Pixel Posybytes of life

I thought I’d do a little write up about my experience with Ideeli.com, a site devoted to hosting member only sales on mostly department store brand merchandise.

The member’s only thing isn’t really that exclusive. The site is free to join, you just need someone to give you their invite link. Here’s my invite: http://www.ideeli.com/invite/nibbled.

Once you sign up you have access to all of their sales starting at 11:00 AM and the surprise give-a-ways.  Or for just under $85 a year, you can become a 1st row member and shop an hour earlier than the free members. Personally, I’m just a free member and only a handful of times have I really wanted something that was sold out before it went on sale to the general members. Maybe this will change with time as Ideeli grows, but for right now I’m pretty comfortable spending that $85 annual membership on something else.

I’ve found the prices to be well below other online prices for the same item, I always do a quick search while the 15 minute checkout timer ticks away. The brands seem to be things I could easily find at the mall and for the most part are recognizable. Shipping is a little high in my opinion at $10, especially since merchandise won’t ship until sometimes weeks after your actual purchase. For example I snagged a handbag today that won’t ship until the first or second week in April.

My purchases:

• A winter coat that ended up being canceled on Ideeli’s end. Some kind of manufacturer fluke that resulted in Ideeli not being able to fill the orders. My card was never charged and I was given a credit of $25 for the inconvenience. I was sad that the coat wasn’t arriving after the long wait, but I felt appreciative of the credit.
• A sweater with a Holiday Bonus $25 gift card arrived with the gift card missing. A quick email to customer service and my account was credited for the mistake.
• A handbag that I was super excited about was delayed by a few days from the estimated ship date. Ideeli waived the shipping fee and credited my account $10 for free shipping on a future item. Unfortunately my credit card was charged for the shipping anyway. Again a simple email to customer service and Ideeli corrected the over charge to my card. The handbag was packaged nicely and arrived in perfect condition.
• Still waiting for a pair of shoes that also had a delay on the estimated ship date. This time I was credited $10 for free shipping, but since my purchase had not shipped yet I was able to apply the credit immediately to the shoes.  I’m not sure if shipping will also be waived on this item as it was done for my handbag. Time will tell as I’m still waiting for a shipment confirmation.
• And lastly I’ll be waiting on the handbag I just purchased today to ship in early April.

So all in all, Ideeli has great prices on nice stuff from well known department store brands. Their customer service is very quick to act and simple to contact through email. BUT as you can see I’ve had some kind of customer service issue on every single one of my purchases, save the one I just ordered today. The deals I’ve found have been worth the wait and the site credits were much appreciated as compensation for late or in one case missing  merchandise. But the deals come at a different price and patience is a must with their lengthy shipment dates and a little caution is in order if you need an item by a specific date.

Happy deal hunting, feel free to check out what Ideeli has to offer by using my invitation link at: http://www.ideeli.com/invite/nibbled