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Dec. 13th, 2021 08:25 pmGot most of my holiday shopping done. (Or at least I hope so!)
Trying to buy stuff on Barnes and Noble's website was the biggest pain in the ass, though.
Unfortunately we don't have a real great indie bookstore that's close by (there are a couple good ones, but they require quite a drive), but I figured that hey, I'll try to shop an actual bookstore, even if it is a corporate chain, instead of just grabbing everything on Amazon. And B&N had a 15% off coupon for online purchases today only.
But the website would not accept my address. It kept telling me to put "Apt" in front of the number... which I did... and then it would infinitely keep asking me to do so. Trying to cheat and put my apartment number after the street address didn't work either, because even though the Apt number field was supposed to be optional, it wouldn't let me leave it blank, and entering anything just led to the infinite loop of asking me to put in a prefix.
Spoke to one chat representative, who basically just told me my browser must be incompatible, oh well, try again some other time. (I did try several browsers, and if your website is incompatible with Android Chrome, Android Firefox, AND Windows Chrome, that seems not great.)
Spoke to a second rep, and she was able to get my account address updated for me, which was appreciated, and finally I was able to place my order!
Basically I'm annoyed just because using Amazon would have been faster, easier, and slightly cheaper, so if it weren't for my strong desire to support an actual bookstore, I would absolutely have just gone for that instead. :/
Really, I'm just grousing that hey, if you're part of an industry that is basically begging people to support you instead of Amazon, then don't make your own services fucking impossible to use.
(And yes, I fully know B&N did the same thing to indie bookstores that Amazon is doing to them, and I do still buy shit from Amazon, but I also know that Amazon winding up with a complete monopoly will be good for no one.)
Still need to look for solar-powered garden decor for my mom, which was one of the only non-book things she asked for. Of course that's now *very* out of season. Maybe a hardware store? The garden store that's switched over to Christmas trees for the season?
On the bright side:
Look at this terrible reindeer-on-reindeer violence, caught on camera!
(Cy in his silly reindeer hat always makes me laugh. And he *loves* this damn reindeer toy, haha.
Though unfortunately, Cy seems to not be feeling well tonight, so hopefully he's feeling better tomorrow.)
Trying to buy stuff on Barnes and Noble's website was the biggest pain in the ass, though.
Unfortunately we don't have a real great indie bookstore that's close by (there are a couple good ones, but they require quite a drive), but I figured that hey, I'll try to shop an actual bookstore, even if it is a corporate chain, instead of just grabbing everything on Amazon. And B&N had a 15% off coupon for online purchases today only.
But the website would not accept my address. It kept telling me to put "Apt" in front of the number... which I did... and then it would infinitely keep asking me to do so. Trying to cheat and put my apartment number after the street address didn't work either, because even though the Apt number field was supposed to be optional, it wouldn't let me leave it blank, and entering anything just led to the infinite loop of asking me to put in a prefix.
Spoke to one chat representative, who basically just told me my browser must be incompatible, oh well, try again some other time. (I did try several browsers, and if your website is incompatible with Android Chrome, Android Firefox, AND Windows Chrome, that seems not great.)
Spoke to a second rep, and she was able to get my account address updated for me, which was appreciated, and finally I was able to place my order!
Basically I'm annoyed just because using Amazon would have been faster, easier, and slightly cheaper, so if it weren't for my strong desire to support an actual bookstore, I would absolutely have just gone for that instead. :/
Really, I'm just grousing that hey, if you're part of an industry that is basically begging people to support you instead of Amazon, then don't make your own services fucking impossible to use.
(And yes, I fully know B&N did the same thing to indie bookstores that Amazon is doing to them, and I do still buy shit from Amazon, but I also know that Amazon winding up with a complete monopoly will be good for no one.)
Still need to look for solar-powered garden decor for my mom, which was one of the only non-book things she asked for. Of course that's now *very* out of season. Maybe a hardware store? The garden store that's switched over to Christmas trees for the season?
On the bright side:
Look at this terrible reindeer-on-reindeer violence, caught on camera!
(Cy in his silly reindeer hat always makes me laugh. And he *loves* this damn reindeer toy, haha.
Though unfortunately, Cy seems to not be feeling well tonight, so hopefully he's feeling better tomorrow.)
