I was seduced by Google's bribe of $20 per $50 or greater order to try their new Checkout service, and did some Christmas shopping on buy.com. Normally buy.com, being based in Southern California, takes only 1 or 2 days by UPS ground to get things to me. So ordering last weekend should have been low risk for items that are "in stock and ship in 1-2 days." Yes, they cover their asses by putting a longer upper bound on the shipping time, but generally that's the ship time for people on the other coast.

I got a mail via Google (part of their privacy protection) that the items had been shipped on Tuesday, so all was well. Unfortunately, I didn't go and immediately check on the tracking info. The new interface with Google Checkout makes that harder to do -- normally you can just go to the account page on most online stores and follow links directly to checking. Here the interface requires you to cut and paste order numbers and it's buggy, reporting incorrect shipper names.

Unfortuantely it's becoming common for online stores to keep things in different warehouses around the country now. Some items I ordered, it turns out, while shipped quickly, were shipped from far away. They'll arrive after Christmas. So now I have to go out and buy the items at stores, or different items in some cases, at higher prices, without the seductive $20 discount -- and I then need to arrange return of items ordered after they get here. And I'll probably be out not only the money I paid for shipping (had I wanted them after christmas I would have selected the free saver shipping option of course) but presumably return shipping.

A very unsatisfactory shopping experience.

How could this have been improved (other than by getting the items to me?)

1. When they e-mail you about shipment, throw in a tracking link and also include the shipper's expected delivery day. UPS and Fedex both give that, and even with the USPS you can provide decent estimates.
2. Let me specify in the order, "I need this by Dec 23." They might be able to say right then and there that "This item is in stock far away. You need to specify air shipping to do that."
3. Failing that, they could, when they finally get ready to ship it, look at what the arrival date will be, and, if you've set a drop-dead date, cancel the shipment if it won't get to you on time. Yes, they lose a sale but they avoid a very disappointed customer.

This does not just apply around Christmas. I often go on trips, and know I won't be home on certain days. I may want to delay delivery of items around such days.

As I blogged earlier, it also would simplify things a lot if you could use the tracking interface of UPS, Fedex and the rest to reject or divert shipments in transit. If I could say "Return to sender" via the web on a shipment I know is a waste of time, the vendor wins, I win, and even the shipping company can probably set a price for this where they win too. The recipient saves a lot of hassle, and the vendor can also be assured the item has not been opened and quickly restock it as new merchandise. If you do a manual return they have to inspect, and even worry about people who re-shrinkwrap returns to cheat them.

Another issue that will no doubt come up -- the Google discount was $20 off orders of $50 or more. If I return only some of the items, will they want to charge me the $20? In that case, you might find yourself in a situation where returning an item below $20 would cost you money! In this case I need to return the entire order except one $5 item I tossed on the order, so it won't be an issue.

Jolly December to all. (Jolly December is my proposal for the Pastafarian year-end holiday greeting, a good salvo in the war on Christmas. If they're going to invent a war on Christmas, might as well have one.)