<p>So, I don’t know about the rest of you , but I do a combination shopping of local independant merchants, some department store , catalogue and website shopping to accomodate my shopping list…
Today I ordered from two regular catalogues I deal with…Eddie Bauer and LL Bean…my goodness , what a huge difference with their staff ! I am pretty sure I got a seasonal , temp worker from EB…he was slower than my 80 yr old mother , and might well have an issue that caused him to bark / scream / shreik in the middle of the transaction ( which was pretty routine )
Then I called LL Bean with the usual professional , courteous customer service ( caller ID indentified who I was was before placing order, last four of my preferred credit card on file , etc )
After a nightmare-ish customer service experience with Verizon for our business today , I am beginning to wonder how much we are dumbing down our American workforce , compared to the constant consumer complaints about outsourcing our phone reps to third world nations ?</p>
<p>If you think the customer service at Eddie Bauer is bad, try Bank of America. They win the poor customer service award hands down.</p>
<p>When I order from LLBeans or EB, I do it online…no people to deal with on the phone. Much easier.</p>
<p>Shopping here was painless this year. DD’s gifts have been sent…most ordered online from Amazon. DS is getting a new computer. Done.</p>
<p>DH wants the usual PJs and gloves. I guess I’ll be obliging.</p>
<p>I want only one thing…new counter tops. I think Santa is NOT going to get me what I want so I guess I’ll have to see if that bunny at Easter will be more obliging :)</p>
<p>I made my first (maybe only) Christmas shopping mall trip today. I bought everything I set out to get but was pooped when I was finished.</p>
<p>Shopping online is just so much easier. So far I’ve ordered gifts from Zappo’s, Cabelas and Sierra Trading Post. </p>
<p>Still need a few odds and ends for my boys but that should be easy.</p>
<p>My dryer died this week…had a new one delivered yesterday…Merry Christmas to me.</p>
<p>I would have ordered on line with EB ,but it wasn’t allowing me to apply my $25 rewards I get a few times a year…so far , no confirmation with them , so I may have to call them back.
I frequently order from Amazon , but haven’t had much luck with them lately ( they take the order ,then I get notified a few days later that my item is out of stock )</p>
<p>I have had the worst luck with Verizon over the last several months…their customer support staff has gone wayyyyyy downhill compared to the way it used to be. They lost me for home service , now they are losing all of my commercial business which is over a dozen phone lines and internet service too</p>
<p>thumper1 – After the holidays is a better time to buy countertops anyway. All the people who wanted their kitchens to look nice for the relatives are out of the queue and prices come down. </p>
<p>Pretty much done with the shopping. I love the ease of on-line but I do like the energy of the shops. Shocked the heck out of a salesguy at one store – he was giving me his spiel and when I said ‘I’ll take it’ he thought I said ‘I’ll think about it’ and he started to walk away. The look on his face when he realized what I said was priceless! He said ‘most people don’t say that’…I guess most people don’t do internet research before making a big purchase. </p>
<p>I also appreciated the ladies at Coldwater Creek putting something aside for me – it was the last one and they held it with only my first name! That’s a great store for anyone with a hard-to-buy-for woman in their lives. They have good on-line and catalog shopping as well.</p>