Alex P.

I don't do outdoorsy things and their clothing (even petite) isn't cut well for my height/stature so I don't shop there normally but I needed waterproof gloves to potentially a) hack ice from the wind shield b) clear snow from the windows/roof and c) shovel snow! I have literally, child sized hands so it's hard for find adult gloves to fit me and not many come in xs. So, I came across a model on the ll bean site and it was on sale so I ordered it (free shipping). Alas, it was too big and bulky - even for normal female hands so I had to return it in store. Despite paying using PayPal, they were able to refund a credit card I had linked to PayPal. So in conclusion, although nothing fit properly buying online from them and returning an item was hassle free!

Yves Rocher is a French beauty products (think Body Shop) chain that's in Canada but not the US (as far as I know) and I like some of their products. They have many promotions ongoing and they ship a ton of free samples along with free gifts... it's a bit much but I like their tote and cosmetic bags that they sometimes give out for a minimal purchase. It's weird but they didn't send me a shipping notification so I was worried but my package came within a reasonable amount of time. I've only ordered from them online once so I can't comment on how reliable they are for multiple orders. Everything was packaged fairly well and nothing leaked. Until Yves Rocher decides to open up in the US, online ordering is an alternative to making a trek up to Canada.

I was really hankering for a tea fragrance one summer, and after a few misses from Anthropologie I found a minor brand (Jacomo) that was only available from a US store located in NYC or online and since I didn't want to spend I decided to wait until I had exhausted other tea options. I randomly googled the name of the frag and strawberryNET had a huge discount, about 40%. Fragantica members list them as a trusted source so I went ahead and ordered - accepting that at most I would be out about $35ish. They offered a free gift that I had to pick out of a lot of options (I'm a fan of choose between 3, not more items) so I picked a lipstick. The package arrived in about a week or so, the item was definitely authentic. The free gift was probably expired or old - lipstick was DRIED and had no pigment but free gifts for me are almost always crap. It was a great price and I had no issues with delivery, nor the need for their CS so I recommend it for fragrances.

Based on my personal experience, I think expedia deserves a 2.5 but I feel like rounding down. For 1/2 successful bookings. The first time booking a trip to New Orleans, things went smoothly. I did not use my own credit card but I believe they charge the hotel amount as soon as you place an order if you're booking an entire package (flight + hotel). I hate that there are TONS of random ads for random tourist events/attractions that you have to scroll through and try not to accidentally click PLUS the other ads for add-ons for your flight that you don't really want but it's not overtly confusing, more so annoying.
The second time I had to let someone else book the trip, their site flaked out and gave server errors. It was annoying because the trip was booked by a school, where the person doing it didn't have limitless time trying to refresh the page, create an account to submit and/or both. We ended up giving up and just going with Southwest for the flight and doing the hotel separately. The worst part was entering 2 different people's information and having the site flake out. Really irritating and time consuming.

Keep in mind that my review is only regarding experience with online vouchers because I had heard the bad experiences people have gone through with real life vendors. I've bought two vouchers from LS so far and they were generated right away. One was redeemed and the products have arrived so far (magazines), while the other one I was waiting for the vendor to restock. So far, no issues but I hesitate to venture into any other kinds of deals.

I ordered a pair of headphones that were an older model but didn't realize it until I had already placed the order. Then I saw the 15% restocking fee and cringed. Luckily, if you don't open the merchandise and either contact them in the request RMA or chat with them online, they will authorize the RMA with a full refund. That is very reasonable and rightly so but some retailers are mean. Newegg isn't!

I was excited to get the $10 off coupon but every shoe I wanted was out of stock in my size! Within the first few days. Not only that, I kept getting the $10 coupon reminder in my email - annoying. The other aspect is, since all the shoes in my style profile were out of stock in my size I had to RECLICK through their quiz just to see all the shoe styles and click through each one to find that they too were out of my size. I understand it's not a site that sells shoes per se, but some foresight would have helped to overcome this annoying aspect. Even ShoeDazzle lets you cycle through shoes that almost made it.

I did not deal with their customer service and/or have to return something but I lost my nikon charger for a dslr battery and was looking for a replacement. The original one is like $60+... and that's kind of ridiculous. There were many alternatives and I almost ordered the original from them but it was on back order indefinitely (thanks nikon for discontinuing older equipment!) and I came across an alternative they recommended which had mostly positive reviews.
At first I thought that they were slow to ship, but I realized that they don't send an email with tracking/shipping update but when I checked the order status the tracking showed that it was almost being delivered. It might have to do with how close you live to a distribution center but I was fine with their free slower shipping.

Once again, I would rate this store 3.5. In terms of a website, and as far as my research has shown (Fragrantica, Basenote, etc) they carry authentic fragrances and beauty products. They offer free shipping promotions and a point system that allows you to get discounts after a certain amount (or so I assume). I ordered one fragrance from them and it arrived well packaged, not broken along with free samples. However, I have somewhat mixed feelings about the actual product. While it is authentic, it smelled somewhat different from the testers I've tried at department stores. This could be due to storage conditions or the fact that it's a bit old and thus the more ephemeral components have "turned", leaving the more stable components. This isn't a huge deal but the experience itself is changed. I ended up keeping the fragrance and did not pursue their return policy but I would be cautious.

You will get calls at least once a week, around 10am for me (work time). I pick up calls I don't recognize because sometimes they are pertinent calls. It's just very pushy and annoying - it makes me suspicious they're so aggressive about it. Their boxes are fine, nothing special and comparable to all the other meal delivery services. I tried two boxes before I cancelled because I found their website glitchy and difficult to navigate (esp. When skipping certain weeks). I also could not view the meals easily or view meals that weren't in my box. It was just a very clunky website. If you've cancelled and are being harassed by them, put a fake phone # on your profile!

I'm not ashamed to admit it but I am a relatively experienced seller on ebay - not for profit, but as a garage sale type of deal. I don't have any volume seller discounts or any of that, but roughly depending on the price range - I always estimate about 15% fees for ebay including seller fees and paypal fees. I have done comparisons by listing items on both Poshmark and ebay and by far, ebay sells faster and yields more profit. Then again, a lot of Poshmark is social based - it encourages you to share other people's items on social media so that they share yours, etc. Poshmark's fee is 20% no matter what, and their shipping is 4.99 (I recall there being a weight limit). It actually whittles down what you make and in many cases, if you are selling light items that fit in first class mail - shipping can be a paltry $2.00 or so if you use ebay's labels. That being said, ebay requires a bit more "effort" - better photos, more listing options and though they have an app now, listings may take more time to set up. I think Poshmark is for people who don't want to spend that much effort to get rid of their stuff, don't really mind how much they get back and want the process to be relatively simple. Having not actually sold any items (mostly due to the very low ball offers I received on top of the fees), I cannot comment on any other aspects.

Zara's online shop launched in the US not too long ago. I used to love Zara but not living near one I decided to try their online shop. I did not order any clothing due to an aversion in needing to return items, but at time of review they offer free shipping in the US (with no minimum). I believe they offer free returns within 14 days as well but I did not deal with them in terms of returning items so I can't comment on how easy/hard it was. The item was shipped to me via Fed-Ex and it arrived very quickly. It was packaged very nicely and I was pleased!

Surprisingly, Best Buy sometimes has great deals on certain items. I've also pre-ordered a couple of video games through them. I've regretted choosing the free option and shipping to home because it takes their Fed-Ex + USPS almost a week and a half (or two weeks if it's holiday season) to get to me by mail. Of course I realize upgrading shipping options would guarantee faster times but I have a feeling that even with the Fed-Ex + USPS method of shipping, there are tiers and Best Buy must be the cheapest tier because every other retailer that might use UPS/Fed-Ex + USPS has come in under a week, usually 3-4 days. Basically, free shipping is free shipping after all but it would have been easier to just pickup items at their store.

Their games ARE free to play, but it depends on what you want out of your experience. I think the game mechanics are set up that you can get by with promotions, freebies and in-game items but if you want the best equipment, cool looking outfits with cool bonuses and stats you have to spend money. And not just a bit, it can get up to a few hundred a month for the truly addicted (I was one of them >.>). For the game I played (Megaten), the management of the GM team became questionable at times - with scandals of free giveaways to GS's (something their policy states doesn't happen), drama and favouritism between GM's and other players. I think if you're bored and want to try something new, the games offered are probably adequate - but why not give in and just play Warcraft. The monthly fee pales to the hundreds I've spent on Aeria per month, just to get the best armor and weaons. Sure it's not mandatory, but if that's what a player is looking for - that's the price.

I'd give it the worst rating except that it's fun to go on at work when there's nothing to do and you need mindless entertainment. That being said, the entertainment is far and few inbetween since you either run into adult site bots or people looking to cyber.

Although Amazon has expanded to being a middleman of sorts selling such things as whole fresh rabbit, shaving oil and hungarian paprika - they're still good for your basics: books and music. I've never received a wrong item from them and have had amazingly good experiences with the merchants selling used books. It can be annoying to browse for certain items, like trying to look for a diary with a day per page but their suggested items are very helpful and I sometimes end up buying more than I wanted, which isn't a bad thing - $25 and free shipping is always great! I think the trick in buying used books is to look at the individual sellers' feedback - it's ebay-esque. Their music downloads sometimes are $1 or $2 cheaper than iTunes and they often have $5 album deals.

This is a very nice place for discovering photographers, artists and writers. I'd say a fair portion of it features people who draw in a anime/manga inspired style or a lot of the artwork are very illustrative based. Most of it are quite good however and you can order prints of certain pictures/artwork which I think is a nice way of customizing your home if you're one of those people who hate being mainstream :). I've never actually ordered any so I can't vouch for the quality of the paper and ink. They also have an apparel section.

For aspiring artists of any sort, it's a useful place to keep an online and interactive portfolio as well as gain inspiration and tips from many people. It's also a nice way to make some money from prints as I mentioned, if you're looking to sell and need a platform. They also offer the choices of greeting, postcard and puzzle in some instances. Apparently, to view what perks you get for subscribing and being a deviant premium member, you have to sign up (annoying!) so that's why one less star!

I'm cursed with size 5-5.5 feet, actually I'd say 5.25. That means, 5 is too small and 5.5 is too big. I've found 5, with stretching accommodates and 5.5 with ankle straps and whatnot helps.

It's a complete nightmare trying to buy shoes at department stores or any store that's within my budget (and in my vicinity). The two styles in size 5 are either tacky or uncomfortable or depending on the season, just not my thing. So I've learned to buy shoes online... which is great for UPS, hit and miss for me.

I've eyed 6pm for a long time, being the sale outlet of Zappos and having great deals on decent shoes. After reading some very divided reviews, I decided to order from them once and try anyway seeing as they had a Mother's day free 2-day shipping deal. I'm happy to say, I received my items a day early and all of them looked new. One had very minor white paint marks on the soles but no one is going to be looking at that while you're walking.

The odd thing is, a shipping confirmation email was sent a day after they were shipped. 6pm does not offer free shipping, as of now, it's $6.95 per order to and out of pocket back. However they do have free shipping deals for holidays, so it's worth it to take advantage of that. Another thing that I did notice is that the prices do change, I'm guessing based on a free flowing supply and demand system which adjusts their prices automatically. In their case, I think it's up to the discretion of the buyer to fully realize that they do not offer price matching, that the shipping is not free and that the period to return is 30 days.

I was curious about the 7 day free trial was entering my information in when they asked for my credit card info., so I googled some reviews and realized it was probably not going to be a good idea. I closed the browser and didn't sign up. The next day, I get at least 3 calls from them with a voicemail telling me to sign up for their promotion of 14 days free. I hope they stop calling me because I read on another site, that they've been receiving calls from them almost every day... and it's not possible to block numbers unless you pay $4.99/month if you're with AT&T so I'd recommend against trying it, unless you like the thrill of waiting for their phone calls.

Update: I ordered some fragrances from Overstock. The first order I submitted didn't have a coupon applied, so I canceled it right away. I paid via PayPal and usually when I cancel orders, the amount is refunded automatically. It's been over a week and the transaction still shows as "pending." I've contacted PayPal AND Overstock and despite the charge not actually being deducted from my account, it's still there. I find this frustrating even though it's not an actual mistake. It's because transactions that show - but don't count can be confusing. I'm not sure if I will pursue this further but it seems like Overstock's financial department may not know how to handle PayPal correctly. I've also found that their customer service representatives don't know how to answer questions in depth. Nonetheless, their shipping and products seem to be legit (esp. Fragrances!) so it's a give and take.

The item I bought was listed as "refurbished", which wasn't an electronic item so per Overstock's description, it refers to items that have been returned to retailers but are otherwise not damaged or defective. The item arrived in a reasonable amount of time (at $2.95 shipping) for half the price of the new item and after checking it, it was in great condition. However, it wasn't terribly well packaged which didn't matter in that case, but I hope they send more fragile items with better packaging.