ah, yes

one of my birthday gifts was a $25 gift card for eddie bauer (eb). i have been admiring a particular pair of eb boots for the past year or so, but have never been able to afford them. so i decided to see if they were on sale, and then use this $25 toward their purchase.

when i went to the eb web site today, i saw that the boots were, indeed, on sale –- 25% off. score. a discount of 25%, as well as an additional $25 off? you can’t beat that with a stick. so i put the boots in my cyberspace shopping cart and happily clicked my way to the checkout page. nowhere did i see any boxes into which i could input the gift card code, indicating my additional $25 off. before getting too far and paying more than i had to, i decided to call the customer service number located at the bottom of the web page.

eb sean answered, willing to help me in any way possible. when i explained my predicament, he asked, “is it a holiday gift card?” i confirmed that it was. he told me that those cards are only good for use in an eb store. at this, i flipped my card over and read to him from the back:

“this card is redeemable in the u.s. or canada for merchandise at all participating eddie bauer stores, eddie bauer home® stores, eddie bauer outlet stores, catalogs or online.”

i also mentioned that “to order, visit www.eddiebauer.com” was written just below the card’s code.

he put me on hold.

after a few short moments, he returned, apologizing for the delay and asking me to read the code off the back of the card. i heard him type as i read “e894100827238.” he then told me the card was not coming up as an online-friendly card. i told him that they should change the verbiage on the back of card, as it is misleading.

he put me on hold again.

after nearly ten minutes, eb sean returned. he’d had to contact the web site’s customer service personnel. i became confused as to whom i had been talking with thus far. it turns out the online-usable cards have a shorter code, so mine should have worked, but for some unknown reason, it didn’t. eb sean read the number back to me: “e894100082723.”

no.

i corrected eb sean and again heard him typing as he mumbled the numbers to himself. “ah, yes, here,” he said. whew. he pulled up the boots and said, “those boots are $108.” again i corrected him, stating that they are 25% off when you purchase them through the web site; they should be $81. he fiddled around a bit more and, again, i heard him say, “ah, yes.”

so with the correct gift card code, the correct online discount, and twenty ridiculous minutes gone from my life, i finally was able to place my order and can expect them to arrive in the next seven to ten days.

ah, yes!