This year, like most, I avoided Black Friday sales. I mean, I like sales, but I hate that crush of manic humanity.* Instead, Mark and I spent a couple hours at our computers on Thanksgiving day; we did quite a bit of shopping online. For the most part, it was incredibly calming and easy. It seems, however, that each of us had one less than stellar experience. My let down was with Disneystore.com, of all places.
The website itself is actually quite nice. There are a variety of categories to make it easy to find what you're looking for. The search function works pretty well, and the checkout process is easy. The site was working fine that morning, and I had a lot of fun picking out gifts for my family.
Fast forward to the following Wednesday. Many of our orders from other sites have already arrived; color us excited! I wasn't alarmed yet that I had not received my order from the Disney Store online. After another week passed, I started to worry. To make myself feel better, I visited the site to check on my order status. For whatever reason, it wouldn't give me the information. It showed the order but not the status. I figured it was just a problem with the site and decided to check back later.
The next time I checked, it was showing the same message, refusing to tell me that status of my order. In the string of characters, the word cancelled did appear. I started to worry and decided to send them a message, asking for more information.
A day later, I got a response from the Disney Store via email. They asked me for some more information so they could further assist me. I consider that a timely response, as I had just sent my message the night before. I happily replied and settled in to wait.
Now, we're up to the present time. I got a response back from the Disney Store about my order.
"Regrettably, we have not been able to reach you to gather necessary
information to continue processing your order. This order has now been
cancelled. Should you wish to place another order, please feel free to
visit DisneyStore.com or call us."
Oh, I'll call you alright. Steaming mad, I dial up my good friends at the Disney Store. Luckily, the gentleman who answered my call was very nice, which made me less mad.** Unfortunately, the news he gave me was not good. Supposedly, the card I used didn't work, so they sent me an email to obtain an alternate payment method. Unfortunately, none of this information seems accurate to me.
After getting off of the phone with him, I immediately checked the available balance on the card I used. There were funds available, so that shouldn't have been the problem. Of course, there are other flags that may stop a card purchase from going through. It's possible that Visa thought the purchase was fraudulent. I wouldn't think that was the case, as Visa didn't contact me to discuss it, nor was the purchase out of the ordinary compared to my usual activity. Some cards do have a daily spending limit, but I was no where near any possible limit with this purchase. Of course, maybe it was something I did. It is possible I transposed a number or some such. If there was a problem with the site and it wasn't authorizing the purchases at the time of purchase, they wouldn't realize until after the fact. Unfortunately, it seems I will never know, as I was just told that it did not work.
Let's move on to the second part of the problem. The associate told me they sent me an email to gather more information to put the order through. I have combed my inbox, and there was no email. This further leads me to believe that there may have been a problem with the website, and I understand that these things happen.
Fine, my order is cancelled. I can live without those items. What is frustrating is the lack of assistance from the Disney Store. The only option they gave me was to go back to the website and place the order again. That's a fine suggestion, but when you consider that I had that same response from two different people through two different channels, it is a bit disappointing. No one offered to just replace the order. It's possible they can't, but you would think they would have a better response.
I still like Disneystore.com, but I can't get the items I ordered in time. I don't believe I can get the same specials I did that day either. I realize it was not the fault of anyone that I spoke with, but I'm used to Disney fixing problems. This one did not get fixed.
I'll continue shopping online, and I may even use the site again in the future. With so little human interaction, online shopping is primarily defined by the how easy the sites are to use, how quickly you get the merchandise, and the accuracy of the order. Disney failed on two out of three. Luckily, Mark had better luck with the business that accidentally cancelled his order. They extended his membership for a year and offered the same deal that he missed out on when the order was cancelled. I hate to say this, but they gave him better service than Disney gave to me.
*It is excellent training for the zombie apocalypse.
**Don't worry. While I was angry, I wasn't mean to him. I've been on the receiving end of people that were irate unfairly enough that I recognize that it's a bad thing to do. Well, I knew even without being yelled at before that it was wrong to treat people like that. Let's just say that I knew it wasn't the fault of the man I was speaking to, so I didn't treat him poorly for it.
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