Holiday Shopping

For me, Christmas shopping used to mean getting an adult to drive us all down to the Garden State Plaza, parking at least a mile from the building, and then pushing our way through crowds as we searched for gifts for family members. Sometimes it took more than one trip. The mall was huge. Now it is even huger.

I still remember the first year I discovered online shopping. I was thrilled. I showed up early for work, started clicking away, and before I knew it my shopping was done... or almost done. Shopping online has been very helpful - I could shop when the stores were closed. I could shop without taking my kids with me. Who needs to drag the kids to toy stores - or even enter one!

But I regret to say that the thrill has gone. Why? Well, not just because I have grown used to the online thing.

The other day I went online to finish up my shopping (like everything else, I made an attempt to get things done early.) The first thing I tried to buy was stamps. Apparently there had been a rate change, and I somehow missed it, which means that a whole bunch of people I send cards and letters to probably never got them... But since I still plan on sending Holiday Cards this year, I needed to prepare.

I went online. With minimal searching I selected some Christmas stamps, and then some flower stamps, then I went to pay... and the darn site wanted me to set up an account.

I buy things online all the time without setting up accounts. There is a reason I dislike setting up accounts. For one thing, I hate getting spam or junk email. For another, I can never keep track of all the usernames and passwords. Most online stores will offer you the OPTION of setting up an account, but they will also sell you junk without it. Not the postal service.

So I went through the process of setting up an account. It only took twenty minutes, mostly because of the pain and frustration in coming up with a password that I could remember, but that also contained 1 uppercase letter, 1 lowercase letter, and 1 number, and was also 8 digits long. Each time I messed up the site required me to re-enter a username and a "secret question and answer" that would be used to retrieve my password when I forgot it.

When I finally got it all right, and then filled in my "personal information" (name, address, email, phone number) the site popped up with a big "Sorry! YOU ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT! We've emailed you your username."

So I had to login to my secondary email account and open the email, which was kind enough to give me my username, but NOT a password. I tried logging in and guessing my password, but I just couldn't get it right, so I tried my "secret question." In this case, it asked me for my mother's maiden name. I typed in my mother's maiden name. But APPARENTLY when I SET UP the account I had been feeling creative, because it TOLD ME I WAS WRONG!

In the end I went back and went through the entire process of creating a new account AGAIN, used a new email address and a nickname, and it let me. Then I went through the process of re-selecting the holiday stamps and the flower stamps, and checked out. All in all, it took me over an hour of fiddling, waiting, banging my head against the wall, and trying not to throw the computer out of the window. It took me so long, in fact, that I didn't have time to do the rest of my shopping.

Which was good, it turned out, because when I finally DID have time the site messed up and I ended up having to call in my order by phone, anyway.

So much for stress free. I take the kids to the mall on Thursday.