Firecracker, wow, that's frustrating. I also got a somewhat useless answer via email, but did fine when I could live chat (maybe the back and forth makes it clearer). I have never called, because I hate talking on the phone and avoid it whenever possible, but I'm sure that would work too.

I noticed their "free shipping by Christmas Eve" banner too - maybe they're upgrading everyone to 2-day shipping, or the hold-up was the massive volume of business around Black Friday and now things are back to normal?

I am in the midst of a similar drama with Loft. I ordered a pair of jeans during their Thanksgiving weekend sale. I got a shipment notification on the third, but there was never any actual info or updates on the tracking number. I emailed them after a week asking if maybe the tracking number was wrong or the package got mislaid somewhere, and got a nonsensical answer (several days later) apologizing that my package hadn't arrived yet, which wasn't even what I wrote in to ask about. So far I've been passed on to three different CS reps, none of which have actually read my original message or provided me with information I didn't already know. Mysteriously, a couple days ago the package info showed that it had finally been entered into the UPS system (ten days after it supposedly had shipped) and it's scheduled to arrive on Friday. None of this has been communicated to me by the Loft reps, BTW, it's just me checking UPS. At this point I'm wondering whether it's my package at all, or something else entirely - a box of cat food bound for Hawaii, who knows! Very few companies these days seem to have CS reps that actually know anything or can do anything - I don't know if it's a language issue if they're overseas, or they're just overworked so they send the same boilerplate to everyone regardless, but it's pretty frustrating.

I will have to try calling or live chat next time. I confess I just didn't want to take the time to wait for someone to answer. . .
Laura, the Loft situation sounds even worse. Hope you get the actual jeans you ordered!
My Nordstrom package arrived today. It's so pathetic, now that it's actually here--the only remaining items in my order were four skin care/body care items and three free samples. It's kind of laughable, the frustration I went through to get 10 points on my Nordstrom card purchases for that big Cyber Monday order, huh?

I just placed an order last night and got a notice today saying it would be delivered tomorrow. I was wondering if it would be here before Christmas when I ordered it.
Maybe they're caught up.

FYI--before we all start blaming the retailers,
http://www.wsj.com/articles/up.....1449796191

Many apologies for my absence from this thread. I somehow missed all the activity.

Interesting that there is this much variability in people's experiences this season. I did notice more promising about delivery times going on at the website recently. Trying for it and achieving it may be two different things and thanks for the link as to the circumstances contributing to the dilemmas across retailers, kkards. Many of my pieces did wind up arriving within their new, protracted window. What didn't work here was the inability to predict the shipping date within a week, then needing to add on the longer shipping time. Sometimes one can flex, but this month involves a series of fixed dates, so they had to be ruled out for shopping as early as December 4th, because of how the time frame was explained to me.

I feel badly for those of you who have not received satisfactory service at all (laura and firecracker). Very discouraging and a real loss of identity for the retailer that was known for customer service. The individuals I had contact with were all polite, helpful and responsive; the wait time to get to them was long and they didn't have good news. i do expect a bit of inconvenience due to high volume now. Neither of those issues were ones they could impact and seemed systemic.

Here's hoping for good outcomes to those who need them. Perhaps it is a question of both retailers and shippers catching up to the demands of increased online shopping. It can spoil you when all goes according to plan and expectations are hard to roll back once they are realized.

Exciting update: the jeans of great suspense are supposedly on the UPS truck for delivery today - maybe they'll actually arrive!

kkards, I'm not a WSJ subscriber so I couldn't read the whole article, but that's interesting. I wonder if the USPS and FedEx have had similar issues this year. It does seem like everyone shopped early online - Black Friday/Cyber Monday - rather than spreading their purchases out in December more as they used to do.

On the 'femalefashionadvice' sub on reddit, someone was complaining about similar things happening when ordering from Uniqlo. Several people had ordered during their Cyber Monday sale and were just now learning they were out of stock, or hadn't been shipped yet. Proof that it wasn't just Nordstrom that got slammed.

i ordered a sweater last night - it is to deliver 12/24 but i didnt get ship confirmation yet....

A final update on the Loft jeans: they did arrive and are as ordered. 20 days door to door, 14 of which they seem to have sat in the Loft distribution center before they even got handed over to UPS.

I order from Nordstrom knowing it will take 2 or even 3 weeks to arrive sometimes. Zappos and Amazon have them beat, so if either has the item I want, they get my business. And I'll echo others about the delays in getting credit for returns. It takes a while...

By the way, if you pay using PayPal, you cannot return to a store.

At Zappos you can ask to be a preferred customer or something like that. What it means is I get my order THE NEXT DAY! I don't know how I became a preferred customer, but it's pretty amazing. Zappos prices aren't particularly low or anything, but they are amazingly fast. I placed a Cyber Monday order at Macys and it didn't ship until the following Monday. Yet I could call Zappos right now and get my order tomorrow.

My experience with Nordstrom this shopping season has been all over the map. I never received a shipping confirmation on one order, so I didn't have the light on when my poor UPS guy tramped up my 44 steps near 10 p.m. I should have checked my Order History, as that actually showed it had shipped and had a link to UPS. Another order was supposedly back-ordered until Dec. 24; that one supposedly went out on the 14th, but it doesn't look like it left the UPS facility and there is no estimate on delivery date. I will be leaving town for a number of days so I'm not quite sure what to say to my neighbors.

I made another order with an online retailer that went out on the 9th, a day or two after my order. They said it would arrive by yesterday via FedEx, but it looks like it won't arrive until Monday.

My experiences this season: the phone wait to talk to a rep at Nordstrom has been ridiculously long...at least 20 minutes. Luckily I can multitask with the best of them.

However, when I do get through, they have been pleasant and responsive. And, most importantly, all my orders have arrived within 3 days all month, with standard shipping....faster than usual! I live in the Northeast. I have been very, very pleased. So I am willing to cut them some slack re: phone issues. I have to think Nordstrom will resolve the issues once the season is over.

Aquamarine- interesting about the 3 days. My deliveries were all over a week, with pre- shipping delays. Lots of variability.

Many retailers have been impacted by shipping issues this season; one shipper couldn't scan packages this week, at least in some hubs. That meant no status updates for 48 hours, with no predicted delivery dates.

I have empathy about how hard it must be to hit the sweet spot with amount of help in retail and shipping; plus there are caps on infra-structure. Nordstrom's phone reps have always been top notch in my experience. Yet if what they have to tell you is contradictory info or no info, it becomes impossible to rely on holiday timing. So I didn't shop there as I might have otherwise.

Some have had very unsatisfactory experiences, which is unfortunate all around. Hopefully, there is useful information to be gained from this season so retailers, shippers and customers have better results