Due to the economy and Lakeside's great prices, I placed an order online on 11/18 for many of my family's Christmas gifts. It is 12/1/08 and I have yet to receive any of my items.

When I placed the order all items showed as "in stock" and in checking on the status online several times a week since ordering, items have been put on backorder through 12/15 and two items were cancelled!! All of this occurred without any communication from Lakeside. As for the items that are ready to ship - they will not be released until ALL items are ready to ship!! As you can imagine I am quite stressed that none of my items will arrive in time for Christmas.

To try to call their customer service you can be guaranteed a busy signal or, if you do get through, at least a 13 minute wait to speak to an actual person. Take note - they operate on CST and although they claim to be open through 4pm CST, you will have a hard time reaching anyone up to that hour. So, if you go the alternative route and contact them via email online regarding your order do not expect a response for minimally 2 business days and pray they actually address the issue at hand. Unfortunately in my case, the response I got back was so very boiler-plate and non-related to the specificness of my case that it was unhelpful and did not provide resolution.

In closing, best of luck if you intend to order from Lakeside. If you do, make sure it's nothing you need immediately or for anything as serious as an upcoming holiday. If so, make sure to order MONTHS in advance, because as you can see here even 37 days ahead of time is apparently not enough for them to seal the deal.