Review of Purdy's

Although we have always loved their chocolates, ordering, online, from Purdy's is an absolute nightmare.  Their website is a bit opaque, in terms of finding items, but ordering, particularly as a gift, and particularly shipping to multiple addresses, is an exercise in frustration.  Which functions are available where is completely unclear.  If you are shipping to multiple addresses, you are pretty much forced to create an account with Purdy's, even if you don't want to.  Even then, trying to specify what you want to ship where you can get completely lost.

Placing the order is also very confusing.  Trying to ship as a gift, the system wouldn't let me place an order, and kept rejecting my credit cards.  (Yes, I had to try multiple cards to see if they didn't accept certain types.  Their error messages are supremely unhelpful.)  In the end I did manage to figure out what I had done wrong, but only by accident, and trial and error.  *Several* trials.

In addition, having (semi-)successfully placed one order with one card, the system then refused to accept another order with the same credit card.  In the end, I had to use different cards to ship different gifts.  (And, in all the confusion, apparently missed whatever opportunity there might have been to send a message with the gift.)

(Actually, I'm not entirely sure that I *have* placed the orders.  Having paid for them by credit card[s], I have now received *invoices* for the orders!  What on earth goes on, Purdy's?)

Having sent a first version of this complaint to Purdy's, I did get a response, of sorts.  It was marginally more than the usual, "We are sorry your experience was not up to our standards," but not by much.  And, in fact, a lot of the information seemed to be in conflict.  I had received a message confirming that the items had shipped.  But then I was told that the items *hadn't* shipped, so an ommission could be corrected.  Then the confirmation of delivery came *four days* before the items actually arrived.  Messages sent with the gifts probably *were* included, but the message cards are so small that they were likely lost in unpacking.