Dick's Sporting Goods Online Store: Good Thing the BoSox Didn't Run the Bases This Slow
Written: Nov 12 '04
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My daughter, bless her little four-year-old heart, is a huge Boston Red Sox fan. Since that deviates from her father's love of the Atlanta Braves, she is always forced to wear the tons of Braves gear she's received. For Christmas, I decided to get her a Red Sox jersey, and unfortunately for me, found the best selection at Dick's Sporting Goods Online Store after discovering that if you aren't a Mets or Yankees fan around here, you are out of luck for in-store selection.
::: Meat and Potatoes Design :::
Of all the well-known retailers I have shopped online, the Dick's Sporting Goods Online Store has probably the most utilitarian web site design. The splash page is very text-heavy and graphics-light, featuring five smallish pictures of featured items, with the rest of the page being predominantly text. A blurb at the top features free shipping for orders of $99 or more, and directly below it is a search feature.
Three different categorizations are available for browsing: Top Shops, which features current professional sports, products like treadmills, etc. and changes with current events; Browse the Store, which breaks up items into departments similar to the brick and mortar stores (soccer, baseball, etc.); and Shop by Brand (Nike, Adidas, etc.)
Adding an item to the shopping cart shows an instant shipping estimate, and gives several options for continuing shopping (returning to the home page, previous page, shop your item was in, or brand the item is) or checking out. For checkout, you have the option of saving your information for subsequent shopping. On the item I was ordering, a Boston Red Sox Youth Twill Jersey, I was offered no other shipping options other than ground shipping.
Forms of payment are Dick's Gift Card, American Express, Discover, Visa, MasterCard, and GiveAnything gift certificates.
::: Escargot Shipping :::
Item was ordered on Thursday afternoon. As of the following Wednesday afternoon, the order was still showing "Item found in stock" under order status. A phone call to the Dick's Sporting Goods Online Store netted a response of "Well, it says it's leaving the warehouse in 7 to 10 business days, which is why you haven't received word that it's shipped yet." Gee, thanks. Apparently, that means that no one is going to move any faster to get things out the door. My order from the Old Navy Online Store was placed AFTER my order from the Dick's Sporting Goods Online Store and yet it arrived on Tuesday. There must be a snail who has an electronic device on him (or her), alerting staff that an item has been found and notifying them that the item will be back to the shipping area the following month.
My package arrived the Monday after my call (too late to sneak one under the radar with my husband and give it to her while the Sox were still playing in the World Series), which was well within the time allotted, but still seemed slow to ship and hard to track.
::: Bland Aftertaste :::
While I did receive my daughter's gift in excellent condition in the time allotted by the shipping estimate, I still was left with a very "meh" feeling about the entire shopping experience. I'm very fond of shopping at online stores that go above and beyond the standard level of service, and there are so many stores out there that I probably wouldn't shop at the Dick's Sporting Goods Online Store again. Average customer service, no expedited shipping, and a blah web site leave me with the impression that I could have probably done better somewhere else.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? child''s twill Red Sox jersey
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pippadaisy
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Divorce seriously cuts into the amount of time for reviewing.
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