Domestications

Full review
It became apparent this fall that one thing all of the kids in our house needed was new bedding. I decided this would make a great Christmas present and began to look for bed-in-a-bags for all of them. Unfortunately, even living in the middle of outlet country, there was little I could find. What I did find was mostly geared toward adults rather than teens and below.

Immediately, I thought of the website Domestications. It’s a place I have ordered from in the past, but not recently. I believe I found the thermal drapes that were in my house in New York through their catalog. Now, their website has all the selection their catalog did, although I still get them occasionally in the mail.

Domestications has things for the home such as draperies, curtains, blinds, shades, slipcovers, bath items, and bedding. There are also items for home decorating, including Christmas decorations. In addition, there are items for the dining room such as tableware and linens, as well as cookware in the kitchen. Just about everything “domestic” can be found here.

Looking for bed-in-a-bag items, I had two options. I chose to go through the categories across the top and chose Comforters & Bedding, then the sub-category for Bed in a Bag Sets. It was that easy. There was a wide selection, and I opted to go over to the Kids & Teens category and look that way. This was good as there was only three pages of items to look through, and I could pick out the bed-in-a-bag items easily.

One thing I didn’t like was that as I selected items, it didn’t show if they were out of stock. I made selections that I thought was good and then went to my cart, only to see that a number of them weren’t going to be delivered until sometime in January. What i ended up doing was selecting all of the bed-in-a-bag items in the Kids & Teens section and then wading through to find five (yes, five) that were available for immediate delivery. I was fortunate that there was such a big selection that I could do this without repeating the pattern between kids.

Ordering was easy. I was prompted to create an account, which I did so I could easily track the packages. However, I didn’t find that this worked all that well. Under my account where I could look at Order History my order still has not appeared to this day. This is despite not only receiving an email with the tracking numbers for my packages, but also actually receiving the packages themselves. Do not count on being able to track your packages this way - make sure you save the email with the information in it.

Domestications has their own credit account you can open, or you can pay using MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Discover. Check and money orders are accepted for mail purchases only, not online. I had a coupon code for 30% off of my order, and you can generally find offers out there on many websites that list the codes. I also got a percentage back by shopping through Upromise, so there are ways to discount the cost.

Shipping charges are based on the value of the shipment. Over $250.00 comes in a 9% of the value of the purchase, below that is a sliding scale. Express delivery is available for $12.95 above and beyond the standard shipping charges; two-day delivery is available for $21.95 above standard shipping charges, and next-day is $35.00 above standard shipping charges. My items were shipped in two very large packages and came to our local post office. Due to the rural nature of where we live, the post office doesn’t deliver right to the house. I had to go there and pick them up. Some places up here are quite a distance from the nearest post office, so it would be nice to have an option for UPS instead of the post office for a few dollars more.

Overall, I am happy with the ordering and delivery at Domestications. I wish their account management was better, but I was happy to be able to find what I needed. They could also show backorder dates right at the item listing to make shopping easier. The store has a terrific selection of items, the most comprehensive I have come across.



© 2007 Patti Aliventi