Online store fails Christmas

I had three ways to shop for presents from one of my favorite retailers today.

1. Drive 20 miles to their closest store
2. Call on the phone to their very busy 800#
3. Go on their website & order that way

Well I tried the latter. Bad idea. Here's what happened. The company's catalog (I have different ones) says that I had until December 18 to order for Christmas. This is December 15. Therefore no problem, right? Not so fast. No matter what I tried to order this is what came on my screen:"not available for this date". This wasted an hour.

So finally I gave up & called on the phone. Person answering had no idea why it was doing that, but took my order. In fact it would be done today. Why was this a problem? Isn't online shopping supposed to be convenient? I wasted almost 90 minutes because of this nonsense. This was the first time I used this company's website & it will be the last. I've been buying stuff from this outfit for 25 years, but I am ready to take my business elsewhere. Seriously folks, if you want to do business in the internet age you need to get someone to write a website that works properly, & doesn't tell customers :"I don't want your business".