You won't believe this is my first time online shopping in 6 years. Not a shopping girl, I actually hate shopping. Only necessity purchased in this house, and even this is sometimes a headache.

One old colleague asked me to buy Estee Lauder for her. I wanted very much to get this favor done beautifully. Went on Estee Lauder Canada website. There was a 15% off for first order of a new customer only just started. How lucky! She is. And I am too. Saved a fortune.

But when I tried to pay, the 15% off offer code wouldn't apply. The trouble started then.

It's not really a big trouble or a headache, because all the staff I talked to were quite polite and patient. It's just that I had to spend hours to call and explain and check. And the problem only solved after 6 phone calls I initiated over 4 days, and after I got upset with them.

People make mistakes. Nothing is designed perfect. I understand. It's just I feel they made the discount not applicable on purpose, otherwise I really don't know how to explain this. Thinking they are a big company, so not very likely behave this way. After consulted with them, and registered again with a different email address as a new account, I got the same offer code, and it's still invalid. Just don't get it. Asked them to select the items and place the order for me, still not working. How do they do the business? How the others shop online with them, no problem?

You cannot talk to the same person either. It seems they have millions women sitting at their call center. Every time is a new one, and you have to explain all over again. And they do not track your call history, and every time you have to start from the very beginning. And every time after the phone call I had to wait a period of time, either 24 hours or 2 hours, for whatever to be processed or activated. That's why it took days to get it over. And then you check your order, and it's not working. You can see the frustration and anger are building. Who would not?

You go on Estee Lauder Canada website, and there is the contact information. And then you call, and then after some good conversation you realize the person you are talking to is actually sitting in the US. And then you request a Canadian number to call, and they say there is no Canadian number. One call center deals with North America Region is totally reasonable. It's just suddenly you feel small as a Canadian. And at one time, this staff was not professional enough as a customer service representative, because she clearly sounds surprised at the number of tax I have to pay for this purchase. Canadians have to pay more sales tax than Americans. So many reasons that Canadians feel sour and ache when they talk about their southern neighbor. She really should not have showed her surprise.

Good thing is they answer the phone promptly. Think about Bell customer service which I had to call the other day. Half an hour you stay on the line listening to the boring repeating music for nothing. Finally you got to talk to a real person, and the battery of your phone is almost dead. And the banks. Not to mention about government service. If you don't have plenty of free time and your phone is not 100% fully charged, don't even attempt the call. So it makes the 6 phone calls to Estee Lauder not so painful. Besides, the fault is on their side, so you can sit up tall and straight to talk to them. It feels better.

And then they told me I better pay the full amount and then they would refund me my 15% discount, all back to the start, just like the first phone call said. So I did. I thought, well, anyway, just get this over. And then I got the refund number, which is obviously incorrect. When it's math, North Americans just cannot do it. If you listen to CBC radio one, you will be surprised how often they debate their school math teaching, and how often you will hear kids say they hate math. Just remembered, one of my professors here once needed to do a math like, 37-28, and she put the two number on the board and stared at it for a while and then said, never mind. If it was 38-27, she would have made it with no problem. I later learned that calculations involved regrouping and borrowing give many Canadians, Americans too I guess, headaches, even it's a simple two digits calculation like that. Good news to Chinese people here, or Asians in general, is all the fields which require lots of math skills are all yours. Peer into Accounting class, 80% Chinese people. 

Finally i grew tired of it. If it was my own purchase, I would have just simply cancelled the order. Both Tony and DH suggest me to just forget about the difference, only a few dollars, not a big deal. Though I was tired, I was still in the fighting spirit. Also as I said, because they made the mistake, so the conversation was easy on me. I was at the higher position.

And then i made the final call. I told the unfortunate girl on the other side my disappointment with them, and told her this was going to be my last conversation with them, and asked her to get her supervisor, or whoever had the authority and capable to solve the problem, to talk to me if she was not certain she could make it final. Do you think I was bullying her a bit? Whatever, it feels good after all the frustration they gave me. And this worked. She did check a couple of times with her supervisor in between, and promised me the correct refund will be credited to me in no time, and I will get an email as confirmation.

So that's that. And I got the parcel the next day. That was pretty fast, faster than I've expected. Usually I don't like the idea of argument with people, but sometimes you have to be assertive to get things right.