<p>We too arrived late to the party when it came to finding an alternative source for new textbooks. Just received DS’s book order for the coming semester and even got 8% cash back through Mr. Rebates :)</p>
<p>Hickory Farms is having a sale, but not on their sausage and cheese gift boxes. [Online</a> Specials | Hickory Farms](<a href=“Food Gift Baskets | Gift Basket Delivery | Hickory Farms”>Food Gift Baskets | Gift Basket Delivery | Hickory Farms) I considered buying my college son a ham for $22 but the shipping is an additional $10, which makes it not such a good deal. Oh, well. Guess I’m saving money!</p>
<p>Nordstrom has some Uggs at 50% off - I got a pair of boots with zippers on the back for $110. I know that’s a lot of $$$, but these boots rarely get cheaper than that.</p>
<p>Oops - just got an e-mail from Nordy’s with apologies for cancelling the order due to “item being unavailable”. RATS!</p>
<p>Bad buy of the day: a linksys router, never worked right out of the box, but took more than 14 days to diagnose as dead. Now the store won’t take it back, and linksys says it needs to be mailed at my expense back to them.</p>
<p>Was it a WRT54G? Those things are usually bulletproof. I wonder if their quality is slipping.</p>
<p>I’m surprised that the store won’t take it back. Where did you get it from? My only option locally for one of these would be Best Buy and I’ve returned things to them, no questions asked in the 30-day return period.</p>
<p>Another bad one…My mom bought my son a wireless shower radio ($30) at JC Penneys. YOu can play the radio or blast your ipod from a safe distance away. Tried it once… last night it didn’t work and when my husband opened the battery compartment water just gushed out.</p>
<p>I hate to ask her for the receipt (she will feel bad about it), but irritating!!! I may just email the company and ask to send it back.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Bad buy of the day: a linksys router, never worked right out of the box, but took more than 14 days to diagnose as dead. [/quote</p>
<p>I hope my router lasts longer. I bought a Linksys WRT120N around the holidays. So far, so good…</p>
<p>A WRT54Gv2 from Staples. I am equally frustrated at Staples (when you give something as a gift, it might take more than 14 days to work out there’s a problem) and Linksys (if something is DOA, the customer should not have to pay more to get something that works).</p>
<p>It seems like there are a fair number of reported failures on the V2. Sounds like QC problems that they consider acceptable losses. Our WRT54G has been working for
quite some time (it was a pre V2 model I guess). Most people that I know that have
repeated router failures eventually wind up with the Apple router. I don’t think that
I know anyone with problems with the Apple Router but it’s quite expensive.</p>
<p>Our Magellan RoadMate 1412 became very “quirky” (like only working sometimes & having an irratic touch screen). We had purchased it quite a while back so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to return it to Costco. I took it there but didn’t have the instruction book. I returned iwth the instruction book but without the mounting kit. I finally returned with EVERYTHING, including the original plastic packaging & they gave me a full refund, even tho I didn’t have the receipt.</p>
<p>I bought their new RoadMate 1475T and it is a much improved device with 24/7 365 day traffic updates with NO fee. We did find a glitch in the software, even after the most recent update & I spoke with Customer Service twice about it today & they promised to have their engineers work on it. WIll see what they are able to do to fix it. Am otherwise happy because I ended up with a MUCH better GPS at $20 less than the refund I got for the earlier model that started failing on us.</p>
<p>That is what I love about Costco! My BIL did the same thing with a camera a few years ago; returned an older model and bought a newer, better model for less money. I sometimes wonder how Costco can afford to accept returns of some of the items I have seen returned. I realize most of the items are sent back to the manufacturer, but Costco’s return policy is more than generous. If I am buying an item and it is sold at Costco, I will always buy it there first if it is something that has the potential to break.</p>
<p>I am another fan of Costco’s return policy. Last week I returned an item and did not have the receipt and the price came up as $14.99 but the sales person looked at it and said that she thought the price had come down. She asked when I bought it and I said around Thanksgiving so she looked further into my account and found out that I had paid $25 for it and that’s the amount she refunded. I really had no idea how much she had paid and would have been fine with the lower price. They are really so good to deal with.</p>
<p>Lands End in Sears is another company with such a generous return policy that I don’t mind buying things on-line and then returning them at my Sears store. I returned a pair of jeans and shoes there yesterday and ended up buy $30 more in clothes and not only did I get everything 40% off but they added another 10% because I bought something when returning an item! Good marketing strategy - everyone in line seemed to be returning and buying.</p>
<p>Re: Lands End </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Kathie they have been offering an additional 10%, with frees shipping with purchase of $50 or more, on their website, including some deeply discounted items. I wonder if that is why they offered that added 10% off. I have recently purchased some winter items on their site for amazing prices! I am also a very happy Lands End customer. I love being able to return items to Sears and not need to deal with shipping back returns.</p>
<p>We do try to get much of our electronics and things that we want to last a long time from Costco. In addition to the manufacturer’s warranty, they have an additional year of tech support and if you charge on AmEx, you get still more protection–an additional year of warranty & loss/theft protection for 90 days. We have used the service & warranty several times, especially with computers!</p>
<p>I figure as long as the prices are close, I’ll purchase from Costco over its competitors just because they’re so good to deal with, especially the store 5 minutes from our home!</p>
<p>Amazon’s gold buy of the day is an Ugg style boot for $49.99.</p>
<p>Wow re the UGG boots. I paid almost twice that for slippers for Christmas!</p>
<p>Got my daughter a CK Bradley silk dress with silk lining…probably a couple of season’s old but with the original tags on it ($398) for $12.99…on the rack at Goodwill. I hope it fits her…if not, she can give it away.</p>
<p>50 Spray Roses, $19.99 Shipped Free After Coupon at 1-800-flowers.com</p>
<p>Note: These are petite bloom roses. Lively spring colors in this bouquet! A great find for those who love petite and colorful roses.</p>
<p>Choose the 50 blooms only (without vase) at $24.99 sale price. Choose a delivery date TuesdayFriday during the first two weeks of February to get free shipping/delivery. In cart, add coupon code FB20 (very end) to drop 20% off the $24.99,</p>
<p>[Spray</a> Roses 50 - 100 Blooms](<a href=“http://ww12.1800flowers.com/product.do?baseCode=17883]Spray”>http://ww12.1800flowers.com/product.do?baseCode=17883)</p>
<p>Wow, that’s a great deal! Thinking of sending these to my D at school at couple of days early for Valentines Day!</p>
<p>Ann Taylor loft - 50% off all already reduced clothes. I got three very soft acrylic blend sweaters for 40 bucks total. Someone who wears size L wil be very lucky - their cashmere sweaters are $20.</p>