With the influx of online shopping, purchasing shopping vouchers has become part of the online experience as well. Buying group deals for dining, adventure and travel is passe, buying vouchers online is the way to go these days. On more than one occasion did I buy vouchers online and somehow, these occasions end up learning lessons for me.

Mail, lost in the lallang

I jumped onto the wagon when Robinsons ran a tie up with one of the leading voucher companies making the vouchers cheaper than cheap. Plus they could be used during a sale and with all the mental calculations I did, it was a deal not to be missed.

And I made a deal almost instantaneously, even faster than swiping my card totalling up to slightly under $200.

Then it never arrived. Not one week, or two or a month later. It got lost in the mail and subsequent exchanges with the voucher company, they cited that our leading mail company had gotten a signoff from "someone" who conveniently claimed the vouchers as its own.

So where did my damned vouchers go? With the wind and lallang. Thankfully I was able to dispute the payment, PHEW!

A case of being a cheapo

Yet another leading voucher decided to tempt me again with Famous Amos cookies AND concurrently run a promotion of a 10% off with a minimum purchase of $50.

The promotion went $32 for $40 worth of vouchers. In order to qualify for the 10%, I had to buy $80 worth and the whole time I was focussing on the extra 10%.

It all happened too fast and bam, the voucher code was not applicable and I was $64 richer in chocolate chip cookies.

Christmas grinch is me

Christmas ranks high in my list of favourite seasons of the year, I love to give and of course love even more being gifted. The greatest season pet peeves however belong to people who make wishlists that are...

1) Out of the listed budget
2) Give budgets that are ridiculously insincere (Tell me how does a $2 budget work?)

To point 1. I have a group of friends who are generous with their budgets so every year it's pegged at SGD 50. It is essential I point out the currency because within the same group, this friend would only wish for vouchers which in my opinion is perfectly fine because you get what you want and it will be utilised to its maximum unlike hand creams which could lie alongside 10 other hand creams in the dresser.

Then this friend points us to the website where the vouchers can be bought and on top of all the trouble trying to buy it, they are only available in USD. Minimum vouchers come in 50 and 100.

I am only thankful the currency is not in francs.

I am not about to dissuade the purchase of online vouchers because I have had alot of joy buying vouchers and the above should serve just for your reading pleasure and of course, laughter.