have a very Merry Christmas honey. She was so sweet.

Online shopping is great! We had several deliveries during the same day at times. I put a cooler outside with drinks and snacks for the drivers

Amazon-the main website we used-no issues.

Walmart was doing great with pretty fast shipping until I ordered a $50 iTunes card for $40. They canceled the order for 'techincal reasons'.

Sears was good too but its annoying to pick things up. Free shipping is only for orders $59+. I can't complain though-I bought my daughter a Kitchenaid mixer for $250 and they are giving back $250 in points as $25/week. So far I've gotten $100 back. Hopefully they stay in business-I like Sears.

Ebay worked out well. 3 items I ordered from one merchant had a 10 day window on delivery and it was possible they wouldn't arrive in time, but they did. Another item guaranteed by xmas came on 12/24 but had tracking so I was good with that.

Target was not so good although ordering for store pick up was super fast. An online order I placed for xmas pjs for my daughter said it was delivered by usps on 12/7 and it was not. They offered a refund. I said I'd rather have the item. I waited a while and it hadn't shown up. I looked up the order and it was now backordered. They had no clue when I would get it. I canceled the order then had to scramble to find a pair.

interesting reading al these- not a Christmas story but I have always been a major Tarjay fan. I think they seem to be having major issues transitioning to the online world though. I have heard several stories of them dropping the ball and not being able to get a handle on it. I do hope they get it together soon. I don't have much faith in Macy's and or Sear's, but the few orders I have placed over the years with each were problem free.

I had excellent service from online stores this year-- I had one issue where a wrong item was sent but it was corrected very quickly. I ordered from etsy, frostbeard, amazon, macys, cuddlduds, Nordstrom, banana republic, urbanoutfitters, freepeople, and Hershey entertainment... as well as a few out of town restaurants (gift certificates).

My only complaints were also with USPS-- more than once, I had packages left in the rain when there was a convenient, covered location to leave them.

My niece is a December baby and turned 18 this year. I really wanted to buy her a nicer piece of jewelry but the stuff in the stores was either too trendy, over priced and/or just plain ugly. I decided to put my faith in Etsy and had a great experience with the shop I used as well.

I love working with local self owned businesses and the artisan shops because I’m rarely ever disappointed. Every year my daughter manages to give me a couple of things that are handmade and I always look forward to seeing the treasures she’s found. This year it was a small hand made pottery birdhouse and a gorgeous scarf.

I’m glad to see that a lot of the posters are trying to shop locally more, it’s important to support our local economies and I hope that this next year the trend will continue to grow. Amazon and the entire online shoppig trend always reminds me of the movie Sleepless in Seattle where the little bookshop was forced to close. These little shops are one of a kind treasures that we can’t afford to loose.

I've always had pretty good luck with Macys online. It's easy to do returns at the store if whatever doesn't work out. I did 3 returns on Christmas Eve on Macys if you can believe it. In and out, no problem.

My online shopping was all good: Kohl's, Best Buy, LL Bean, Land's End, Amazon and Ebay. I have my items sent to work as our neighborhood has sadly had things stolen from porches. There were some things I ordered late and they have not arrived yet - but I knew the dates were post-Christmas when I ordered. Only one is a semi-gift (a jacket for my husband who lost a lot of weight and needs one in a smaller size). The upside of those is that I'm shipping them to Son#1's place of work, as I won't be back to my own job for a couple of weeks. So we're going to meet him for dinner once he has both my orders.

Katlan's rude checkout clerk reminded me of my rude clerk story from several years ago. I was buying Christmas ornaments to decorate a metal tree I'd gotten from a specialty store. The sum total was probably more than I'd spent for the tree itself. I was buying a couple of other things too. As the clerk was ringing the things up we realized that there was something wrong with one of the boxes I was buying. The clerk ended up being really rude about it. We finished the purchase with the plan that I would go way back to the seasonal section to get another box - even the cashier manager had come over to help because she heard the rude cashier. However, after starting to walk back to switch the boxes, instead I turned around and went over to customer service and told them I wanted to return everything. Everything?! Yes. I said that the clerk had been really rude and and that made me mentally step back and realize that I was overspending. Customer service wanted to know who the clerk had been, but I said that I understood that it's the stressful Christmas shopping season and I didn't want to point her out, but just wanted my money back. (I ended up getting the tree ornaments from Joanne Fabrics and used some JF Bucks I had to pay!) I guess a thank you to the rude clerk for helping me to spend less?

Macy's has gone downhill for me. I shop for clothes in the plus size section. It used to be pretty good, but now they moved it to an area about half what it used to be, Everything is piled up and crammed in like it is a clearance section, and the clothes are ugly....... The rest of the store has plenty of merchandise and is kept neat so you can find things.

Amazon had one thing that didn't arrive on time, but that's the only hiccup we had with them. Everything else arrived early or as promised. Same with Home Depot.

I'm not happy with USPS. I sent a package to a friend out of state, and she almost ran over it with her car. They left it in the middle of her very long driveway. She lives in a rural area and it had been raining. Luckily, everything was OK, but really? I paid plenty to have that package delivered. They could have at least left it on the porch.

Just checked my son's gift from China...due January 9th - the 31st??!!! The last time it was scanned was on the 20th and it was still in China. I guess we will be delivering it to my son in February when we drive his car to him in California.

lisa-fla, what a great idea to set out the cooler with drinks and snacks for delivery drivers! I am out (way out!) In the country, but I may do that in the hot summer months when I know I have a delivery. We have the best service from USPS (our rural carrier is wonderful!) UPS is good, but their packages are often pretty banged up and dusty. Even FedEx is improving after some awful customer service and missed deliveries due to not being able to find us.

We've had a very good online experiences with Amazon, Eddie Bauer, several Etsy and Ebay vendors, Nike.com, Macy's, Kohls, Everythingkitchens.com (6 small Fiesta Christmas platters for just over $100 + free shipping!,) and a couple of others I've forgotten.

One item from Target arrived a day late, Barnes & Noble had an item that came late, but they were the only place that had Creek/Muskogee dictionaries available and those came from different vendors (still very lengthy order to ship times.) Target had an item that didn't arrive until the day after Christmas when it stated delivery time by Christmas eve. I've never had an issue with shipping from Bath & Body Works' packing and shipping, but had a multipack of hand soaps that one container had leaked.