Saving big bucks online.....

OMG, what woman doesn't get heart palpitations over the thought of saving money? I have to tell you this little story that happened to me today.

I had to make a purchase and started out "shopping" for this item online. Once I found the style and make that interested me, then I set out to find the best price. The first price I found was $183.95, plus a whopping $32. to have it shipped. Wow! Definitely too much money. I would never ever pay that kind of money in postage. Most of the time I only shop online if I have free shipping. The smart stores offer it often if you buy a certain amount and also give out promo codes for free shipping, no matter how much....those codes can be obtained here. Those promo codes have saved me bundles, not only in free shipping, but in percentages off of your purchases. Sweet!

So I googled the item and found the stores that carry it. I found it at one place for $129.00 and then at another for $111.00 with $18.00 shipping and bookmarked that in case I couldn't find anything better. One store shouted in red letters that it had free shipping but the small print said "on most items" and, of course, MY item was not one included. I gave this store a second chance, even though I considered them sneaky, because the price of the item was $99.99 and that was a substantial saving. The shipping was $19.99 and that didn't set well with me so I called them and asked them if they could do better on the shipping costs. I even pulled the "senior citizen" card on them but they didn't bite. They wouldn't give me a better deal, so I thanked them and continued on my way. You can even flip them the bird or stick out your tongue or waggle your hiney at them without fear of reprisal. Internet shopping is so great like that.

After only 3 or 4 minutes of searching I found my item at the $99.99 price at a store that actually did honor free shipping. I am so proud of myself. To their misfortune, the store I called missed out on a sale just because they didn't want to work with me on the shipping.....so maybe they didn't really need the sale. What amazes me is the price difference for this item. Obviously the store selling it for $99.99 is still making money, so look at the profit margin there is originally at $183.95! And how about that shipping....its not like I live in Bora Bora. Look at the difference in that....all the way from $18 to $32...to ship the same item. In the end you know the store I chose is making money on my $99.99 purchase and enough so they can even ship it for free and still come out ahead. But in the long run, I'm the one who benefited and something like that would make it a banner day in the life of anyone!! Keep smilin'. Hey Brad....are you reading this?

Sometimes you just gotta lie......

Yep, sometimes you have to just flat out lie. Even though I don’t really count it because you’re not deceiving a PERSON, you’re deceiving a computer and that’s always challenging. I have a favorite department store for children’s clothes. I LOVE this place. I’ve never had any trouble placing orders or receiving them for YEARS now. I always watch for free shipping and when they have it, you can rest assured that I am going to order something. BTW, for those of you who don’t know this, you can go to www.currentcodes.com and look for your store to see if they are offering any promotional codes. This can save you a BUNDLE. I check it out every time I’m going to shop online. Copy down the promo code and type it on the check out page from your store when they ask for one, and BINGO….you may get 20% off your order (more or less). Make sure you read the conditions (like maybe the order has to be at least $50 or maybe its good for only shoes).

Now, back to what I was originally talking about. I’ve ordered from this one store for years and have never had a problem UNTIL they decided to upgrade their web-site. Now if I try to order online, the ‘shopping bag’ will only keep two items in it, when I try to add a third, it will completely empty out and I have to start all over. Grrrr. I finally gave up and placed my order over the phone, which was fun since the items I wanted were online items and had no catalog number showing on my screen. Of course I got a MALE representative. So here I am trying to explain that the dress I want has an empire waist and eyelet lace. Poor guy. But he managed to take my order. I had placed an order a month ago before they started all this crazy updating business and there was a pair of shoes not included when my package arrived. I had called about that and the rep told me that I should receive them within 48 hours and that was over a week ago.

So TODAY I finally manage to get a hold of them. Why did I wait so long, you say? Well, I’ve been trying to call them since last Wednesday and their computerized phone kept saying, “we are experiencing an unusually heavy volume of calls at this time, please hang up and try your call again later”. Well, I have been trying later….I even tried at midnight and still got the same response. So this morning I called with a glint in my eye and determination in my soul. I WAS going to get satisfaction or else. I. CAN. DO. THIS. So I called, got the same response and then pressed the number stating that I wanted to PLACE an order. HA! No business is going to turn down money! After all, its YOU that has to wait, not them. If you’re willing to wait PLUS spend money….well, then that’s all the better. And Yep….just as I expected. I got through to a representative and only had to wait maybe a minute. I managed to get everything taken care of. She stated that when they updated the system, they lost some of their orders and that pair of shoes just happened to be one of them. She reordered them, plus sent them out Second Day Air free of charge (free shipping, not the shoes) because I had been inconvenienced. I’m happy that I finally got this resolved but now I must shake my finger at this business. Shame on you! I’m a good customer, you have many good customers and THIS is how you treat us all? By LYING. Telling us that you’ve got an extremely high volume of calls for 5 days straight is a bit ridiculous. But…..then again maybe the general public was all calling and complaining about the updated web-site and not being able to place orders, just like I was. Sometimes progress isn’t so great. When something works well, why mess with it…but then if everyone had tunnel vision like me we would be driving around in Model T Fords!

So while I’m on this train of thought, here is a web-site that helps you bypass the dreaded computer for some businesses when you have an important call to make and you want a HUMAN. Go here http://www.gethuman.com/. There are just too many businesses that are putting computerized responses on their phones now. I have even gotten solicitation calls from computers. Now THAT’S the height of laziness.