PlanetFeedback's ShopperCast

The Home Stretch

If you haven't finished (or started) your holiday shopping, we're down to three days to go.  It has been a tough holiday season for retailers.  The International Council of Shopping Centers is predicting the worst shopping season since 1969.  Ouch.  That's longer than some of us have been alive.

Thus some retailers are getting creative.  More than a dozen Macy's will stay open 24 hours a day between now and Christmas... we guess to lure customers who don't have anything better to do at 3:30 a.m. than to go in and buy a cashmere sweater. 

Other stores are slashing prices.  40% off gold earrings, again at Macy's.  40% off items at the Disney Store.  All in an effort to get you to hit the malls.

But what if malls aren't your thing?  Online retailers are more than happy to help you out with last minute deals and free shipping offers.  Some of the bargains we found: 

Old Navy is offering online shoppers up to 60 percent off;

Online jeweler BlueNile.com is sending "Daily Gem" e-mails to customers alerting them to new specials each day;

Shoe store Zappos.com, clothing retailer J.Crew and others are blasting e-mails to shoppers about free shipping, including free two-day service at bag retailer Timbuk2;

BlueFly.com, is cutting its fee for expedited shipping.

Some are even guaranteeing delivery on Christmas Eve as long as you order by December 23.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

--Contributed by Deb

All I Want is What's Coming to Me, All I Want is My Fair Share- Can Consumers Really Reap the Benefits From Rewards Programs?

What does a hotel stay at the Super 8 Motel have to do with the Four Seasons? Or buying groceries online have to do with a free upgrade to first-class on your next trip to Europe? While it doesn’t seem like these things have anything to do with each other, they hold one common denominator: rewards sites. The savvy traveler knows the best way to earn miles and get free hotel stays is by purchasing products they use everyday through loyalty programs. But how reliable are these programs and what guarantees you’ll get your rewards?

 

The best loyalty program is one where there is no loyalty for a specific brand. (Think getting airline miles without committing to one airline). Hotels.com has recently started a program that gives you one free night’s stay at any property of your choice (yes, even at the Four Seasons) after you’ve booked a total of ten nights of hotel stays through their website. This is probably one of the best deals we have seen so far, as customers are not limited to a hotel choice of “equal or lesser value” for their free stay.

 

United Airlines offers a rewards program where frequent fliers can register any credit card or debit card online and when they use that card at select restaurants, online stores, and grocery stores, they can earn miles toward free tickets and upgrades. But how well does this system work? When we signed up for this service and used our debit card at certain locations, we noticed many of the restaurants on the major list had disappeared from their preferred providers over the course of one week. While some of our miles hit our account relatively quickly, we were never credited for others. This type of program seemed to be hit or miss. It works fine if you want to shop or eat at these establishments anyway, but its not really worth going out of your way if there is a chance you won’t receive credit for it.

 

Finally, programs online such as Fatwallet.com offer a 1%-3% cash return when you access certain websites through their buyer portal. This service is pretty convenient, as you are able to price-shop several websites and see a side-by-side comparison of several products at once. Plus, the returns seem small, but if you switch to buying products this way, they can add quickly. The only downfall is that many of these programs have gone out of business in the past five years and consumers “lost” all the points they accumulated.

 

Finding a rewards program can seem just as personal as finding a roommate. It really has to fit your needs and you may have to go through a few of them just to find the one that’s right for you.

 

On the plus side, they don’t leave the toilet seat up, they never leave dirty dishes in the sink, and you never come home to find their boyfriend camped out on your couch for three weeks. Okay, so maybe its easier than finding a new roommate.

-Contributed by Alicia Butler

 

These Artists Are Animals!

Quick.  Look at your walls. 

What dominates your living space in terms of art?  Abstracts, landscapes, lithographs, photographs.  Art is a very personal matter - what resonates and speaks to you may not to us and vice versa. 

If you're a fan of wildlife and art, there's an auction that might be right up your alley.  One auction house in South Carolina auctioned off paintings created by penguins and sea lions and all sorts of other furry critters.  (Pause for an "awwwwwww" moment.)  Cha Cha the Lion must be a pretty good artist for have his/her work go for $550.  We wonder if a gazelle was his/her muse.

This is the first time a group of zoos have gotten together to collaboratively raise money and awareness of conservation and educational efforts.  What a novel way to get people to pony up for charitable causes ~ certainly it goes beyond receiving address labels in the mail in exchange for a donation.  In this economy, one of the first things to get cut when you're trying to put food on the table is a contribution to charity. 

By all accounts the auction was a success.  Money was raised and art was purchased.  And Cha Cha became a star.    RAWR.

--Contributed by Deb

I Love New York?

Well right now, Amazon doesn't.

In fact, they are suing the state of New York over an item in the state's 2008-2009 budget package.  The new law requires out of state companies to collect sales tax from online shoppers in New York.  It only applies to companies that do not have a brick and mortar presence in the state but have at least one person in the state who acts as Amazon's agent ~ for example, someone who places a link of their website and gets a bite of the sales revenue big apple.

Amazon is challenging the constitutionality of this new legislation.  The legal argument is that the new statute is impermissibly vague and overbroad.  It also argues the tax is discriminatory. 

Whether it is or it isn't remains to be seen, however, the goal of this new legislation is quite clear ~ support companies with a New York presence, not giant, faceless e-tailers.  Spend your money, New Yorkers, where you earn it by supporting locally based businesses in your community. 

Now, there's nothing wrong with that, but we don't know if this is quite the way to do it.  It's just a little bit heavy-handed.

--Contributed by Deb

I Love You This Much!

It's two days until Valentine's Day!  Hallmark would love YOU if you would go in there and buy a few things for your sweetie.  Candy and flowers are de rigeur, but there are some really fun, adventurous gifts out there if pink and red hearts just aren't your thing.

Being socially conscious is very trendy this year.  This time every year, sales of organic chocolate skyrocket.  Fair trade items, such as coffee and flowers, where you pay a little bit more so the farmer or grower earns a decent wage, are hot too. 

Another very cool thing to do is give a gift of life ~ no, we're not talking about donating blood (although that's a great idea too).  Websites such as Kiva allow you to purchase gift certificates for entrepreneurs in developing countries so they can get themselves out of poverty.  A hand up, that's the ultimate expression of love.

So you could do the same old thing you did last year - dinner, flowers, a box of drugstore candy, or you could get out on a limb.  Come on, fellas... get out there on the limb.  Dontcha know that's where the fruit is? *wink*

--Contributed by Deb

Should Negative Feedback Be Eliminated?

Just when we all breathed a huge sigh of relief that the writer's strike looks to be ending and we can finally get our Desperate Housewives back, yet another strike looms.  Not by actors or movie studios.  No... this time its eBay sellers who have their sights set on the picket line.

Last week eBay changed its fee structure for sellers.  The changes are to take effect February 20 and include a drop in the upfront fees to sell something, but also will include greater commissions to eBay which will reduce the overall profits for sellers, some of which rely on online sales as a form of income.  Even worse, according to some sellers, is that they will no longer be allowed to leave negative feedback for purchasers. 

Irate sellers are calling for a strike from February 18 through 25 to protest the changes.  Auctionbytes, an independent trade publication for online merchants found in a survey that 90% of the responses to eliminating feedback were negative.

We're of two minds on this one.  We wholeheartedly embrace the idea that all consumers and merchants should have a voice and eliminating just one kind of feedback does not paint a fair picture.  However, having been on PlanetFeedback for a while, we've seen a great number of complaints alleging seller abuse of the ratings system.  Buyers say the threat of negative feedback often comes up when they have filed a dispute about a seller.  A commercial tit for tat, as it were.  Punishment was not the original intention of the feedback structure on eBay, but it has been used as blackmail against buyers who complain.  And that's wrong too.

Regardless of its good intention, eliminating the voice of only one-half of a transaction is not a good thing.  Good-bye level playing field.  It shifts the axiom of buyer beware to seller beware.  And this is fundamentally unfair to sellers.  Perhaps what eBay needs to do is just tamp down a little harder on sellers who are abusing the ratings feature instead of rendering them all mute.

--Contributed by Deb

Coupon $avings!

How do you save money on the products you buy on a regular basis?  If you're like us, you check out the sales advertisements, read reviews and comparison shop online and clip coupons.  In this economy, it's worth it to save every penny you can.

Lest you think coupons have gone to the way of 5 1/4" floppy disks, comScore, an internet provider that tracks consumer behavior says that 53% of us go to brand websites in order to find promotions.  We know that it's part of our ritual to check out all the grocery store ad fliers to see who has what at what price.  We save roughly 35% on our grocery bill each trip by buying smartly ~ leaves us more money to spend on the REALLY important items.  Like pizza and beer.

Here is an article with some websites to get you started.  And they don't just feature grocery coupons ~ There are discounts for Dell, Target, Toys 'R Us, Office Depot, and Best Buy (just to name a few) available online.  Ka-ching!

Happy Shopping.

--Contributed by Deb

Your Avatar Looks Fab In That

In lieu of Christmas presents to real people, some are electing to send gift certificates to their friends' cyber alter-egos.  They are called virtual gift certificates and basically people spend money (usually around a buck or two, but sometimes more) for icons that they can send to their friends' Facebook page or gifts for their Second Life avatars. 

We swear we are not making this up.  People actually are spending money for people who technically don't exist. 

That's right -- you can send a virtual glass of champagne to celebrate the New Years on Facebook or buy a gift certificate so your BFF's Second Life avatar can have a shopping spree.  And it's a growing market ~ three million digital objects were sold on Second Life during the first two weeks of November.  Three MILLION.  Over two weeks.  Even at $1 an object, that's a pretty fair chunk of change.   It boggles the mind what people spend money on.

The Ms. Manners in us wonders exactly how do you reciprocate when your avatar receives a new outfit.  Must your avatars go shopping together? Does he/she send a "thank you" card?  Or just send a virtual beer in return? 

--Contributed by Deb

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Lisa loves her Bath and Body Works products.  We can't say that we blame her. The problem is that she lives in Canada and doesn't have a retail outlet near her.  So she orders her body washes and lotions online.  The problem?  BB & W uses blue tape to keep the lids down during shipping.  And when Lisa peeled it off, off came parts of labels.

Not a big deal if she's using it just for herself, but what if she's giving it for a gift?  It does look rather tacky to give someone something with a chunk of the label missing.  Of course the alternative is to not put the blue tape down (or shorten up the blue tape) and open the box to find an explosion of hand cream or body splash all over the inside of the box.  Yuck.

So is it all or nothing?  Surely there can be some happy medium here.  Maybe Lisa's right... maybe all they need is a different kind of tape.  We applaud Lisa for how she handled this situation.  Instead of getting upset at the company and demanding they replace her product, she made a even-keeled suggestion that's worthwhile to both the company and consumers.  THIS is how they should all be handled.

--Contributed by Deb

What A Predictament!

Peter G. has run head-long into a problem that's more prevalent than you might imagine.  He purchased an Alienware laptop of eBay and was told, by the seller, that there was a two-year warranty.  Less than a year after he purchased it, the motherboard died.  So Peter contacts Alienware only to learn that they doesn't recognize him or his warranty as he is not the original purchaser.

As you might imagine, Peter G. is not happy with this answer.  Especially after forking out over $1,300 for a laptop that now can double as a paperweight. 

However... Alienware's limited warranty is right there, on its webpage.  The first sentence under the heading of "Scope of Alienware Limited Product Warranty" reads that Alienware warrants to the original purchaser (emphasis added).  Peter G., however, doesn't appear to have read this information.  Instead he relied on the promises of the eBay seller who, again as you might imagine, has disappeared back into the woodwork, leaving Peter G. with little recourse other than to go out of pocket to replace his motherboard.

And that, boys and girls, should be a lesson to you. When you are buying a product online from someone other than the original manufacturer or an authorized retailer, do a little bit of research before you place a bid.  Trust us...we did a little bit of research (read: playing around on Google) as we wrote this and lots of places are promising a two year warranty when you purchase an Alienware computer.  Warranties that, as Peter found out, aren't valid.

Measure twice, cut once.

--Contributed by Deb