BeallsFlorida.com

Full review
Several months ago I found the most comfortable panties at Mervyn's within the Glendale Galleria. When I returned a few weeks later to stock up during the Gloria Vanderbilt sale I could not find these anywhere. The store seemed to stop selling these panties, so I chose Bali and Vanity Fair.

Taking two kids shopping in the intimate section of any store is not an easy task, especially when the escalator is in close proximity. I also have a hard time finding suitable underwear for my nine year old son. I really prefer the tagless Hanes when I can find them. My son does not like boxers and just wants the briefs.

I have skin irritations to various materials and would prefer to touch the items before purchasing, but I decided to do a google search for the Gloria Vanderbilt hi-cut briefs. This led me to Bealls Florida Online Store. They do not carry this brand of panties, but had the jeans, which is why it was found through my search.

Bealls Florida Online Store is known as " The address for Florida style". Their online site sells women's, mens and kids, as well as shoes, for the home and outlooks, which is fashion apparel for juniors and young men.

These links are at the top of the page with the store locator, customer service, gift cards and quick search located at the left corner of the page. At the bottom of the home page is Customer Service, which includes returns and exchanges, shipping charges and methods and contests.

The next section is company information - this includes careers, vendors and locations. Then the last option is account management. This is where you can do an express order, bealls charge card and register for emails. Returns can be done online or in store with three ways to order, phone, store or online.

There are options to shop brands or specialty shops. Since my initial search brought me to women's clothing I then went to brands and then to panties. Some of the brands available through Bealls Florida Online Store include - Carters, Dickies, Easy Spirit, Hanes, Jockey, Keds, Levis, LizClaiborne, Maidenform, Nike, Olga, Playtex, Reebok, Skechers, TommyHilfiger, Union Bay, VanHeusen and Warners.

I went with Vanity Fair due to the great price offering of $5.60 per pair. This was a savings compared to the 3 for $18 - 21.00 that Mervyn's was selling in their store my last visit. Once you click on Vanity Fair the options are for Bras, Coordinated Bras & Panties, Slips & Camisoles or Women's Panties.

I placed my order on Saturday, June 19th. The price June 30th is now 6.50 - 7.00, so this was a good sale I happened upon! The drop down boxes offer size range of 6-10 with the color of tan, white or black. The photo shows all three colors with the material data below. For example it states that these are Nylon/Lycra/Spandez - Tumble Dry, Low Heat, Imported, Cotton Crotch, Machine Wash gentle cycle.

Then there is a link for surcharge and shipping. This does not open into a new window. It brings you to the shipping page with a coupon code special indicating dates of 5/27-7/10. This is for orders using the Bealls Charge for purchases of $50.00 or more to get free shipping. There is an exclusion indicating this does not include taxes, levi's, rugs or school uniforms.

There are two shipping breakdowns, one for the Continental U.S. This starts at $4.00 shipping for orders up to $24.99. An order totalling $100 will cost $8.00 in shipping fees, an order over $500 will be $35.00

The other shipping section is for Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and The U.S. Virgin Islands. They suggest 7-10 days with the cost of shipping up to $24.99 being $8.00, $100 is $16.00.

There is guaranteed second business day express shipping. These require a phone call at 1-800-569-9038 M-F until 3 pm EST. Orders are shipped Priority Mail Monday through Saturday, and are processed within 72 hours of placing order. Delays could be due to charge accounts. They do not ship to APO or FPO addresses at this time.

Located at the upper right corner of the screen is the view cart in shaded orange. I chose to order both colors and then proceeded to get a package of Hanes Briefs for my son.

My cart had three items with a total of $28.39, shipping was $5.00. I signed up for emails, received a thank you for subscribing from promotions the following day. There were four check out options, enter your email address and password to your express shopper account, register to open an account, checkout without opening an account or fax order.

I registered with Bealls Florida Online Store, printed out my order, received my confirmation the next morning. I had placed my order here in California Sat nite at 9:45 pm. Since this is a site with stores housed in Florida I did not expect immediate confirmation.

The confirmation email mentions the cancellation policy, which has a window of only two hours and by the time I received the email that had already passed. This is probably my only complaint with the whole ordering process/system.

The email listed fulfillment procedures and this is when I learned that orders are filled from multiple locations, your card will be charged as each one is filled with a separate email indicating shipment. I did not think ordering two tan and two black women's panties and one package of Boy's briefs would be shipped from two different stores, but that was the outcome.

All total I received four emails on the 20th from Bealls Florida Online Store. The first was the order confirmation, subscribing to the emails, two confirmed shipments. On the 24th I received an email with a 50% offer on shorts for the family.

The email thanked me for using the special order service and indicated which store my items were found at. The store was only able to find a portion of my order while the computer was continuing to search stores for my remaining item.

The guarantee was listed in these emails, the option is to return to the store items originated from via mail or in person. The packing list needs to be included along with a reason. Then you need to indicate if you want a replacement or credit.

They are very organized in this system. I liked being informed of the merchandise and that someone was hand picking them and packaging them up for me. It was a nice personal touch instead of warehouse personnel. Our underwear came from Tampa and Pensacola stores. They listed numbers on the emails for the stores and also you will need to use the tracking number on correspondence. I am assuming the tracking number is the confirmation number in the emails, which was also my order number.

Order placed Sat nite 6/19
emails received Sun 6/20

priority mail pkg rec 6-23 with all items minus one pair of panties. They were nicely wrapped with Bealls tissue paper. This included a computer print out showing my order and what was sent. This also lists corresponding numbers as the reasons for return. These include wrong style, wrong color, wrong size, security device attached, damaged, wrong, changed mind and other.

I did notice in my order confirmation that Florida residents are charged 6% sales tax. Another plus at the Bealls Florida Online Store is the option to tel-e-gram a page via email to a friend. Gift cards start at $15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and 200. It states there are no shipping and handling fees for gift cards.

On the 24th I received a small manila padded envelope with the remaining panty and packaging slip from the store. They cannot process cancellation requests after 4 pm EST or on holidays.

I like the customer service and all around shopping experience with Bealls Florida Online Store. I was curious about the contests so checked that out and found nothing at the moment, but this would be the spot for in store events.

Bealls Florida Online Store has free gift wrap. Promotional emails are once a week in html format. For subscribing I received an offer that expires in one month for 10% off in store or online. This included the code to use online.

The payment options for Bealls Florida Online Store are Bealls Charge, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. Orders can only be sent to one address. The check out page has a square for the coupon code that will be discounted at the final page. The options at the first checkout page are to continue shopping, continue checkout, empty basket or update basket.

When I lived in Orlando, Floria in 1995 I do not recall this store, but I think their online site is very well designed and easy loading with nice offerings for the whole family. I will be shopping again with them.