Got the worst and best out of Macy's today. It didn't start that well. They have a clearance right now but when it was time to pay on their site, they wouldn't take my debit card. Since I have a Visa with a US bank that I order with on American web sites all the time, that wasn't expected. I IMed one of their reps to ask what was going on, and that was the first good surprise, as someone who knew how to properly spell English spotted in 30 seconds that I was ordering through a non-US ISP, which macys.com won't allow. The rep pointed me to a phone number which I called a couple hours later.

Over the phone, another rep took my order very nicely and patiently, though we were both bitching at macys.com extreme sluggishness by then (must be the clearance). She found extra discounts on pretty much every product I wanted to order and threw free shipping on top of it though I was under the $150 that qualified for it. I paid $107 for 5 brand-name sweaters and a jacket!

Macy's, kudos for your rep training and your pricing flexibility to save face, protect your brand and make a customer happy. Macys.com, get bigger servers to handle clearances and rewrite your error messages, thanks.