Unfortunately, we happen to be one of them. It seems Kmart did a piss-poor job of reconciling the online layaway order contracts with the actual warehouse inventory and now paid in full online initiated layaway customers and being left high and dry when the time comes to ship the goods.

KMART ONLINE LAYAWAY CONTRACTS CANCELLED- ITEMS OUT OF STOCK

Kmart sends out confusing emails about layaway contracts being cancelled… Here is the one we got:

Then they automatically issue a refund without any further contact or efforts to assist the customer. Folks expecting that their online Kmart purchases were locked in and that their holiday shopping was complete are terribly wrong. Kmart feels they don’t owe you anything. cant get their shit together (see update below)!

From the get-go I’ve had issues shopping on their website. Initially I placed an order for a Barbie type doll from the Tangled movie, Flynn to be specific. When it arrived it was the wrong character and it was all smashed up from being crushed in transit.

I reached out to customer service to simply have it replaced. There was nothing simple about the interaction. I was refunded my purchase amount, then invoiced a higher price for my replacement item and charged for shipping. After about 45min of back and fourth the customer service rep finally agreed to not charge me for shipping and to honor the original purchase price on my replacement item. Unfortunately, when it came it was still the WRONG character. I simply sold it on Ebay and bought the correct character from Amazon.com

When I paid off my layaway contract in full just before thanksgiving I figured I’d be all set with my items before the rush of last minute shopping began for Kmart. I was wrong about that too.

My order somehow got lost in the fulfillment department for two weeks and nothing was shipped to me. I reached out to customer service three times before I got the first dreaded “Your layaway contract has been cancelled” emails.

When I reached out to them the response was ” apologies, the items are no longer in stock”.

So, if you think your online layaway contract has secured you a certain price and that the item is now reserved for you, think again. Kmart has other ideas about layaway order fulfillment it seems.

12/7/14 Update:

KMART ISSUES GIFT CARDS & EXPEDITED SHIPPING FOR CANCELLED CONTRACTS

Kmart sent out the following email:

“We deeply apologize for cancelation of your online layaway. Here are the steps we are taking immediately:

First, we have processed your refund for canceled items and you will receive this refund soon, if you haven’t already.

Second, we are working to find the items that were identified as out of stock – and if we can find them we will provide those items to you for free and ship to you for free. If we don’t have those items, we will provide you with an e-gift card that you can use towards the purchase of another item or items.

Please call us at 877-810-5891 as soon as possible (before 6 pm CST, Sunday, December 21st so we can get the items to you in a timely manner). Our customer service representatives are available from 6 am CST to 10 pm CST to help you.

We regret this happened at all. We know this is a special time of year for you and your family and we want to assure you we are working hard to make this right.

Best regards,
Imran Jooma
EVP & President, Marketing and Online”

I called in like instructed, waiting and then spoke to a pleasantly efficient and knowledgeable rep whom located one of my cancelled items and issued courtesy gift cards for the other items that I said were cancelled and not received by me – I make the “not received by me” distinction because my entire online layaway orders showed as cancelled but some items were sent and fulfilled before the cancellation emails sent out. 

Like promised, I did get two courtesy gift cards for future purchases, in addition to being refunded for my cancelled items (I paid them via paypal so my refund wasn’t so delayed). I tried ordering different replacement items on kmart.com the afternoon of 12/19/14. These were replacement items bought with the issued gift cards. I was feeling good about how I was still well within the shipping time frame for holiday arrival, I found some items, checked out & got an order confirmation success page with an order number.

ONLINE ORDERS AREN’T PROCESSING

I went about my day having that handled. Later that night, when I checked my email I realized my order confirmation WASN’T ever emailed to me. The next day I logged in to kmart.com and also didn’t see my order reflected in my account which made me think it didn’t process and that it is NOT shipping for arrival before 12/25.

After talking two different service reps (web chat and by telephone) who both said my order didn’t really exist, I decided to try resubmitting my order online last night. This new order rendered a new confirmation number and success page (that I remembered to print this time) it was said to arrive by 12/24. Yet again I’ve not received an email confirmation and the order isn’t in my kmart.com order history. I’m betting it never comes.

Also, the items that were found from my cancelled layaway order and supposedly 2nd day shipped out to me aren’t here and I’ve gotten NO email correspondences regarding them either. What is going on with the Kmart online system?

I’m just beyond frustrated at this point. I’ve spent far too much time trying to get this all to work out and I’ve got zero hope for actually seeing any of my items because I just can’t spend anymore time trying to get Kmart/ Sears customer service reps to understand or care about what is really happening. The Kmart/ Sears online ordering system and inventory management system is REALLY messed up!

I told them in an email: “In a perfect situation you guys would pull my items from stock at my local Kmart, wrap them up and let me come pick them up-thus bypassing your malfunctioning online ordering system and ensuring my items are here for Christmas… but nobody that I’ve spoken to since Friday has seemed particularly interested in going above and beyond for the customer in remedying this situation.

Please let me know how you will attempt to remedy this.” but I’m not really holding my breath for them to go above and beyond. What has your experience been?

The post Kmart’s Online Layaway Program Ruins The Holiday For Many… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

If you have an AIM account, a web cam and want to take part in the video chat today email me your AIM screen name and if you are online during the shower today (12-2 AZ time) I’ll include you in the video chat!

Bloggy buddies, family and friends have all been thinking of Tater’s arrival and have sent many treasures for her. As we have been receiving stuff we have been documenting it via the digital camera so the gift givers can see us opening the treasures.

Here is a slideshow of all the stuff we have received for Tater so far:

Everything we have been receiving is being photographed or video taped and added to the above photobucket album so it is all in one place for you to see. We’ll be updating the album once the shower is over to add any newly received items, as they arrive. If you don’t see your gift don’t panic. It’s probably just not here yet.

Now since many of you were not able to attend this shower in Phoenix Maiden53 has organized an online baby shower that ANYBODY can partake in via the web! We’ll be doing a chat via the online shower site Friday May 15th @ 3pm Eastern time so mark those calendars if you want to participate. We’ll also be sharing the updated slideshow at this chat.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, we’ll share how the shower went in the coming week. If you still haven’t had enough fun here you can check out the webcasts, vlog & live chat page for more fun! Hugs and love to all!

The post They are showering Tater in Phoenix right now! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I just found a site that I thought was interesting and related to black friday. It’s called Black-Friday.net, the concept of the site is basically that you are emailed the black friday ads so you can buy stuff from the comfort of your own home on black friday. This seems better than waking up before the sun rises just to stand in line, waiting for the stores to open so I am there to get the great deals before they run out.

Some of the stores that I am interested in are: Best Buy specials, Tractor Supply Co. discounts and Buy.com ads. It appears that the ads wont be posted until closer to black friday and you can either enter you email to receive black friday ad alerts or you can check the site closer to black friday. I am always open to new and better ways to do things so I signed up for the email alert! We will see how well it goes! Wish me luck for black friday! bfads

The post Avoid the crowds- shop online! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I have taken precautions to back up my data here at home. I bought a fairly large external hard drive that is networked to all our computers. All my important info is on that drive in case one of my computers dies.. Anyway I have been thinking about other ways for save my data. If my external hard drive dies it would be a good idea to have back ups of those files elsewhere right? So, I also put my data on a CD periodically but what if we have a house fire or a break in?

Business owners have to think about these things because they are responsible for keeping their records accessible and safe for up to seven years. I did some research and found a number of different ways to back up your data.

Basically you should have a data backup on site (in your home or office) and you should always have an off site backup such as safety deposit box with CD backups or you can pay other companies to store your backups on their servers.

I found a company (IBackup) that does online backup of your data for as low as $9.95 a month. This is a good idea for anybody who has a website, blog or who stores important information on their computer or mobile device. I was most interested in the database backups they offer because my entire blog is a database with hundreds of articles. I cannot imagine loosing all that data!

Also, if you have a blackberry or other mobile device or if you have data that is accessed by many users in different locations IBackup is a great way to make your data accessible to anyone on any computer or device.

IBackup also thinks keeping your data safe and secure is the first priority! Their website describes their “world-class facilities are custom designed with raised floors, HVAC temperature control systems with separate cooling zones, and seismically braced racks. They offer the widest range of physical security features, including state-of-the-art smoke detection and fire suppression systems, motion sensors, and 24×7 secured access, as well as video camera surveillance and security breach alarms.”

If you are thinking about having your data stored off site in a secure yet accessible location you should consider using and online backup service such as IBackup. In these days everything is computerized and it’s better to be safe than sorry right?

What do you do to keep your data safe? I am interested in some other methods used by bloggers and business owners so please share them below!

The post How do you protect your precious data?? appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.