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Go ahead, download the .opml file and import it into your favourite RSS Reader! We recommend NetVibes or Google Reader. If this is a little too techy for you, you can try “sharing” one of my NetVibes tabs by clicking here.

I have set aside Fridays to work on various tasks related to DriveTraffic.ca. Today’s task was to explore the PPC interfaces of search engines other than Google AdWords in order to be able to offer this service to clients.

Today I set up an ad for WebTrends Training on Ask.com. The setup was pretty quick and easy considering I did not read one iota of help :-)

One task I have tried to do so far without success is to go back and edit my keywords to be in a #1 position as my ad does not appear to be showing on Ask.com when I query my keyword phrases - I believe the reason is that other advertisers are paying more money than I am, which puts them higher. I guess I could test it by changing my cpc.

One thing I have noticed as well is that it is time consuming to go back in and edit and ad - perhaps a rookie would find this with AdWords as well and I am just incredibly comfortable with the AdWords interface…even if they do change it monthly sometimes!

Last comment for today on Ask.com is that so far I have not seen any geo-targeting options such as only showing my ads in USA or specific states.

Next post should be a review of the MSN Ad Center experience.

I just got off the phone with someone from Elaine’s Gift Boutique requesting that they reimburse my shipping and customs fees on the grounds that they did not deliver within their stated time period nor did they advise customers of having to pay customs fees (for the record, we do not ALWAYS have to pay customs fees).

Unfortunately this person cannot see my point of view and is unwilling to reimburse me in any way. Their perspective is that they are not responsible for shipping times, and it must have been Canadian customs that held things up. Unfortunately due to the lack of accountability or detail with USPS online tracking, I cannot tell when the item arrived in customs, only when it cleared (7pm on the Friday before Christmas - a little late to be delivered on time for Christmas).

I also informed the person on the phone about Borderfree “You can shop in Canadian dollars and you will receive a guaranteed price of what you can expect to pay in shipping, duties and taxes. No brokerage fees, no CODs and no surprises at the door.

LandsEnd tells us what our customs fees will be! Amazon manages to deliver on time!

I feel that it is a copout of Elaine’s Gift Boutique to say that timely shipping to Canada is out of their hands - if they feel comfortable enough to but a 7-9 day estimate on their website, they should feel comfortable enough to acknowledge it when it fails.

So very disappointing… I need to make it my mission to educate US online businesses about providing service to Canadian shoppers.

How were your online shopping experiences this season? Do share via a comment :) We’ve turned off the requirement to register before posting in order to encourage you to comment!

I just got off the phone with someone from Elaine’s Gift Boutique requesting that they reimburse my shipping and customs fees on the grounds that they did not deliver within their stated time period nor did they advise customers of having to pay customs fees (for the record, we do not ALWAYS have to pay customs fees).

Unfortunately this person cannot see my point of view and is unwilling to reimburse me in any way. Their perspective is that they are not responsible for shipping times, and it must have been Canadian customs that held things up. Unfortunately due to the lack of accountability or detail with USPS online tracking, I cannot tell when the item arrived in customs, only when it cleared (7pm on the Friday before Christmas - a little late to be delivered on time for Christmas).

I also informed the person on the phone about Borderfree “You can shop in Canadian dollars and you will receive a guaranteed price of what you can expect to pay in shipping, duties and taxes. No brokerage fees, no CODs and no surprises at the door.

LandsEnd tells us what our customs fees will be! Amazon manages to deliver on time!

I feel that it is a copout of Elaine’s Gift Boutique to say that timely shipping to Canada is out of their hands - if they feel comfortable enough to but a 7-9 day estimate on their website, they should feel comfortable enough to acknowledge it when it fails.

So very disappointing… I need to make it my mission to educate US online businesses about providing service to Canadian shoppers.

How were your online shopping experiences this season? Do share via a comment :) We’ve turned off the requirement to register before posting in order to encourage you to comment!

I talk about ecommerce all the time - what to do, what not to do. I base this on what I think is common sense that can be derived by shopping at a variety of sites and doing a bit of reading.

This Christmas I purchased at least a couple of items online. My thoughts after the holidays are that I desire to stick to larger brands such as Amazon as some of the smaller sites just don’t seem to be able to pull it off.

Now in all honesty I am not comparing apples to apples.

On Amazon I purchased a few books and had them sent to my family’s US Post Office Box since I am in Canada. One of the books was going to be a gift for my mom and I didn’t want to take a chance on her seeing the book so I took Amazon up on their offer to gift wrap the book. They did a lovely job, using a mint green paper with a simple bow :-) The books came in early, so no problems - they were waiting for me, already wrapped when I arrived at my family’s for the holidays!

Next, I ordered from egiftboutique. I would agree not the most professional site I have ever visited but there is not a great deal of choice if you are looking for Thimble Display Cabinet as a gift for someone!

I chose to ship the item to my brothers house (in Canada) as it would appear there was plenty of time - they required 7 business days. I made my order on Dec 8 (let’s assume evening so we will count Dec 9 as day 1). That was a Saturday so we will go with Dec 11 as being day 1. That should bring me to Dec 20 or so (a Wednesday).

Nope. Tracking was provided by USPS and I have to say their website was updated a total of 3 times from Dec 11 until the item was delivered on Dec 28. The package cleared customs on December 22 7pm.

Perhaps I am being hard on the company as they were only off by 2 days? Had I known that I needed to leave extra time for Christmas, I would have opted to have the package sent to our US postal address and be picked up there by a family member. Also, after paying for the curio cabinet, $17 in shipping…my brother had to pay another $12 for customs fees once the package was delivered.

Unfortunately it made for a late, expensive Christmas gift. I either have to get my butt in gear sooner next year, stick to shipping to US addresses or stick with companies that I know can handle Canadian transactions in a timely, affordable way.

In kudos to Elaine’s Gift Boutique, I will be calling them to request my shipping money back and I believe from a previous conversation with them that it may just happen :-)

Now for the wee bit of instore shopping that I did. My favourite is at Canadian Tire where I went to get an oil change after Christmas at 9am. An hour after the oil change I was waiting in line to pay for the service and noticed another service desk adjacent to the one where I was waiting and there were too staff working there but neither had any customers.

One staff was reading a newspaper so I approached her and asked if I could pay her for the oil change. She said yes, put down her paper and took my money.

My question here is…. why are you reading a newspaper on the job? And why are you not offering to serve customers that are waiting in this other line? And where is the boss that the employees feel so comfortable reading a newspaper right out in the open while customers wait? Bad, bad customer service :-)

Darlene