It's that time of year again. The holidays are in full swing and it's at this point in the season when my heart goes out to USPS mail carriers who not only have to carry their weight in shiny, glossy catalogs, but who also have to schlep around ten times the normal volume of boxes and packages as the internet generation (and then some) does much of its Christmas shopping online.
I enjoy shopping as much as the next girl, but at this time of year, I'm quite happy to peruse virtual store aisles instead of battling harried shoppers in the real world. At home with my laptop, I can be in my pajamas (or not), with a glass of wine (or two) armed with nothing more than a mouse and a credit card and I can literally have the bulk of my shopping done without ever leaving the house.
I am, however, encountering a few snafus this year which are derailing my uber-efficient virtual St. Nick persona ever so slightly.
As I settled into my little home office on the evening of Cyber Monday to take advantage of all sorts of great deals and coupons, I landed on Banana Republic's site, having been lured there by promises of 40% discounts AND an additional 10% Cyber Monday discount. Many of the price cuts on the site were only good for Cyber Monday and would expire at midnight. Now, I will admit that at Banana, I wasn't strictly limiting myself to looking for gifts for others... I was quite open to the possibility that as I looked for a cozy sweater for Special K, that I might (just might) find a pair of shoes (or two) that I really needed to add to my closet.
And indeed I did. I added said pairs of shoes to my shopping cart and continued to browse. Much to my shock and dismay, all of the items in my shopping cart reverted to their original (and NOT on sale) prices at exactly 9:00 pm PST. 12:00 am EST. Darn it! Cyber Monday should end in the time zone within which you are actually shopping, not a time zone that is 3000 miles away! I'm sure I could have called BR's customer support and they would have honored the sale prices, but I figured there was probably a bigger message here that was something like "Serves you right! You should be shopping for OTHERS right now!" (But I will still monitor those shoes and snap them up the second they go on sale again!)
Then tonight, I was attempting to order something for my mom and dad, but from a Canadian retailer so that I could have it shipped directly to them without having to worry about duty and customs. This Canadian retailer would not allow me to use a US billing address online. I tried calling their 1-800 number because by now, I was pretty committed to the purchase, having researched the item, read the reviews and even watched a video about it. TigerDirect.ca made the fatal error of putting me on hold and leaving me there for minutes (WAY too many minutes) and I finally hung up, still gift-less and with my credit card feeling nakedly inadequate for international commerce.
Big sigh. I think I'm going to have to don the body armor and shields and head out into the war zone that is otherwise known as The Mall.
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