An Update On My Secret Birthday Surprise Plan For My Wife: EPIC FAIL AFTER EPIC FAIL! **An Appeal To UK Steemians!**

Hi Guys.

I'm at 11 on the frustration-meter.

You'll recall my my idea for surprising my wife for her birthday next month. It involved writing to David Suchet, the actor famous for his portrayal of Hercule Poirot asking him to write a few words to my wife for her birthday next month.

theodysseyonline.com

I can't count the hours of effort and the road blocks thrown in my way trying to achieve this but let me explain the tribulations and the dead end I'm at currently.

• I researched how to contact him and found his agent who accepts fan mail and forwards it to him. They accept self addressed envelopes for the return of signed photographs that the requester must provide. there's no mention that he does anything other than photographs so this in itself is a long shot.
• I spend all lunch time one day last week on the on the phone to Australia post in order to clarify their obscurely worded website content relating to the implementation of international reply paid envelopes (the agent only accepts return paid SAEs). The woman who eventually answered my call just googled the Australia Post website and read to me what I'd just read myself, incorrectly summarizing my options.
• I decided to get up before 5am today to go to work so that I could leave early to head to a post office and ask them in person to sell me an international reply paid coupon (apparently this is the means by which this is achieved) but when I got to the post office after work, they claimed that no such service exists. When I explained that their own website says otherwise, the asked me to queue for another counter to be served by a gentleman who told me only certain post offices deal with international reply paid coupons and directed me to one of them.
• As time wore on after work, I made the peak hour commute to a Westfield shopping center as instructed and looked for the Australia Post there. The information terminal didn't indicate the presence of a Post outlet so I just roamed the complex until I found a staffed booth. The lady there said that there was no post office in the shopping complex but there was one a few km up the road. By this time I wouldn't have made it anyway so I gave up and came home
• At home, I decide to buy British stamps via the world's worst website ever AKA RoyalMail.com. This was the result of discovering that the agent doesn't accept coupons anyway, only UK stamped self addressed return envelopes. I first use Royal Mail's postage calculator to get an idea of the cost of posting a letter back to myself. I get the ruler out, measure the envelope I intend to send and get all the selections right. I'm told it'll cost any of 3 or 4 different prices depending on service etc. none of which I have control of as I'm not the UK sender.
• I decide to over order stamps so as not to be caught out by insufficient postage so I browse for stamp books. I make a selection and add it to my cart and checkout.
• It turns out I have to create an account to checkout, OK, so I start doing that. I have to provide my email and address details. Although I can select Australia as my country, the form would not accept my valid post code returning the error please enter a valid postcode
• After fighting the form, I had to google a UK postcode at random and sign up with most of my valid address but with a UK postcode and UK selected as a country. Ok, so that hurdle was overcome
• Once logged in, I was home free. I went to check out and I could then update my address to my actual country and postcode which the website for some reason was then happy to accept.
• When I went to put in my credit card details (you know, the one feature that almost every website on the planet successfully implements) RoyalMail.com would not accept my details due to the error please enter the name on your credit card. The name was clearly entered. The form is faulty.
• I tried loading the desktop version on my phone and also tried various browsers but no good so I fired up the laptop as perhaps it was something to do with the phone
• I went to log in using the laptop and the site would not accept my email and password that I'd just registered and was using on the phone. It flat out claimed that the details were wrong
• I clicked "forgot my password" and I'm emailed a reset email that I used to set the password to something else, only to find that the new password wasn't accepted either
• I abandoned chrome and fired up IE. This still didn't work but I was able to reset the password again and finally with IE, the password was accepted... almost there!
• I try the checkout again and after entering all my details again, I got the same please enter the name on your credit card



I challenge anyone to find a less functional website. All I wanted to do was buy some stamps using my credit card and a litany of failures means that my idea for my wife will not come to fruition!


thedwsblog.com

I wrote quite a compelling appeal to David on special artistic paper hoping he would generously write a few words back to my wife for her birthday. I explained how ill she is and how a few lines from him would bring a smile to her face. Here's the envelope ready to be sent but for the UK stamps required for the reply paid enclosed self addressed envelope.



Just today between the running between post offices and the endless RoyalMail.com failures, I've spent an unbelievable 4 hours 15 minutes! My only hope is that a generous UK Steemian will post me some stamps in return perhaps for some bitcoin.

Meaningful gifts can take an incredible amount of personal resources and I confess to being totally drained by this pursuit. Any suggestions?

Thanks to you all as always!