Home Shopping Network online - They blew me off!
Written: Sep 12 '02
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“Do you want your skin to glow?” Well, you can get Serious Skin Care Trio RIGHT NOW on HSN online linked right to the television channel broadcast. The TV channel does lose something in the translation to the computer with that small pop-up screen and the strobe light type moments for the friendly neighborhood ladies showing how to look young and feel soft for eternity. Still, HSN is doing a better media integration than other shopping sites, and you can get an idea about how shopping may be in the future. You log in, see the product, hear the pitch, click, buy.
I’ve never been the HSN type. I’d rather just look and think in the store and surely at home where we have enough aural clutter without adding sales pitches in living color with volume control. Some people do like the personal touch or the feel of that though it gets kind of impersonal when the person talking at you has no clue about what you like and don’t like or what you look like.
The other thing that puts me off on HSN is that they have rather generic products. They indicate that they have limited stock, but I really wonder how many millions they sell of any given product. It’s no fun to show up with the same piece of jewelry as all the other ladies in Sunday School. I thought I was so cutting edge with the silver necklace loop with changeable charm things. Then I buy one and some charms, and it seems that everyone in town got the same necklace loop (though our dangles differed a little).
I did pick up a few things from HSN, and I loved the butterfly necklace. It just figures that I left it in the super doper cleaner can and forgot I put it in there and then peeled the silver coating off. By the time I got around to cleaning more jewelry two months later, that necklace was toasted. If they had another one, I would buy it.
Since the things I bought from HSN were fine and the butterfly necklace was really great until I ruined it, I thought I would buy at HSN.com when they offered a coupon. It ran something like $15 off $20 for the first time shopping online and was listed up at a deal site. Sometimes deal sites run things that are not intended for general use, and I watch for that. This coupon looked like the typical coupon to introduce shoppers to a store, so I didn’t feel any red flags popping up.
It took quite a while to get the swing of the site. It is organized by categories, but the stock is broad with most items being things that women might buy. I’d look at kitchen and the sets and pieces there, clothing and the range of cotton sets, and jewelry with nothing really jumping out at me. Everything looked OK, but nothing really caught my eye.
Finally, I decided on some pillows. I bought some gosh-awful Martha Stewart pillows last year. They are called Grandma pillows and have pink stripes. The idea is that they are feather and would be soft and nice. Actually, they must be stuffed with the pinfeathers rather than the down feathers. They stick me in the face, and the feathers work out of the cover and blow all over the room. I have been thinking that life is too short to sleep on those, so it seemed like a nice time to splurge on pillows.
The order process went fine. I selected to pillows. They went in the cart. I put in all my info to buy the pillows. The coupon cleared, and I got a receipt online. The only thing I needed to do was to wait on the pillows. But, I still don’t have the pillows six months later.
My guess is that the coupon was a problem. That happens sometimes, though I don’t think I’ve had but one order cancelled on coupons and that was Macy’s. They emailed and said that it was not supposed to be given out, and I emailed and thanked them and that was fine. I’m game for trying new stores out, but I don’t want to scam any store.
The problem I have with HSN is that I never heard a word. I was waiting and waiting for those pillows. They never did email on that at all after clearing it online, but they did add me to the email list. That’s pretty tacky. I didn’t get the pillows, but I did get on the mailing list and with emails in my box from a store that blew me off. I wonder if they think I will really be a loyal customer when they don’t bother to get in contact and let me know I won’t get pillows and will have to live with the Martha Stewart ones until I get to the store and remember to buy new ones?
HSN products are fine, and they do know how to sell stuff. I bought some things, and they were good. I won’t be buying more stuff though, since I hate to give out my private info including my credit card number to get on an email list and not even see how the service works. When those emails come in, I just delete. There are loads of places to buy online, and I don’t have to work with a place that has very typical kinds of products and no system for telling me I won’t get my pillows.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
CyndiA
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 in Home and Garden |
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Member: Cyndi
Location: out in the yard grilling
Reviews written: 1158
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About Me:
Get some sleep and dream of rock 'n roll - Bread.
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