Here are the shipping deadlines for Christmas 2006

Here are the details on the shipping deadlines for the Christmas 2006 shipping season. You can also find the details on our website here. Don't forget that you can place your order now and we will hold it for shipment until December 18th so it will arrive just before Christmas. It is a new feature for this year and you can find out more about it at our 2006 Shipping Calendar page. You will receive an email on December 18th with the tracking information and shipping confirmation.

• *Gift Baskets shipped to Michigan need to be ordered by 1 P.M. EST on December 21st.
• *Gift Baskets shipped to all other states excluding Hawaii and Alaska need to be ordered by 1 P.M. EST on December 20th.
• *Orders sent to Alaska and Hawaii need to be ordered by 1 P.M. EST on December 19th.
• **All states can be shipped using USPS Express Mail as late as 1 P.M. EST on December 22nd.

* US Postal Service delivery is likely, but not guaranteed.

** Please call for this service as we will need to charge the actual rate and check with the Post Office to ensure delivery.

Order your gift basket today and we will hold it for shipment on December 18th

That's right. We have a new feature in our online store this year that gives you the option to place your Christmas orders early and have us make sure they get to their destinations just before Christmas! After you have placed a basket (or two) in your shopping cart and you are ready to checkout, your screen will contain an image similar to the image below:

The portion circled in red is where you will choose to have your gift basket(s) "Shipped Now" or on "December 18th."

You will be billed when your order is placed, not when it is shipped. For orders that are held for shipment until December 18th you will receive an email on the 18th with your gift basket tracking information and shipment confirmation.

We look forward to help you this Christmas with all of your gift giving needs.

Internet Explorer issues have been resolved with our website

As I posted here on Monday, I had finally discovered why some of our customers had been experiencing problems when trying to make purchases through our website. The common denominator in the couple of consistent issues was the internet browser being used - Internet Explorer. I can happily say that after two intense days of examining thousands of lines of code that the problem was found and fixed. Users of Internet Explorer (all versions work now - I tested them, believe me ;) ) can place orders through our website – www.GiftBasketsFromMichigan.com without any bugs or glitches.

A very small coding issue (double quotes where there should not have been any - don't ask, it's a story that only fellow computer geeks like myself could relate to) was keeping Internet Explorer users from being able to look at the contents of their online shopping cart - that was not a small issue for customers, it was a HUGE problem.

They were unable to edit the cart contents if they accidentally placed the wrong gift basket(s) or too many gift baskets in their cart. Then, if they did manage to complete the transaction and purchase a basket or two - the confirmation page did not show - only a blank screen.

That is not what I would consider a positive customer experience.

Well, I am very pleased to say that these issues are now resolved. I have tested this in multiple versions of Internet Explorer and on multiple computers without any problems.

I will be contacting those who emailed me and/or called me when they experienced these problems and let them know that these problems have been fixed. I apologize to anyone who had a bad shopping experience with us because of these problems with our shopping cart.

I also want to thank those who contacted me about the problems that they encountered. Some of you will continue to do business with us. Some of you will never visit us again because of the problems you had.

Without this kind of feedback (I consider what some companies might think of as "bad" feedback to be good) I would not have known about the problem as quickly as I did.

I made a coding mistake. The mistake created some very bad experiences for customers and for that I can say nothing but I am sorry and I have since fixed the problem.

I doubt you would hear the CEO of Ford or GM be as candid as I have been here, but I would never want to be that distant from my customers. Gift Baskets From Michigan LLC exists because I love this state, its products, and the wonderful people who live here.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Have a great day!

We are fixing problems with Internet Explorer users at our website

I finally figured out why some folks were experiencing problems trying to purchase gift baskets through our online store. I ran a test today using Internet Explorer (all versions) instead of my preferred browser, Firefox. I was able to recreate the errors/problems that some of you have let me know about (which I greatly appreciate, because if I don't hear the complaints I don't know there are problems). For the record, I have never been able to recreate these same problems with Firefox. For those of you that are loyal to Internet Explorer and have not yet tried Firefox - do yourself a favor and head over to www.mozilla.com and download the newest version of Firefox today.

Okay, back to the problems some of you have experienced while using Internet Explorer -

• After adding an item or items to your shopping cart you click on the 'View Cart' or 'Shopping Cart' link to see what is in your cart or make changes. After clicking one of those links you are presented with a blank page.
• During the checkout phase (when you are entering billing and shipping information) you click the 'Submit Order' button and instead of a confirmation page you are presented with a blank page.
• Just so you know, even though you receive a blank page instead of the confirmation page you order STILL goes through and is processed. You will still receive a confirmation email even though you do not receive the confirmation page after clicking the 'Submit Order' button.

I am currently working on a solution to why this happens only with Internet Explorer. Hopefully it will be taken care of within the next 24 hours. Until then, I strongly urge you to download the Firefox browser and take it for a spin. I rarely have problems with web pages (not anywhere near the trouble I have with Internet Explorer).

I'll keep you posted on the progress of fixing these Internet Explorer Only issues at our website.

I have updated the Michigan Squidoo Lens

The new web page that I wrote about the other day www.squidoo.com/bestofmichigan/ has been updated. I have added Facts and Trivia about Michigan in a bulleted list. I also added some news feeds from the Michigan.gov website so if you want to stay up to date on what is currently happening in Michigan you can now see it all in one place. One of the coolest parts is a set of links to videos on YouTube.com from classic moments in Michigan. There are some clips from the Detroit Tigers, Detroit circa 1954, Grand Rapids from 1953, and clips from the Mackinac Car Ferries (you know - before "The Bridge") from 1954.

I plan to keep adding and changing it as I see different ways to use this as another means of supporting Michigan and spreading the word about our wonderful state.

Head on over to www.squidoo.com/bestofmichigan/ and see for yourself. If you haven't voted in the poll or for the web page yet, please do so.

Back up and Writing

Well, we had some pretty bad storms come through southwest Michigan Monday night and as a result I am finally back online. We lost power during the night on Monday and my internet service was knocked out until this afternoon. We use a wireless internet service and their tower was damaged in some way (I never get a straight answer out of them) during Monday's storms. Anyway, that is the reason for a lack of posts and some problems with the phone. Sorry we missed your calls and emails. Technology is great when it works, but it really makes things difficult when it is out of order.