On-line order, in-store pickup

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KlingKlang
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On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by KlingKlang »

Am I the only one who has this problem?

When I order items on-line and ask for home delivery I usually receive them as quickly (sometimes quicker) as I would reasonably expect to.

When I need something really quickly and select the in-store pickup option it's always the same (Best Buy, Home Depot, Target, Walmart (worst of the worse)): my credit card is charged, I (eventually) receive a notice that my item is ready for pickup, I print out the receipt and go to the store, wait to talk to someone at the customer service counter, am told 'Eye dough no but dat'.

Has anyone ever had this work correctly?
dpc
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by dpc »

I've done this a few times and it's generally worked fine. Home Depot was fine. West Marine was OK - they don't charge your card until you pick it up.

Assuming you went to the Customer Service desk at Home Depot? I will agree there are a lot of clueless people working at Home Depot, especially in larger cities. My experience has been that Lowe's is worse. Haven't tried it at Walmart, but I would not be surprised if there were more problems there. There are more problems with about everything at Walmart, in my experience.
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bloom2708
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by bloom2708 »

I've had good luck picking up orders at our local Best Buy. This is a smaller community though. I have had a few instances where the pickup line was long/slow.

My guess is when you order online, the people fulfilling the orders are dedicated to only shipping online orders.

In a store setting, the employees are doing their regular jobs (Lunch breaks, coffee breaks) and someone has to pull the order and bring it up front, etc. etc.

In store customers perhaps get priority over in store pickup customers. Much like the stock market...nobody knows.
DSInvestor
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by DSInvestor »

It works great at Best Buy, walk up to the online order desk and they have it. I have ordered Sonos, Kindles, iPads this way and I typically get a notification that my order is ready for pickup in a couple of hours.

I have used homedepot in store pickup once. No problems.

Walmart is inconsistent. At my local store, they have a dedicated area for online pickup at the back of the store where the photo printing is done. Some stores make you go to customer service. At one store in my mom's town, they have online pickup at the sporting goods desk- not good.
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Doom&Gloom
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by Doom&Gloom »

I've seldom done it as I prefer to have it delivered to my door if that is a convenient option.

But when I've done it:
Best Buy--no problem
Home Depot--a little confusion but otherwise no problem
Walmart--never again for in-store pickup or home delivery although we continue to shop in-store.
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cheese_breath
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by cheese_breath »

I've had good luck with Best Buy and Home Depot, but Walmart is a mess. The latest episode was a few weeks ago. I ordered a watch from one Walmart that was supposed to be in stock. Waited 3 or 4 days for them to tell me to come and pick it up. Eventually ordered the same watch from a different Walmart. It wasn't in stock there so I used the 'ship to store' option. I received the watch from the second store before I ever got the Email from the first store telling me to come in and get my watch.
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Gropes & Ray
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by Gropes & Ray »

Best Buy worked for me once. I think I did it somewhere else once -Target or Wal-Mart - but I recall it taking forever. When I do it with sandwiches, they never have it made when I get there. Super annoying.
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prudent
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by prudent »

Used Walmart ship-to-store 2 times, worked fine. Did it to avoid paying shipping on the order. It wasn't an item they stock in the store and I knew I would be in Walmart's vicinity when it was ready for pickup.
mjf55
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by mjf55 »

I have had nothing but good experiences with Wal-Mart, Dollar-Tree and AdvancedAuto. I have not had a bad experience yet. ( knock on wood)
sls239
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by sls239 »

In my experience, Staples was the absolute worst. I was there for about an hour and the store wasn't even busy. In fact, the store isn't even there anymore.
stlutz
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by stlutz »

Actually, my annoyance is in cases where the item is on the store shelf, but the in-store price is different from the on-line price. So,I'm shopping in store, I have go back out to my car and place the order on my phone, do something else for a while, and then go back in and pick it up. Microcenter and Macy's have been two offenders on this. I find that overall I generally just end up avoiding those stores as a result.
Katietsu
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by Katietsu »

Have been doing this occasionally for over 5 years. Have always been able to pick up the item as promised. A couple of times it might of taken a few minutes for them to find the item. I have used Lowes, Home Depot, Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Staples, etc.

If you want to let Walmart follow you...you can use their app and it will let the pick up people know that you have entered the store. In theory, they will then have the item waiting by the time you get to the pick up counter.

I would guess that how well this works is likely a function of the individual store not the brand of the store.

Some stores that have different prices online vs on the shelf will simply give you the online price if you show the cashier the image on your phone. I do this all the time at Staples and it takes them an extra 5 seconds to do the adjstment.
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Lieutenant.Columbo
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by Lieutenant.Columbo »

KlingKlang wrote:...I am told 'Eye dough no but dat'...
it took me a few re-reads, but when I got it, I found this hilarious and I laughed for like 2 minutes non stop
disclaimer: my laughing about this should not be taken as discrimination on my part, since a foreigner in the USA myself I am sure I often sound like that...
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duckcalldan
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by duckcalldan »

I use this for online shopping portals like Chase or Splender where you can get extra points for online vs B&M purchases.
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CABob
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by CABob »

DW has used in store pickup at J C Penney a few times primarily to save on shipping charges. For the most recent occurrence there was no one at the customer service pick up counter so she had to go to a check out register in the store. The person there had to wait to finish up with a customer then go to the CS counter, find the item, then take if back to her register to check it out. All in all not a satisfactory experience.
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buckstar
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by buckstar »

Had no problem doing this at:

Apple Store
Best Buy

Waited a long time, but eventually got my item at:

Wal-mart

Went there and they didn't have my item at:
Lowe's
Home Depot
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Elsebet
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by Elsebet »

Have ordered online for pickup from Home Depot with no issues, however Lowe's was a different story.

I ordered a roll of remesh online from Lowe's because I couldn't find it in the store the last time I was there and the staff didn't seem to be able to locate it either. However on the website it was in stock and ready to go! Yay! Placed my order, got the notification that it was ready to be picked up and headed to Lowe's. Waited for 30 minutes because there was a line and only one staff member there. I pity customer service staff so I was polite when it was finally my turn. However they didn't have my item ready even though I had received an email notification. I was even okay with that, figuring that someone would go grab it for me and I could be on my way to making tomato cages. However the clerk told me they didn't have any in stock, but she'd have someone check in the back. After about 30 minutes of waiting I got word that they really didn't have any remesh in the store at all and gave me a refund. It was obvious that they did not have adequate staffing to handle the regular customers let alone online orders.

Considering they are still placing orders on green screens I imagine their technology is pretty far behind and not integrated well with their ICS or website.
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Earl Lemongrab
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by Earl Lemongrab »

Elsebet wrote:Have ordered online for pickup from Home Depot with no issues, however Lowe's was a different story.
I would fire off a strongly-worded message to Lowes. Emphasize how much of your personal time was wasted and what an inconvenience it was. They might do nothing, but they might give you a discount or offer to ship it free.
mouses
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by mouses »

I've tried this twice with Lowes. Fail rate 50%.

Peapod pickup is somewhat different from what you're asking about, but they're fine. I just wish they had closer pickup points.

Decades ago Sears used to be wonderful about this. Those were the days. You could buy practically anything you needed at Sears except groceries. Stuff was reasonably priced, good qualify, nice staff. Place an order, 3-4 hours later you could pick it up.

Now life is too short to go to a store and find an order is in the ether somewhere. I mostly have stuff shipped to my house. I try to avoid Amazon if possible as their delivery pace is glacial. I think on purpose to irritate non-Prime customers into signing up. I only recently tumbled to jet.com, which delivers at the speed of light.
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by Gronnie »

stlutz wrote:Actually, my annoyance is in cases where the item is on the store shelf, but the in-store price is different from the on-line price. So,I'm shopping in store, I have go back out to my car and place the order on my phone, do something else for a while, and then go back in and pick it up. Microcenter and Macy's have been two offenders on this. I find that overall I generally just end up avoiding those stores as a result.
Microcenter will just give you the online price if you ask. They will also match Amazon, Newegg, etc.
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Pajamas
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by Pajamas »

I have never done in-store pickup it but was in a Walmart last year that had a whole wall of orange lockers behind the registers for customer orders. That would probably eliminate problems with the pickup but it seems that it would still be a more trouble than home delivery. Amazon has similar lockers in a few stores (mostly drugstores) around here for people who aren't home to accept deliveries during the day.

I'm not even happy with home delivery today. I ordered a bunch of stuff from Jet.com instead of Amazon and everything was wrapped in paper and put in a plastic bag and then the boxes were stuffed with brown paper. It took over an hour to unpack everything, put it away, and get the packing materials together for recycling. There was a huge garbage bag full of paper.
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Lieutenant.Columbo
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by Lieutenant.Columbo »

Lieutenant.Columbo wrote:
KlingKlang wrote:...I am told 'Eye dough no but dat'...
it took me a few re-reads, but when I got it, I found this hilarious and I laughed for like 2 minutes non stop
disclaimer: my laughing about this should not be taken as discrimination on my part, since a foreigner in the USA myself I am sure I often sound like that...
by the way: I NEVER implied that KlingKlang's "accented comment" was discriminatory anyone. Seriously.
Lt. Columbo: Well, what do you know. Here I am talking with some of the smartest people in the world, and I didn't even notice!
staythecourse
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by staythecourse »

Lieutenant.Columbo wrote:
KlingKlang wrote:...I am told 'Eye dough no but dat'...
it took me a few re-reads, but when I got it, I found this hilarious and I laughed for like 2 minutes non stop
disclaimer: my laughing about this should not be taken as discrimination on my part, since a foreigner in the USA myself I am sure I often sound like that...
Okay the orignal post was a bit funny, but your disclaimer had me laughing for about 2 minutes. :D

Good luck.
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KlingKlang
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by KlingKlang »

Lieutenant.Columbo wrote:
Lieutenant.Columbo wrote:
KlingKlang wrote:...I am told 'Eye dough no but dat'...
it took me a few re-reads, but when I got it, I found this hilarious and I laughed for like 2 minutes non stop
disclaimer: my laughing about this should not be taken as discrimination on my part, since a foreigner in the USA myself I am sure I often sound like that...
by the way: I NEVER implied that KlingKlang's "accented comment" was discriminatory anyone. Seriously.
This may just be a Mid-Western joke category, but it isn't about accents. The idea is that non-helpful service people repeat the same excuses so often that they end up slurring the words together. A classic example is 'I didn't get around to it.' 'OK, here's a round tuit, now do your job.'.
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SecretAsianMan
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by SecretAsianMan »

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SecretAsianMan
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

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htdrag11
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by htdrag11 »

Do not go to HomeDepot on Saturday; I ended up waiting for over 20 minutes while the Return Line had 2 persons behind the cash register (though there were more returns than order pickup).

It turned out the pickup line also handles special sales, like large or special orders. It's kind of misleading, despite there were parking spots just outside for internet pickups.

BestBuy is OK. I only did Walmart once.
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Re: On-line order, in-store pickup

Post by LadyGeek »

I removed an off-topic post related to a person's accent. This thread has run its course and is locked (derailed, general rant about in-store pickup). See: Personal Consumer Issues
Note that this subforum has a much lower threshold for locking or removing posts than the financial and investing subforums. In general, controversial, offensive, pointless, divisive or mean-spirited posts or topics may be locked, edited or deleted (with or without notice) at the discretion of the moderating staff even if they do not otherwise violate forum policies.
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