31 March 2008

The Drama That Is Jen's Present

Oh dear - Who knew it would be this much work?

Originally I got Jen a nice wallet. I was so pleased with myself. I thought I did good. Of course a week later I found out it wasn't shipped via UPS and suddenly I was a day before the birthday party without a present. I had to either tell her, "Oops your present will be here some time next week," OR "I had something else in mind but it didn't work out, so now this is what I have come up with." I went with the second option.

I went on Bloomingdales.com and got her a "virtual e-card." Gift certificates from Bloomingdale's was something she joked about, and I thought given the amount of time I had this was my best option. I placed my order, went to the temple, ate with Sylvia, then partied with Dave + Jose, etc on Saturday. That night I told Jen that the gift would be sent to her inbox some time this weekend. I thought while not terribly creative nor personal, this e-card certificate was useful at least.

Sunday morning I woke up and found out my order had been canceled! The problem seemed to be that my phone number that was attached to my Visa was disconnected, thus Bloomingdale's did not want to honor or complete the transaction. The truth is that I did close my landline. Still, I never had a problem like this before when I shopped online. So instead of calling my bank on Sunday, I used a different credit card and placed another order on Bloomingdale's. Same exact information, same order, different card. This morning, this order got canceled too!!!

I was dumbfounded. Yes, it was great that Bloomingdale's took great measures to protect its customers. But Jen still had no presents, and now what was I supposed to do? 

I called my bank and updated my phone number to my cell phone that's what. 

After the phone change, I placed my third order. It seemed fine. I waited an hour and still I didn't see the receipt of it being sent. I got worried. I checked my cell phone and saw two missed calls. It was Bloomingdale's representatives. Great. I called the number back and found out because there were more fraudulent charges on virtual e-cards than any other purchases, they had be extra careful. So I went through the verification process and reordered the e-card with the phone representative. I was feeling good at last. Before she hung up, she said, "Thank you for calling Macy's." I thought that was odd, but I didn't stop her or ask her what she meant.

Of course, an hour later I received an invoice for a Macy's e-card. OH MY DEAR FREAKING GAWD! I didn't want a Macy's e-card, I bought a Bloomingdale's e-card! I called the number on that invoice and got to explain myself to one of their representatives. For 10 minutes I was on hold, then I was dropped. ARRGH! So I called back and then spoke to another service representative, after 15 - 20 min of wait, my Macy's purchase was canceled and another Bloomingdale's e-card was reordered. I was about to faint at that point.

Jen at first got the Macy's card and told me. Then I sort of explained to her there was some situation, so disregard that one and wait for the one from Bloomingdale's. I felt so embarrassed.

I do appreciate Bloomingdale's online security and phone service. I just wish I knew it was going to be this complicated, I would've gotten the gift card in store, or wait for that wallet.

By the way, the wallet is still on-route somewhere. Sigh...

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