Target Moves

Early I posted about a recent Phishing email I received at work.  As I previously mentioned, I shopped at Target during the time of the data breach (which seems to be growing each day).  I already canceled and ordered a new debit card and I have checked my credit report using the free credit report site.

Today, I signed up for Target's free credit monitoring.

Last week, I put in a limit order for Target stock. If the stock drops enough, I'll take advantage of the discount.

No to Zip Code

I am one of those consumers that says no to most questions at the end of the transaction.  No to rewards card.  No to email receipt.  No to phone number.  And, no to zip code.  Basically, I've come to the conclusion, and it is just my personal belief, that the company or the store is not asking these questions to help me.

Now, I've come to find out that I was right at least as applied to the zip code question.  Rather then gathering data to figure out where to locate the next store, stores are gathering data on you.  Take your zip code and your name (gathered from your credit card or debit card) and they can track you down to send you catalogs and other unwanted marketing material.

When is a Sale Not a Sale?

Earlier, I wrote about the psychological impact of shopping without actually buying the product you are shopping for.

Now comes news on something I've suspected for many years, at some stores sale prices are not really sale prices.  Rather, as Today News reports certain stores, including J.C. Penny, Kohl's and Macy's have been caught advertising and pricing items on sale when they are actually selling the product for the manufacturer's suggested price.

There are almost an unlimited number of techniques companies use to get us, the public, to part with our money either by increasing purchases and/or by increasing the purchase price.  A "sale" when its not really a sale is just another technique but one that the savvy customer should be aware of by comparison shopping and doing their own research.

Diamonds and Dollars - Update

Back in August of 2012, I wrote about a claim we had submitted in the DeBeers diamond price fixing case. Well, yesterday Mr. Sam received a $270 settlement check.

I have no idea if this is a fair or reasonable settlement for the damages suffered by the consumer class (I understand, from my research that the wholesaler class is getting much larger checks) since I never studied the claims or undertook any analysis as to Mr. Sam's damages.  I understand from the diamonds class action web site that "payments were calculated based on several factors, including how much you paid, the quantity and quality of the diamonds you purchased, the amount of money that is available for your Class or Sub-class, and how many Class Members filed claims."

Anyways, assuming we never would have thought to bring a claim related to the diamond in my engagement ring, we are happy to recover $270 and we are putting it into our vacation fund.

This is the second time I've recovered more than $200 in one of these class settlement scenarios, so I'll continue to fill out the paperwork.

Drinking and Shopping Don't Mix

I enjoyed this fun Atlantic Wire post on shopping under the influence.

 I have been to enough Palm Beach charity events over the years to understand the silent auction (and live auction) bidding dollars go way up the more people drink.

As such, I would add a section to the article that one should generally get a pass for shopping/bidding at charity auctions, since its for charity.

Otherwise, I thought the suggestions in this guide were great.  Definitely leave the credit cards at home if you are shopping after drinking and have a friend there to talk you out of bad ideas.

I often find myself in trouble when it comes to art, because (1) I love original art, (2) I'll spend good money for art, and (3) I'm often admiring art while holding a glass of wine.  So I stick to my rules and anything over a $100 requires a cooling off period.  I'll take a photo of the art with my iPhone, I'll take a business card, but I generally don't buy art on a first viewing.

ProFlower's Scummy Scam

At one point I used to regularly use ProFlowers as my go to company to send flowers across the miles.  It was so easy as I had all my information and my recipients' information stored.  I could just log in, click, click and click and flowers would arrive for birthdays, Mother's Day and other occasions.  But there was a reason I stopped using them and that reason reared its ugly head this past week.

I had a coupon code for ProFlowers and since Mother's Day and a birthday is coming up I figured sending flowers would be easy for both.  I logged in, picked my flowers, one arrangement was $25 and the other was $29 with my coupon code.  And then onto easy step two, picked my delivery day, clicked on my recipients (data already saved) and then went to check out.

Ugh!!  Now I remember why I stopped using ProFlowers, when I went to check out, up popped charge after charge.  Delivery charge, delivery day up charge, care and handling charge.  That discount coupon doesn't end up being much of a discount with all the charges at the end.  The total for the two arrangements was more than $120.  In the end I cancelled the order, just can't give my business to this company even if its super easy.

For one of the recipients, I have a local florist that I will order from (have used them before and they do a great job).  I'll figure out something for the other recipient.

Budget Busters - Cell Phones?

Are cell phones now number two on the household budget?

Upon reading this article I decided to review our AT&T bill which includes one home phone, two cell phones (one of which is a smart phone with a data plan) and our internet service.

This past month our bill was $202 (which is about $20 higher than normal).  In studying the bill there are certainly charges that jump out at me.  And of course each phone has separate surcharges and taxes which further ups the costs.

For my iPhone I have a data plan (unlimited) which my employer reimburses, $30, each month since I regularly use my phone for work.  But, I don't have a texting plan and last month I had $6.00 in texts.  I don't have a text plan because I don't normally text but others text me.  I've thought about adding a text plan, but I always worry about changing my plan and losing my grandfathered in unlimited data plan.  Frankly, I don't trust AT&T to change my plan without screwing up something else.

Mr. Sam doesn't have a smart phone so he calls directory assistance quite often, those calls are billed at $1.99 each and last month he had $7.96 in such charges.

We continue to maintain a home phone which Mr. Sam uses when he works at home.  This past month he had $12 in long distance charges.  After discussing whether to seek reimbursement for those charges from his employer we have decided not to because the amount he saves in gas by working at home far exceeds the telephone charges.

How about you, how much is your phone bill?  Have you undertaken efforts to curb your phone bill or is it simply the price of being connected these days?

Executing on the Holiday Plan

Earlier, I posted about our holiday plan and budget and since its Cyber Monday it is time for me to start executing on our plan.

As I previously posted, for the past few years we've been sending out holiday wreathes to our adult family members (we don't exchange holiday gifts with the adults in our family).  The past few years the holiday wreath giving has also supported one of my favorite charities, but they have opted not to participate this year.    So, I was thinking of sending wine from a winery we visited this year.  But, that option ended up being too expensive and too complicated although I am going to order a 6 pack of wine to give as gifts locally (work and hostess gifts).

For the wreathes, I decided to go with L.L. Bean. First, L.L. Bean makes the wreathes right in Maine, so the company supports American workers.  Second, the wreathes ended up costing about the same amount, with free shipping today and 10% off today, as the charity wreathes.  Also, I will receive $40 in gift cards, $10 per $50 spent, which I can use for other holiday shopping.

Cooking Baby Steps - Part IV

Tuesday night, before Thanksgiving, is NOT the time for grocery shopping especially for someone, like me, who hates grocery shopping.

Yesterday, I left work early to do some pre-Thanksgiving charitable work.  Nothing helps one be thankful for one's financial stability like helping to hand out groceries to working families in need.  Then, even though I didn't want to go, I made myself go to the grocery store.

Rather than head to my local Publix, which is smallish, I went to the extra big Publix one town over.  Even though I do my best to avoid grocery shopping I'm familiar enough with the big Publix to know my way around.

I arrived about 6:30 p.m. and went directly to the bakery section because I had a birthday cake to buy.  But, since I'm a novice grocery shopper I didn't realize I could put in an icing order.  So I snooped around the bakery for 5 minutes before deciding to come back at the end of my shopping.

I utilized my Publix shopping list which I created on the Publix web site.  I found the list helpful but, as I mentioned before, I'd like it better if I could designate brands.  I did

Overall I spent $189 so the list didn't help me save money.  The spendy items on my list were:  (1) 12 pack Corona Light at $12.99; (2) the birthday cake at $16.99; (3) Gruyere cheese at $12.50; (4) salmon at $15.96; (5) white wine at $9.59.   So, $68.03 in extra spendy items.  Corona light is actually a staple for us, we buy it regularly.  The other items were triggered by guests coming into town, the birthday cake, wine and the salmon (to be used on Friday for a birthday dinner).  The pricey cheese is for the Thanksgiving casserole I'm making for our group dinner.

But, I also recognize that I did save money by purchasing the birthday dinner supplies at the grocery store rather than footing the bill for dining out which would have reached at least $100.  The salmon was actually on special and I "saved" $8.

I'm thinking of noting the prices in my saved Publix shopping list so I can get better at figuring out what is or is not a good price.

Cooking Baby Steps - Part III

Since its Thanksgiving week and since I will be doing some cooking for Thanksgiving dinner I was checking out the Publix web site to figure out their hours this week.

In looking at the Publix web site, I discovered that they have some helpful recipe tools and, more importantly, a grocery list tool.  The grocery list tool can be personalized to your specific store and as you add items to the list it populates the location within the store so you don't have to wander around aimlessly.  And, you can also add items from the weekly sale list and/or populate your grocery list from their recipe tools.  You can also set up a standard grocery list of items that you buy regularly.

Since I am trying to do better on my cooking at home goal, I decided to sign up for a Publix profile.  I am not a fan of having corporations track me and mine my data, but in order to save my grocery list I needed a profile.  So I used my junk e-mail address (the one I use for shopping on-line) and when it asked for all my data I used my standard fake information which only includes my real zip code.

Once I had my Publix profile set up, I started adding items from my Thanksgiving recipe (I'm making one casserole dish for our group dinner) as well as regular items that I'll need to pick up since I'll have guests in town.  The grocery list doesn't have each and every brand which is a bummer as it would be great if I could specify in my list the particular brands that I use (it does have a notes section where you can add that information).

Since we will have guests to cook for on Friday, I also tried out Publix's Simple Meals Recipe tool which is divided among different categories like "main dish" and "celebrations", etc.  I clicked on main dish which has different categories like "beef", "vegetarian", "seafood (salmon)" and "seafood (shellfish)".  I was already planning on salmon, so I clicked on a recipe that sounded easy and good and then it is one easy step to populate your grocery list with all the necessary items (you can delete those items that are already in your pantry).  You can also save the recipes to your profile as well.

I plan to go shopping Tuesday evening, so I'll continue to work on my list between now and then and I'll report back on whether this tool is helpful or not.  What do you do to make grocery shopping less painful?

I Hate Grocery Shopping

I have never ever enjoyed grocery shopping.  In fact, grocery shopping is my least favorite chore.  As a result, I generally refuse to grocery shop and that chore has become Mr. Sam's responsibility.  He has learned over the 6 years of marriage and the 8 years of cohabitation that if he wants to eat he has to do the shopping.  Similarly, I've learned that Mr. Sam hates to pay bills and if I want the bills paid I've got to pay them.  Marriage - divide and conquer.

Being that Mr. Sam has been deep into renovations and projects at Rental # 3, he has been slacking on his grocery responsibilities.  And, being that it is Halloween, I figured I needed to at least swing by the grocery store and pick up some candy for the kids.  And, if I was stopping by to pick up candy, I might as well pick up a few things.

Reason # 1 that I hate the grocery store, a few things turns into a $150 in groceries.  And really, I only picked up a few things, fruit, salad stuff, milk, juice, cereal, bread, bagels, cheese, sandwich meat, peanut butter, cream cheese, butter, a few frozen dinners (for my lunches), yogurt, beer and the aforementioned candy.  Honestly, I have no idea how a few things, plus Halloween candy, can turn into $150.

I'm sure if I were a regular shopper I would have a better handle on what things cost or should cost at the grocery store.  And, I further recognize that it is certainly cheaper to buy my lunches at the grocery store than order in at $10-$12 on a daily basis.

Reason # 2 that I hate the grocery store, it is close to impossible to be an informed shopper.  It is difficult and time consuming to compare prices among similar products.  The prices on products change from week to week.  The sizes for items are not standard, you have to study the little per ounce shelf tags to try and get a realistic sense of pricing.

Reason # 3 that I hate the grocery store, the pricing game.  There are special prices for people with savings cards and the like.  Ugh, I hate those cards and I don't use them.  If I shop at Publix, which I prefer, then I don't have to worry about the preferred shopper game.  But, I was at Winn Dixie which utilizes a customer reward card which just adds a whole extra level of pricing complications.  As I mentioned, I'm not a fan of customer cards, I don't use them but Mr. Sam has a Winn Dixie reward card and I figured I would take advantage of it.

Now, I don't go out of the way to buy certain products because they are on special, but if I was already buying a product I might opt for the one that is on special and that is what I did last night.  I am a fan of the  Chobani greek yogurt and I often eat the non-fat varieties for breakfast or afternoon snack.  I noticed Winn Dixie was running a special, buy 10 Chobani yogurts and they would be a $1 each.  I made sure to select 10 to get the deal.  I also opted for a buy one get one free on bagels and a three for something special on the sandwich meat.

And, therein lies the problem, by the time I get to checkout I can't recall or keep track of the various specials I'm trying to take advantage of.  The only specific special that I remembered at checkout was the yogurt and can you guess what happened at check out?  The cashier rings them each through and I'm watching and seeing that the ring up at $1.34 each.  I'm thinking that maybe the price will be adjusted when all 10 are rung up since the special required me to purchase 10.  And, drum roll, nope didn't work.  So then I'm that person telling the cashier that I'm not getting the special price and she has to call a supervisor over, she has to void all 10 and then just ring them through as a flat $10.

I find the whole process extraordinarily annoying, and I have no idea if I was charged the correct price on the bagels or the sandwich meat.

One of our general goals for 2012 was to reduce our eating out and ordering in costs by doing more grocery shopping.  I can't say that I have been particular successful this year, because I can't seem to improve my grocery store experience.

How about you, who does the shopping in your home, do you have a system for making it less painful, do you have a deals and savings system?  Please share, I need to learn your tricks.  

Diamonds and Dollars

Have you ever received mail alerting you to the fact that you are a presumptive member of some class action lawsuit?  If yes, what did you do?  Did you ignore the mail, toss it, investigate and then toss, respond, file a claim, opt out?

Maybe you have heard news reports about the Nutella class action lawsuit (over the issue of whether chocolate nut spread is nutritious or not), wherein the settlement to the class was for coupons to buy more delicious, but not nutritious, Nutella.  In fact, many class action settlements involving retail wrong doing involve discounts or coupons for future services or products.  As a result, in some class action settlements, response rates are lower than 25%.

Yesterday, Mr. Sam received follow up mail from the Diamonds Claim Administrator for the DeBeers diamond price fixing settlement.  While neither of us have any recollection of submitting a claim, I assume I filled out the paperwork and submitted it back in 2008 (my research indicates that claims were due in 2008).  I have been prone to submit class claims ever since I received a check for almost $200 for a test prep class I took years ago in advance of professional school.

So, now the claims administrator is looking for actual proof of purchase for the engagement ring diamond that Mr. Sam purchased back in 2005.  Since my engagement ring is our most expensive piece of jewelry I do have a detailed file.  I have the GIA grading report and the Gemprint Certificate of Registration for the center diamond.  I also have the documentation regarding the wedding band and insurance paperwork, but nothing in my files that documents how much Mr. Sam paid for the main diamond.

Part of the problem is that Mr. Sam went through a diamond broker and bought the center diamond from a wholesaler and then had the engagement ring designed by a jeweler. As such, there is no receipt for the ring as a whole.  Thank goodness for Yahoo email, after I dug through our hard copy file and came up empty, he was able to go back to his 2005 e-mail records and find a receipt.  Hooray!!

Today, I will copy all of the diamond material and will send it off to the claims administrator.  Who knows how much we will get, but something is better than nothing.

eBay Errors

So, like many brides, when Mr. Sam and I got married, we registered for fine china.  I registered for a brand and pattern of china that has been around for 100+ years.  But, like many brides, I didn't end up receiving a full set of china, since the fine china I registered for was and is expensive (think $150 for a dinner plate).

Now, five years later I have discovered that since my china has been around for so long, I can find it on eBay for prices that are much more favorable.  So, what do I do, I get excited and start bidding on my china.  Three soup bowls for $30, that sounds like a bargain, bid away.  $10 for an egg cup, deal!

Guess what, I am not an eBay expert and I've realized that I've skipped over a very important part of eBay bidding process . . . and that is actually reading the item description.  Because, as you may have guessed, I now have three soup bowls, but all three have chips on the rim.  And my egg cup has a crack.  Luckily, I've only spent $40 on this experiment.  But, its certainly a wasted $40 because really, I can't do much with chipped and cracked fine china.  

So, what have I learned.  I need to make sure I click through and actually read the description, because based on my two purchases, both sellers fully disclosed that the items I was purchasing had flaws.  But, since I had bid before I read, that information wasn't particularly helpful.  Additionally, a very low price likely indicates a flaw.  How did I win the auction for three soup bowls at $30, no one else wanted them because of the rim chips.  

At present, I am watching six dinner plates (no flaws) and the auction price is up to $305.  I don't expect to bid on the plates since it outside my budget but six perfect plates would be a deal since at retail cost they would run $900.

How about you, have you had success on eBay?   

June is Wedding Month

Interesting to learn that money causes the most arguments between couples.  And since June is the most popular month for Weddings, it seems appropriate to revisit this issue.

• Only 43 percent of couples talked about money before marriage, according to a May 2010 survey conducted for American Express.

Have the money talk.  Mr. Sam and I had, what we call a financial summit, before we bought a house together (this was before we got married).  We sat down, with no distractions, and we each brought information regarding our current assets, current debts and a copy of our credit report, and a pay stub and talked through each of those categories.  No it wasn't romantic and there was some embarrassment on both sides of the table, but it was a very helpful step in our financial realtionship.  

• Be up front about your financial situation, have the "money talk" long before the big day, and tackle any challenges as a couple.

Yes, we had the money talk before our wedding.  But we continued to keep our finances separate until we married.  We did set up a joint house account, and we calculated, by income, what percentage each of us would put into the house account to cover the mortgage, insurance, utilities and joint expenses of living together.  I took over the task of paying joint expenses since Mr. Sam wasn't great about paying his bills on time.  

• It's helpful to have basic guidelines in place that will keep you on the same page. For instance, purchases under a certain dollar amount can be left to each spouse's discretion, while larger ones should to be cleared with your partner.

We work from an allowance system, each of us gets the same amount of money, X2 a month, for discretionary spending.  We also have a rules system.  Any purchase over $300, even if spend from allowance money, requires a discussion and agreement between the two of us.  We also use the $100 rule, any purchase over a $100 requires a day's cooling off period for each $100.  So, a $600 purchase, requires a discussion, agreement between the two of us and a six day waiting period.

• Some couples might be comfortable pooling all of their money, and others may not; neither is the "right" choice, but that should be decided explicitly.

We use a his, hers, ours system.  We each maintain our own account for our allowance money and then we have an ours account for our joint spending, saving and bill paying.  

If you are in a co-habitation or marital relationship, what systems do you use, what works and what doesn't work for you and your significant other?

Can I Afford It?

I just returned from another fabulous, annual Memorial Day weekend girls trip.  The trip was expensive, nice hotel, pricey flight, fabulous 5 star dinners every night.  But, as you know, I plan for these trips and put away money each month for our travel expenses.  So this trip came in on budget, but it still was an expensive outing especially in light of the fact that Mr. Sam may not have a job at the end of the year.

While we did some great browsing in some great galleries and boutiques, I didn't actually buy anything on my trip.  I was interested in a hand made regional flavor basket, that would cost between $200-$300 (depending on size).  I decided not to buy it in the touristy area because I figured, and I was correct, that I could find a better price away from the hustle and bustle.  Then I was in a gallery and found a large piece of original art that I fell in love with.  In the gallery, it was priced at $750, but on-line it is priced at $625. Plus, I'd have to pay shipping which would tag on another $50 or so, but I don't have to pay sales tax.  So all together it would cost around $675.

I'm not a huge fan of Suze Orman but I've always liked her  "Can We Afford It" segments.  So this is my version of Orman's can I afford it.

Now, we don't have any unsecured debt, but we do have lots of mortgage debt.   However, at present, all of our investment properties are rented and paying for themselves.  We also have almost $18,000 in our emergency fund.

But, the elephant in the room is Mr. Sam's job.  We know there is a good chance that he will lose his job at the end of the year.  As a result we've been spending big dollars on some certification classes for him and therefore we are behind on our 2012 savings goals.  More importantly, we probably should be saving even more because of the high probability that Mr. Sam will be unemployed.

And putting that all aside, there are other home projects, i.e. plantations shutters and other improvements, that we could use this money for.

What do you think?  Can I afford it?

Carlos ???

We have lived in our house since 2004 and we are one of the few people these days that still has a home telephone.  The telephone number assigned to our home telephone has been my number since 1998.  

For the last few years, every six months or so, 70% of our home telephone calls, that we have answered, have been collection calls for Carlos [last name redacted].  At present, our home telephone answering machine is full.  When I get around to listening to the messages 90% of the calls will be collections calls for Carlos.  Bank of America is desperate to reach him and has been for years.  The calls come in waves, I will, at times, put in the effort to call back some of these collectors and ask them to "disassociate this number from Carlos."  Sometimes my effort pays off  some collection agencies are receptive and cooperative, others simply hang up on me.

One of my major complaints is that for the vast majority of these calls, which are automated, there is no way to indicate that they are calling the wrong number.  Often the only option is to press #, or whatever, if I AM Carlos.  Recently, I tried this option, I pressed # indicating that yes I was Carlos and was transferred to a live person.  Thereafter,  I tried to explain to that person that they were calling the wrong number, half way through my explanation they hung up on me.  Then 5 minutes later I got a second call, this time from a live person, who again asked for Carlos.  I'm assuming that the follow up call was from the same collection agency and I'm further assuming that I received a second call because I had positively indicated that I was Carlos.

My husband just doesn't answer our home phone, but it is my telephone number why can't I answer it assuming that it is a call for me or for him?  I pay for the telephone number and service, don't I have some right to use it.  I would send out cease and desist letters to set up a law suit for these automated calls, but I don't know how I could do so since I don't know who is calling, most of the time, and I don't have the account or loan number they are calling on.

Any thoughts?

The Hazards of Debit Cards

We use our debit cards for 90% of our day to day transactions. We like debit cards because we can keep track of our spending, we avoid debt by avoiding credit cards and by spending present dollars, we stick to our budget and our allowance system since we are limited in what we can spend.  90% of the time our debit card system works well, but everyone once in a while something goes wrong and since our debit cards are tied to our checking accounts, when things go wrong they can go way wrong.

Mr. Sam recently ordered car parts (for our antique car, his hobby) that totaled about $300.   Since the purchase exceeded $300, we discussed and agreed that he could go forward with the purchase (one of our rules requires us to discuss and agree on any purchase over $300).  He waited until the second half of the month to make the purchase so that he would have more than enough money to go forward with the purchase.

Unfortunately, the car part company put the $300 transaction through three times on his debit card which triggered an overdraft to our main account.  Ugh!  I was furious and disappointed and I really want to call the company and chew them out.  Luckily, Mr. Sam noticed the problem the day it happened so he got on the phone with Wells Fargo and the car company to work a solution.  The car company had reversed the two extra charges and Wells Fargo agreed to forego the overdraft fee, but it took a number of calls and about and hour of time.

Ouch!

Got gas this morning on my way to work.  $4 a gallon for regular and $60+ to fill up my tank.  Ouch!

Check out this handy county by county map of average gas prices.  According to the map, my county, Palm Beach, has the highest average gas prices in Florida, along with Collier County on the Southwest coast.  If you zoom in, you can get the actual prices of gas from station to station and I determined that I'm actually paying more at my local station than other stations in the vicinity.  But, my local gas station has the best cafe con leche so on an early morning fill up, like today, its worth it to pay more for my gas to get my hands on that yummy cuban coffee.

Above and Beyond

Recently, I gave Nordstrom (and I really want to add an extra S on the end of its name) a hard time for stalking me  on the interwebs offering me products that are no longer available.  As an aside, they are still stalking me and still offering up that great tweed coat that isn't available.

As I mentioned in the stalking post, I recently purchased a number of items from Nordstom during their half yearly sale.  I normally have my online orders sent to my office, since  I know someone will always be available to sign for the package.  As such, I received two medium size boxes from Nordstrom this past week.  I promptly unpacked the boxes and repacked into one box for ease of transport.  When I got home, I was going through the packing invoice and the items received when I realized that three small fashion bracelets that I ordered for gifts were missing in action.

The next day I called Nordstrom and explained my problem to a very nice woman, not located on the other side of the world I might mention, and she asked whether I had checked the packing material, because they often tuck small items into the packing paper.  Uh oh, I thought, I promptly pulled all the packing material out and tossed it and since it was the next day the cleaning folks had already come and gone and emptied my office trash.  Being the honest person I am, I told the Nordstrom customer service rep exactly what I had done and further told her that I assumed I had tossed out the missing bracelets.  I wasn't too upset, these were fashion bracelets that had cost about $10 each that I had bought as gifts for my god-daughters and my niece, so if they were gone they were gone and I was out $30.

Well, imagine my surprise when Nancy told me they would send out three replacement bracelets and would send them second day so I'd have them sooner rather than later.  She told me it was always possible that they the bracelets, since they were small, had not made it into the box and since there was no way to check they would rather send me the replacements.

I say, such customer service is above and beyond and one of the reasons that Nordstrom is on my fave list.

You Are Doing it Wrong - Nordstrom Spying Addition

I am a fan of the Nordstrom stores.  Good quality products, friendly and helpful service and an unbeatable return policy.   As a result, it is one of my go to stores both as a brick and mortar store and for online shopping.  I recently bought a bunch of stuff during their half yearly sale.

After my post on Dynamic Pricing, I've been paying attention to what advertisements follow me around on the web.  And Nordstrom has been stalking me left and right throwing up photos of products it thinks I might like.  And they are getting the photos right, but why would they offer me something I like that is out of stock?  They keep throwing up this photo of this very cute Nanette Lepore tweed jacket, but it is completely out of stock.  I really can't figure out the point of this type of stalking.

The same thing happens on Amazon, if I buy an iPhone charger to leave in my car, Amazon then offers me more iPhone auto chargers.  How many cars does Amazon think I own?