Saturday, December 10, 2011

Dressing my Angels


Early last week, I got an email from one of the coupon sites I haunt. They directed me to the Victoria’sSecret Facebook page, where VS was giving away gift cards on a daily basis until Christmas. I scoped it out, by reading the rules as well as comments by previous winners and losers.

Every day until December 15, the company is giving away a total of 100,000 Victoria’s Secret gift cards. However, they begin giving away each day at precisely 9:00 A.M. Eastern and only give away until that day’s allotment is depleted. That means by approximately 9:07, all of that day’s cards are gone.

Since that’s 7:00 A.M. my time, I didn’t even bother entering the first few days. I get ready for school at that time and felt entering a contest was not high priority. Last Thursday though, I was running ahead of schedule. I noticed it was 7:04 and thought I would give it a shot.

I tried for a few minutes but kept getting an error message, presumably because thousands of other people were also trying to enter. I was ready to give up, and thought, “I’ll give it one more shot.”  That one more shot won me a gift card.

I was pretty excited. The amount of the gift card was a secret. They don’t tell you the amount until you have placed your online order and are ready to check out. After reading the comments on the Victoria’s Secret Facebook page, I assumed I probably won a $10 gift card, since that is what all of the people were saying that they won.

Later that night, I was ready to go online and place an order and use my $10 gift card. I wanted to order something for daughter Kay. Thinking that I would just buy something for ten bucks, then pay the additional tax and shipping myself, I started looking for ten dollar items. Any of you who have ever shopped at Victoria’s Secret know that means my options were limited. I finally decided on body wash. I called daughter Em, who knows these kinds of things, and asked her which fragrance Kay might like. She suggested a few and I added the body wash to my “shopping cart.”

I entered all my shipping information and got to the section where I had to enter my gift card number. I also had our personal card information ready since I knew I would be responsible for paying anything over the $10.  With tax and shipping, my body wash came to $16.99.  I looked at the total, expecting to see that I owed $6.99.  I was wrong.

Instead, I read this, “Your gift card covers your entire purchase. No additional payment is necessary. Your new gift card balance is $483.01.”

I read it over a few times, sure that I had made a mistake. When I realized I was not dreaming, nor breathing, I called Em back. I was hoping that she would be kind enough to come over to my house and help me use up my $500. She graciously accepted. She drove right over. In her pajamas. That’s my girl.

Now anyone who knows me knows that I do not have a figure conducive to shopping at VS. My daughters however, do. Merry Christmas, angels.

Over the next three and a half hours, Em and I sat online poring over that website. We got Kay and Gnome on the phone, requesting their help in spending the $500. They were also happy to oblige. Okay, “happy” is too mild. “Delirious” probably covers it better. 

Em, being the consummate online shopper, used her eagle eye to discern that I also got free shipping because my order was over $25, and an additional $25 off because my order was over $150.  Twenty-seven items later, I logged off. If anyone needs help navigating the Victoria’s Secret website, just call me. I know that website top to bottom. My order came to $497.44. Whew. I felt accomplished.

A few days later, I am still in shock.  I keep checking status on my order, to make sure that it’s real. I am so grateful to Victoria’s Secret for their generosity. I looked at their site and found that out of the 100,000 cards they are giving away, only 82 were the $500 cards. And what did my dear husband have to say about all this?

“Now can you go win me something from Cabelas?”





 


11 comments:

  1. A delightful story and what fun for you and your angels.

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  2. Absolutely incredible! It couldn't have happened to a better family...unless your surname was Devine:)

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  3. Auntie M: I think that for me, the most fun was hearing their voices when I told them the news, and that they got to pick out whatever they wanted. Priceless.

    Ken: It was truly a blessing because they got to choose skirts,pants, winter pajamas, and shirts--things that they really needed. I am so grateful.

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  4. Wow!!!! That is incredible. Good.for you my friend :)

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  5. Septembermom: I'm still in shock! Now I will probably become a contest addict! :)

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  6. That is what I call fortuitious. Perhaps the word that started Supercalifragilistic... Congrats. My husband would be asking the same thing. lol Hope you and your angels enjoy the bounteous blessings you have been given. It couldn't have happened to a nicer person.

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  7. Luvs: It IS the Supercali word! Oh yeah! I really do feel so blessed. The best thing was hearing the girls' excitement as they got to shop at their dream store, free of charge.Thanks for your sweet comments! :)

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  8. Awesome Randi!!!! You are amazing and you deserve to be able to give a gift like that to your girls...Ya for YOU!!!!

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  9. Lela: It was tremendous fun. Now if I could just win one to Lane Bryant--ha ha! :)

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  10. Jill: Thank you! Definitely one of the highlights of my year.

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You won't be paid for it, but at least you'll know that you have contributed intelligence to the universe...

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