Figleaves: A rant
Don’t ask why I was trying to buy a bunch of stuff on Figleaves.com when I should be doing 5000 other more important things. Just don’t ask.
I shopped on the Figleaves US site, because I want my stuff delivered to the US. I put in a US delivery address, but on the payment screen, it wouldn’t let me enter UK credit card details. I thought this idiotic policy went out the window several years ago; I actually wrote an article about it for a magazine back in 1999, so I had hoped that eight years would be enough time for online retailers to come to their senses on this score.
The fun didn’t stop there. I could actually choose to submit my order and then phone in my card details, which seemed like the only work-around. I called the UK number listed. It’s out of service. (I re-rang three times just to make sure.) The only US numbers offered were toll-free ones, which you can’t dial from the UK. So I dug out my headset and called via Skype. A girl with a thick Irish accent answered, and informed me that they simply do not allow people with UK credit cards to place orders for delivery in the US. UNLESS, of course, I want my order to ship from the UK and take three times as long to reach the US. Oh, and if I want to pay twice as much. No thanks, but you just lost a hugely valuable order and a potentially lucrative customer, Figleaves. Sit and spin, mofos. (In the end, Neiman Marcus got my business.)
Filed under: Life
If you want, I can order it for you. let me know.
But, regardless: Bastards!!
Tatyana, that is such a sweet offer! Thank you so much. In the end, though, I bought all I needed from Neiman Marcus (which has excellent customer service - twice I have needed to modify orders immediately after placing them, out of my own forgetfulness, and twice they have responded to me within five minutes, fixing all my problems).
I have never been able to get my UK-issued Visa card to work paying for anything in the US - just use it in ATMs to withdraw money.
Really? I have only had problems with my MasterCard a couple of times; usually, it’s no problem at all. I can even use my Nat West debit card easily. I’d talk to Visa about that problem, Peter.
I had the same issue going the opposite direction - I was taking a holiday in the UK and needed to hire a car - National (.co.uk) had a much better deal for a weekly rental to/from Birmingham Airport than their US site, which added all sorts of taxes and fees. But when I entered my phone # in the online form, the site kept saying it wasn’t valid and rejected my reservation. WTH? After a few tries, I finally figured it out - I needed to fool the site into thinking I was reserving the car from Britain. I added a 0 in front of my area code (i.e. 0212 555 6666 instead of 212 555 6666) and voila! Car hired!
Funnily enough, the site had no problem with my US post code format.
Well, I needed to get a US bank account to get paid here, anyway, and I can use the Visa card from that account, so it’s not much of a problem.
Shotrock: I’m glad you were able to MacGyver your way out of that one. I’m thinking maybe the way to get traction with this backward online retailers, who want UK-based people to pay inflated prices and have stuff shipped from Britain, is to harp on the environmental aspect. If not treating their customers like crap isn’t enough of an incentive, perhaps “corporate social responsibility” might be.
Peter: I just think you should sort it out in terms of future travel; in general, I believe Visas should be accepted anywhere that accepts Cirrus or similar. You should not be getting rejected, and it might pose a problem if you’re somewhere other than the US and need to pay for stuff. Sorry for coming over all maternal with you, as per usual, but I have some travel problems now that wouldn’t be issues if I’d taken a long-term view of things when I was younger and less travelled (such as letting my US driving licence expire because I never planned to move back to America and assumed I’d just get my UK licence quickly, when it turned out not being practical to do so and a major headache not having my licence in the US now).