August 13, 2004

Registry Hell

To avoid getting multiple pewter pepper mills, Gary and I are registering for wedding gifts. We're not expecting a lot (after all, we've been living together for nearly 7 years, and I've already been married once) but I know some people like to send a small congratulatory present.

I am not the kind of bride who has been planning her wedding for months. In fact, I've barely been planning it for weeks, and the number of things-to-do seems to be growing quickly, despite my insistance that we keep it small and simple. An online wedding registry seemed to be the easiest way for both of us to make lists of what we want without having to trudge through a store with a laser gun. Unfortunately, wedding registry technology is not yet up to snuff, it seems.

Attempt 1: The Baker's Catalog
This was the easiest registry to set up, although also the easiest one to potentially lose. They gave me an account number online, but they don't have the ability to email it to me, so I had to print the page and save the html file it was on, and hope I don't lose either! I'm not too worried about messing this up, but there is that potential. Another downside is apparently after August 31st we won't be able to add anything to the registry, due to computer upgrades. Granted, we'll be in Europe in September, but it's a bummer to know that if they come out with something cool in the fall, I won't be able to add it to the list.

Attempt 2: Best Buy and Circuit City
Neither of these stores has an online registry. They might have an in-store one, but I will probably never find out. The goal was to find a place where we could find stuff we wanted that has an online and brick-and-mortar store (for those folks with no internet access). Best Buy tricked me into thinking they had one by getting me to sign up for a "Wish List." They wouldn't tell me anything about this until I had signed up for one, which of course I did. It turns out that this is merely an eletronic notebook of sorts where one can keep track of all the stuff one wants. But it's only accessible to the owner of the list, no one else. Maybe useful if you're comparison shopping, but completely useless as a gift registry. Circuit City replied to my email saying that maybe someday in the future they would have such a service, but not in my lifetime. Best Buy has not responded to my email, but I imagine they'll say the same thing.

Attempt 3: Williams-Sonoma
Here was my fallback for a store that meets the online-offline requirements. And more importantly, they have a store in Des Moines, where much of Gary's family lives. I spent well over an hour last night picking out all kinds of fun stuff. I even considered cancelling the Baker's Catalog registry, except they've got Polish Stoneware and W-S doesn't. After picking out stuff that I want, I thought it would be gracious to let Gary in on the fun. He tried logging in to our registry, and it wasn't there! We tried searching for our registry (as a gift-giver) and couldn't find it. Ack! All my hard work, gone. My desire for a no-fuss way to pick gifts was shattered. I decided to try again in the morning, when we were less tired. Again, this morning it wasn't there. I tried creating another registry, only adding in a couple of items. I logged out, and couldn't log back in. It's not time to panic yet, but this was getting annoying. I called customer service and talked to a nice Southern lady who, when I told her my last name, said ,"oh, Griffin, as in the maple syrup makers!" She then proceeded to not find my name in her computer. She was puzzled by this, but then let on that the second registry I created wouldn't be available online until tomorrow morning. "So," I asked her, "does that mean I need to wait until this evening to access the one I created last night?" Apparently so. I am fine with this, but I wish W-S had stated this plainly on their website. I wonder how many panicky brides call customer support because of this. On the other hand, I wonder how many people wait until 2 weeks before their wedding to register.

Attempt 4: Amazon.com
Honestly, I don't cook and bake as often as I would like, or as often as it would seem based on what we've registered for. So it seemed like it would be best to find a place where we could register all the other stuff we need (or want), and Amazon.com fit the bill. Here we could get almost anything, the only downside is that it's all online, which can be kind of a pain for some people. The registry is easy to set up, but my biggest complaint is that the website to add stuff to the list is controlled by one user, in this case me. This means that if Gary wants to add something to the registry, he has to be logged in as me (and I had to give him my password! Horrors!) It's a minor complaint, but it's kind of a pain for him. Maybe we should have had his-and-hers registries. The other problem was similar to that encountered at W-S: it takes about a day for the registry to be seen in their search engine. The good news is that at least I could log back later and add stuff, but I worried when I wasn't able to find it in a search. I will give Amazon.com credit for saying on their website that this might happen, but it's only in one place, when you first create the registry (and I missed it the first time; I only found it because I tried to create a second registry to replace the first "lost" one).

What I have learned
Registering for gifts can be fun, but a little uncomfortable. I'm not opposed to getting presents, but I feel weird telling people what they should get me (in a way that seems to say that I expect something.) On the other hand, it beats getting a pewter pepper mill with the wrong monogram on it. After my experience the past few days with online stores, I have learned it's best to Register Early and Often.

Posted by Jen at August 13, 2004 07:35 AM
Comments