Send holiday cheer with mail-order gifts

>>> we're back on this booze day tuesday with today's holiday gift guide and checking out mail-order foods. more than 4 million people are expected to order gourmet baskets online this year. if you're one of them, you might want to take notes. this is important.

>> this is important. we decided to put three mail-order companies to the test to find out if what you see is what you get. jean has all the results.

>> yeah, we like doing this.

>> i do too.

>> nobody knows who's ordering this stuff when you order it, right?

>> exactly. the lesson that we learned, especially with the food gifts, you got to go early. there were things we wanted to get that needed three weeks. there are some things you can get quickly, but not everything.

>> three weeks is about right now if you want to get in time for christmas.

>> we started at gifts.com, which is actually the biggest gift site. they'll tell you what to buy for your teenager and husband. this is a box of three -- it's a picnic basket with three bottles of wine, $99.99. $15.99 to ship it. you have a cab, a pinot. it came in two boxes, but i think this one is a terrific value.

>> it did look like we showed the picture of what it looked like on the website or catalog, but it looks very similar.

>> when the props department sets it up for you.

>> all righty.

>> good to know, all right.

>> redenvelope.com. we ordered this gift set of strawberries, 24 chocolate-covered strawberries.

>> you see tops to the strawberries, little green tops.

>> they are not here.

>> is that something one should be upset about?

>> i wasn't upset about the green tops.

>> i take umbrage, actually.

>> they did come nicely packed in dry ice , no problems, and shipping on these was $9.99 for standard and another $5 for rush.

>> they look good, by the way. what's happening here?

>> this is from wanna have a cookie.

>> hoda does.

>> you can taste them. we ordered the variety assortment of three dozen. it's whoopee pies, oatmeal cookies.

>> cranberry oatmeal is good.

>> these are really good, i know. personal favorite. they make them all to order. $45, $18.99 for shipping.

>> you were pleased with the way it looked?

>> they were not crumbled. they all come individually packaged. you either like that or don't, but it does keep them fresh.

>> are these whoopee pies?

>> this is the red velvet rasp berry.

>> i'm starting on monday not eating sweets.

>> next monday. aren't you impressed? what's this one?

>> this is from hershey's hersheysstore.com. this is the striped snowman box of chocolate. it's about two pounds in total with chocolate-covered pretzels, break-apart snowmen, different bars. $59.95.

>> did it come like this?

>> pretty much like this. you have to make sure if you're going to rush order this compared to the regular $9.95 shipping, $43.

>> wow! might as well buy two of them.

>> buy it early or buy your own hershey bar .

>> put it in a basket. read the fine print.

>> believe me, i buy plenty of hershey bars . mrs. fields. this is their winter flurry snowman gift set. $49.99, and again, standard shipping, $18.99. express shipping, $11.95. one thing we learned, you got to be careful. when you ordered express shipping, they layer the charges on top.

>> that is a ripoff.

>> several of the sites did it. you have to be careful. new trend.

>> that seems illegal to me. price gouging or something.

>> they let you know.

>> they tell you, but you don't read.

>> the other thing to know about this is that they are nut free, but there is a disclaimer on the site that they may have come into contact with nut oil, so you got to be careful.

>> overall pretty much all seemed what you get is what you got.

>> especially this time of year.