Inconvenient Annoyances

Getting entirely frustrated with trying to order gifts online for my family in the US.  About ready to throw my hands up & get everybody the 'same old, same old' - either gift vouchers or food baskets or flowers.

Thought I had something really nifty picked out for my niece & her fiancé - but that online retailer apparently doesn't take any orders from outside the US.  I tried their 'ask a customer service rep online' feature that opens up a chat dialogue box, but after about 20 minutes of waiting - no one turned up to help me. 

Then I found another cool item for her instead on Pottery Barn's site, but what I picked out isn't available for shipment until after Jan 21st! 

FFS!  It's not supposed to be this hard, is it? 

I am just fed up after spending all that time to try & find something nice & different, for it to come to absolutely nothing and so much of the afternoon wasted. 

Getting entirely frustrated with trying to order gifts online for my family in the US.  About ready to throw my hands up & get everybody the 'same old, same old' - either gift vouchers or food baskets or flowers.

Thought I had something really nifty picked out for my niece & her fiancé - but that online retailer apparently doesn't take any orders from outside the US.  I tried their 'ask a customer service rep online' feature that opens up a chat dialogue box, but after about 20 minutes of waiting - no one turned up to help me. 

Then I found another cool item for her instead on Pottery Barn's site, but what I picked out isn't available for shipment until after Jan 21st! 

FFS!  It's not supposed to be this hard, is it? 

I am just fed up after spending all that time to try & find something nice & different, for it to come to absolutely nothing and so much of the afternoon wasted. 

Have you tried Etsy? I love using it for something unique and different.

DH just rang to let me know that he just got in the car to come home and it won't start...AA is estimating a response time of 5.45...so he's stuck at work until they get it sorted...fingerscrossed it's just the battery and all it needs needs a jump

Have you tried Etsy? I love using it for something unique and different.

Thanks maybe I'll give that a go tomorrow.  For today, I have online shopping fatigue & have come up empty handed. 

"Uncommon Goods" might work as well. I know people had no trouble buying off it from the UK for our wedding (it was one of the few places we registered).

My IA: untidy house.

We have not had any post delivered since Monday. Come to find out that Royal Mail in Derby stopped delivering because of the ice & snow citing 'health & saftey' concerns. Of course I'm waiting for letters from the US Embassy regarding DH's Visa & our purchases off eBay for Christmas gifts.

WebyJ mine is opposite...

Have the doorbell rung at 9am on a Sunday for a delivery from Royal mail...I swore today was Sunday and I check my phone a few times to make sure it wasn't Monday and I missed a day.

I am happy I got my socks but no reason to wake me up lol

WebyJ mine is opposite...

Have the doorbell rung at 9am on a Sunday for a delivery from Royal mail...I swore today was Sunday and I check my phone a few times to make sure it wasn't Monday and I missed a day.

I am happy I got my socks but no reason to wake me up lol

Hee hee!  (sorry)  Yes, at this time of year, I think they do some Sunday deliveries just to keep up with Christmas post...except in Derby, apparently. 

I was just wondering why on earth a Parcelforce van was in front of my house on a Sunday when I logged on but I guess that makes sense to do extra deliveries before Christmas. They should do that in the US too.

Hee hee!  (sorry)  Yes, at this time of year, I think they do some Sunday deliveries just to keep up with Christmas post...except in Derby, apparently.  

Yeah, I live in a block of flats NEXT TO a post office! But it seems that it's 'too dangerous' to walk across the snow/ice free zebra crossing to my building and take the indoor lift up to the 6th floor and slip my letters through the door  

"Uncommon Goods" might work as well. I know people had no trouble buying off it from the UK for our wedding (it was one of the few places we registered). 

Thanks for that!  I did end up getting a gift for my niece and her fiancé off the Uncommon Goods website.

Etsy was a great suggestion too, except that I just didn't have time (or patience) to keep trawling through the endless choices!  And maybe I was missing something, but the site didn't seem to have a more narrowly defined 'sorting by price' function - I either started with low prices (which were ridiculously low) or high prices (which were ridiculously high) & would then have to load through pages & pages of stuff to find something in the range I wanted.

I did a Harry & David order for some of it - for my nephew & his fiancée, and for one brother & his wife.  Geeesh - they (H&D) have some high delivery prices - delivery charges were about 20% of my total order cost there!

I think I struggle because I haven't lived in the US for long enough now (& haven't been back for 1 1/2 years+), I don't really know anymore what the cool/in/new online retailers there are to order from over there nowadays.

Woke up with a horrible neck crick that still hasn't gone away. I can barely move my head, and it hurts no matter what I do.

Initially I thought I felt better this morning but then my temp went up to 38.8 and I just want to hold on til tomorrow morning since I've got an appt at the hospital anyway and I doubt anyone will be able to to much on a Sunday anyway.

And I'm quickly running out of decent tv on our freeview+ box after two whole days stuck in bed. there's so much I want to do!!!

Thanks for that!  I did end up getting a gift for my niece and her fiancé off the Uncommon Goods website.

Etsy was a great suggestion too, except that I just didn't have time (or patience) to keep trawling through the endless choices!  And maybe I was missing something, but the site didn't seem to have a more narrowly defined 'sorting by price' function - I either started with low prices (which were ridiculously low) or high prices (which were ridiculously high) & would then have to load through pages & pages of stuff to find something in the range I wanted.

I did a Harry & David order for some of it - for my nephew & his fiancée, and for one brother & his wife.  Geeesh - they (H&D) have some high delivery prices - delivery charges were about 20% of my total order cost there!

I think I struggle because I haven't lived in the US for long enough now (& haven't been back for 1 1/2 years+), I don't really know anymore what the cool/in/new online retailers there are to order from over there nowadays.

Glad you found something! I have to agree that's a problem with Etsy. There are so many shops on there that it can get a bit cumbersome when you're just browsing. The search functions aren't great.

money, or more accurately, lack of.