Pagesincolor has completed a test to see if No Sweat Apparel, Vegancats.com, Amazon.com, Store #2( FOB Florida) , Global Exchange (FOB San Francisco) and the Veriuni Store (Store #4) and the Fair Trade and Eco Store (FOB Northern CA) can all deliver products to San Jose, CA by Christmas when ordering on Friday Dec 16 (after 5pm) or Saturday Dec 17^th (after 5 pm) or Sunday Dec 18^th (3:00PM). All of these stores, including the World Centric Fair Trade and Eco Store are now available from the home page. The Eco Store is also featured in the pagesincolor blog.   The following table summarizes the results.  In general, most of the stores were actually able to deliver by the target date of Dec 23, 2005.  Good Job!  Note that the table of results continues off the edge of the page to the right.

Footnotes to the chart above:
(1)  Amazon sent the package on time gift wrapped and with a gift receipt.  However, they sent the package by UPS 3 day select, not UPS 2 Day Air as requested, though the package did arrive in 2 days as requested.  Amazon has many items besides books.  This year they were claiming to be able to ship items by the 23rd if ordered by the 22nd!
(2) I can't say enough good things about World Centric Eco Store!  They shipped on time and their product is good.  The T-shirts ordered are all organic cotton made by a worker owned co-op in Nicaragua. They reuse old boxes for shipping and don't use peanuts.  They offer to pay for return shipping on any item that arrives damaged or soiled, if returned within 15 days. This is unprecedented.  Good Job! Note that Pagesincolor.com does not currently earn a commission for promoting this store.
(3)  The Veriuni Store (Store #4 on the home page) shipped the book and the total time it took to receive it was less than the advertised 2-3 day turn-around time that they advertise on their website, for just getting the merchandise off their loading dock!  Good job!
(4) Global Exchange claims they have a 99% customer satisfaction rating from Yahoo.  They did a good job this year, but I'm not sure they are quite up to that 99% rating (see note #6 especially).  They advertised on their website and in the confirmation e-mail that it would take 24 hours to ship an order out of their warehouse or I would get a notice (by e-mail presumably) explaining the delay.  On this order, it was placed on Sunday Dec 11, but did not arrive in Orinda, CA until Monday,  December 19, 2005, about 30 miles from the FOB point of SF, CA.  There was no tracking effectively on this order until Dec 18, 2005 after they resent the confirmation e-mail that never arrived the first time.  At that point, the tracking did work and it was confirmed that the package had been delivered by UPS on the 19th.  If they had performed as advertised (getting stuff shipped in 24 hrs) the package should have arrived on Dec 13th.  Good job resending the e-mail receipt on Sunday though.  This package was a gift and the recipient was so pleased with the contents that they may order something from Global Exchange for their other relatives next year.
(5) Global Exchange has tracking on this order, but it was not updated to show the actual status until some time after the order was shipped (again the same day that it arrived).
(6) Global Exchange had a genuine scew up.  I ordered a set of Dominos, but received a Chess and Checker set instead.  I did indicate on the previous order that it was ok to subsittue a different chololate bar for the Divine Chocolate Bar that was supposed to be part of the gift basket, because they were out of stock on the Divine Choloate so I said that THAT would be ok. But I did not authorize a substitution on any other items. I  was not aware of the substitution until after the gift had been opened by the intended recipient.  It turned out for the best as the recipient already had Dominos anyway.  I have tried calling Global Exchange during the week after Christmas, but no one answers the phone and the message machine is full.

(7) Global Exchange substituted Equal Exchange Chocolate Bars for the Art Bars because they were out of the Art Bars until January.  This was not important so I let it go.

(8) Global Crafts (Store #2 on the home page) came through with flying colors.  They shipped all the way from Florida to San Jose, CA by December 23rd, by USPS Priority Mail.  I could have gone for the free shipping on orders over $50, but decided not to chance having the stuff arrive later.  The pictures are a little small, but that was what I was expecting, based on the description in the store.  These pictures would do well in a smaller room such as a bedroom or kitchen where they are most often viewed from close up. They are framed in 100% plastic (no glass) so they shipped well.  No pacakge tracking was available on this order, though Global Crafts did advise me by e-mail the day that the order was shipped.  One day turn-around.  Good job!
(9) No Sweat Apparel did a good job this year.  The pacakge arrived on the 27th, but that was not for lack of trying.  I sent them an e-mail requesting express shipping, since they did not offer that off of their website.  They said they could ship it next day air for an additional $17.  But I was too slow in responding to the e-mail so they shipped it via USPS Priority mail for only $4.  If you want express, they will do it, but you need to respond FAST.  Check your e-mail from work is my advice.  The T-shirt was shipped in a bag, not a box or a bubble envelope, which could have been why it arrived late (It could be harder to process automatically in a bag). It was shipped at the same time and from almost the same place as the Global Crafts shipment.  They sent me an e-mail when the item was ordered and another e-mail when the item was shipped.
(10) No Sweat Apparel came through for me on Christmas Day.  I realized that Calabash Music was not likely to deliver their gift certificate by e-mail, so I ordered a replacement gift certificate from No Sweat Apparel and had the gift certificate # sent as part of a free e-card with a "Merry Christmas? No Sweat!" message on the card.  The confirmation that the card had been viewed came back the same day!  Good Job!   The only caveat is that the "order shipped" e-mail was sent on the 27th, indicating that the gift certificate my not have been actaully valid until the order was "shipped".  The person who got the certificate has not yet attempted to use it so that part is fine.
(11) Vegancats.com shipped their book, " The Obligate Carnivore: Cats, Dogs and What It Really Means to be Vegan" on Dec 19th. It was sent by Media Mail, so it did not arrive until Dec 29, not truly reflecting the actual shipping cost versus their minimum shipping and handling fee of $8.50, but oh well.  This is a vast improvement over the glitches they claim they were experiencing during their move to Idaho.  I guess everything is fine now...

(12) Calabash Music (Fair Trade Music Store) is hard to use, for downloads anyway, and it is not clear if they ever delivered the gift certificate that was ordered.  They never sent a confirmation e-mail, nor was a "card has been viewed " receipt sent. There does not appear to be a place on their website where one can order a gift certificate anymore, though the credit card was charged $14.99 for this item. The toll free number that they have on the credit card statement does not work.  They are being removed from the home page until this situation is sorted out.
7-10-06 Calabashmusic.com has been restored to the homepage after they credited my account for the $14.99 gift certificate.  Good job, considering I requested the adjustment 6 months after ordering the gift certificate.  Downloading the music was no problem and the music was excellent.  They claim that a $14.99 purchase will result in downloading of 20 songs, but my account was charged the full 99 cents for the one song downloaded.  Oh well, nobody is perfect.

Unfortunately, one of the other stores failed the first part of the test and has been removed from the home page before the shipping part of the test even began.

The following passage outlines why Pagesincolor.com is no longer going to have a link to store #3 (Free Store Club store) displayed on the home page.

Store #3: Shipping leaves warehouse in 24 hrs.

NO-CHARGEBACK AGREEMENT

The following agreement does not restrict your right to negotiate refunds with us in the event of non-delivery or product dissatisfaction. The sole purpose of this contract is to prevent any use of the unfair charge-back system which endangers our ability to accept Credit Card payments on-line. Cache Services international is a third-party payment processor providing money transfer services to us and is not associated with us in any other way. The payment you are making is processed by them, but the money - minus a small processing fee - goes directly into our bank account. However, if the payment 'bounces', or is 'charged back', the Bank does not take the money from our account, but "charges it back" to Cache Services, not to us. This raises our risk score and processing fees, and could result in Cache Services refusal to process future payments for us. For that reason, we cannot accept payment from you without your agreement not to apply for chargeback - under any circumstance - but to negotiate directly with us if you have any problem with our products or services.

In the event that I, or my assigns, do make a chargeback, I hereby agree to reimburse Cache Services international the full amount of the chargeback, plus a $35 chargeback fee, all collection costs incurred in the collection process, and a 35% damages penalty.  The total amount of the chargeback, plus chargeback fee, will be due and payable within 15-days of e-mail notification. A 10% late charge is applicable.

If you don't agree to be bound by these terms and conditions, please do not use or access our products or services.

Editor's note: Although chargebacks can be abused, they can also be appealed. And appealed successfully. The above agreement leaves the consumer powerless in case of fraud or misrepresentation by the merchant.