Sunday, November 11, 2007

online shopping meltdown

It's the time of year when I need to think about spoiling the Boy. So, I popped online to do some shopping. I don't really do the other kind of shopping if I can avoid it.

First stop was a cycling retailer for some rollers (not a surprise) to help my trackie in training. Then, on to procure the surprise gift. I found one of what I was looking for, verified it had good ratings, made sure it was made in the USA (still no guarantee that slave labor didn't make it - but that's a whole 'nother topic), put it in my cart and set off to check out. I filled out their ridiculously long form for contact info, then the payment form, clicked 'submit' and then the web application threw a fatal error. Ugh! Hoping it was a transient problem, I tried again with the same result. The third time I decided to pay with PayPal and route around the whole problem, but it blew up again! Then, I got a payment confirmation from PayPal, which means I probably ordered the same thing 3 times! Double Ugh! So, I try to call customer service - busy. Phone orders - busy. Non-800 number - busy. Guess everyone else was having the same problem. Sigh. Maybe I will reconsider my shopping strategy....Or not.

10 comments:

Chris said...

I hate when you get errors during payout. Then you always wonder if it went through. I hope Rick likes his gift after all the trouble.

Lorri Lee Lown -- velogirl said...

In my early internet days, when I had just moved to CA, I ordered an auto-bike online. I hated my bike and was totally confused about shifting, so I thought this would solve that problem and allow me to enjoy riding again. Somehow, I never received the auto-bike (and didn't get charged for it). probably the same type opf error.

Now, imagine how different my life would be today if I had actually gotten that bike.

Shannon Brown said...

Very frustrating. Think you'll save some time and hassle by avoiding stores, and then that happens. I'd still rather be on my couch shopping.

Itinerant Rick said...

Boy do I know how much you hate to shop! And I know how frustrated you were last night, and this morning, at the vendor in question. I am sorry this is so painful. As I have told you before, you could avoid the pain and not get me stuff. But I do appreciate all you do, and hope you can get this fixed ASAP with a minimum of additional pain. Then you can concentrate on the important things :-)

marscat said...

never click twice...

chatterbox said...

chris - Rick might be liking his gift 3 times! Look for a fire sale on eBay if I can't get it straightened out.

vg - so glad you didn't get the autobike. What would I do with all my free time if you hadn't taught me to race?

shannon - yep!

c-rick - the phone rings now, but now an automated message saying they are too busy to answer my call. We site order tracking is fixed and I can see all 3 orders, but no way to cancel. Sigh.

marscat - those are some words of wisdom!

Jackie said...

Now you not only have to be home for one delivery, but THREE! Yow. That hurts.

Jackie said...

Now you not only have to be home for one delivery, but THREE! Yow. That hurts.

Jackie said...

Now you not only have to be home for one delivery, but THREE! Yow. That hurts.

chatterbox said...

jackie - you've got a twisted sense of humor. I love it!

BTW, I did get the multiple orders thing straightened out. It was a power outtage that caused the problem. Apparently, I had several thousand buddies who did the same thing!