Fun with shopping
Nov. 12th, 2010 06:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urocyonYesterday was my grandmother's birthday. I'm really, really bad with dates, so was glad to get an incidental reminder even if it means that I'm a day late rather than forgetting entirely. :( Yeah, a PDA is probably an excellent idea.
So, for much quicker delivery, I put together a card for her through Moonpig, since that was the first site that popped into mind. That was fairly quick and painless. Sending a card to someone in the US, mailed within the US, from someone with a UK billing address? Not a problem. (It would be rich if that were a problem, considering they're doing business both places, but I wouldn't be too surprised by now.)
Then I figured I would send her some flowers. She really enjoys getting them, and I think it means even more now that the dementia won't let her garden anymore. I decided to send her a nice, big arrangement, since if there is a good time for getting chintzy with this kind of thing, your only remaining grandparent's 87th birthday is not it. Erm, especially when you're feeling like crap about being late anyway. *shakes head*
I managed to forget how much fun that was the last time. (And which site I ended up using then, which would have been good to know!)
Maybe I should have tried a UK-based one first, in retrospect. In theory, it makes no practical difference, what with FTD and the like, other than paying in USD being less expensive. You'd think this would be about as easy as sending the card.
The first site I tried--one of the bigger US-based ones--helpfully informed me when I was trying to check out that they specifically do not accept European billing addresses. Bzzt. Even trying to weasel around that by using Paypal didn't work. I tried another fairly big one, but thought to check into that before even adding anything to the basket. Bzzt, you must be in the US or Canada for them to take your money.
By this point, I was having to remind myself that I really, really wanted to send the damned bouquet.
The third try was the charm--if by "charm", you mean "it vaguely works, with a really crappy interface and a tendency to scramble address information so that you have to quadruple-check". I was too fed-up to try to find something better by then. That one decided--based on what, I don't know--that even though I filled in an explicitly UK billing address, I must really be in the US. It honest-to-goodness changed the country (the second correction did it in that case, so it wasn't just me choosing the wrong one). And even after I fixed its weird interpretation of what I'd entered, I had to just make up an obviously fake phone number of the 111-000-0000 variety. The form claimed that field was "for US and Canadian customers only", but... The format certainly was.
I finally did get the freaking order placed, and barring further weirdness, it should be delivered sometime today. I really, really hope she likes the flowers. Hmph.
ETA: For "bad with dates", read "I'm lucky if I remember what date or day of the week it is at any given time". Ah, dyscalculia! Just because I've "forgotten" my own birthday more than once doesn't make it any less embarrassing to do the same with other people's. :-|
So, for much quicker delivery, I put together a card for her through Moonpig, since that was the first site that popped into mind. That was fairly quick and painless. Sending a card to someone in the US, mailed within the US, from someone with a UK billing address? Not a problem. (It would be rich if that were a problem, considering they're doing business both places, but I wouldn't be too surprised by now.)
Then I figured I would send her some flowers. She really enjoys getting them, and I think it means even more now that the dementia won't let her garden anymore. I decided to send her a nice, big arrangement, since if there is a good time for getting chintzy with this kind of thing, your only remaining grandparent's 87th birthday is not it. Erm, especially when you're feeling like crap about being late anyway. *shakes head*
I managed to forget how much fun that was the last time. (And which site I ended up using then, which would have been good to know!)
Maybe I should have tried a UK-based one first, in retrospect. In theory, it makes no practical difference, what with FTD and the like, other than paying in USD being less expensive. You'd think this would be about as easy as sending the card.
The first site I tried--one of the bigger US-based ones--helpfully informed me when I was trying to check out that they specifically do not accept European billing addresses. Bzzt. Even trying to weasel around that by using Paypal didn't work. I tried another fairly big one, but thought to check into that before even adding anything to the basket. Bzzt, you must be in the US or Canada for them to take your money.
By this point, I was having to remind myself that I really, really wanted to send the damned bouquet.
The third try was the charm--if by "charm", you mean "it vaguely works, with a really crappy interface and a tendency to scramble address information so that you have to quadruple-check". I was too fed-up to try to find something better by then. That one decided--based on what, I don't know--that even though I filled in an explicitly UK billing address, I must really be in the US. It honest-to-goodness changed the country (the second correction did it in that case, so it wasn't just me choosing the wrong one). And even after I fixed its weird interpretation of what I'd entered, I had to just make up an obviously fake phone number of the 111-000-0000 variety. The form claimed that field was "for US and Canadian customers only", but... The format certainly was.
I finally did get the freaking order placed, and barring further weirdness, it should be delivered sometime today. I really, really hope she likes the flowers. Hmph.
ETA: For "bad with dates", read "I'm lucky if I remember what date or day of the week it is at any given time". Ah, dyscalculia! Just because I've "forgotten" my own birthday more than once doesn't make it any less embarrassing to do the same with other people's. :-|
