Friday, May 23, 2008

Lost in Transaction

My French magazines won't be arriving in the mail. I didn't need my French-English dictionary to understood the email message I received: "Suite à l'échec de votre transaction, votre commande n°239178 n'a pas été validée. Merci de repasser votre commande ou de contacter journaux.fr. " It means there was a problem with my order and I am to try to order again or contact them.

When I went to the journaux.fr site, I saw what was probably the reason the order didn't go through - 2 of the 3 magazines are no longer available, including the one I really wanted, Idees Broderie et Couture. The other magazine they're out of is Fait Main because there's a new issue out, but it appears to include wedding clothes and since I know this magazine only has a few patterns per issue, I'm not too interested in this particular one. There is a new Elena Couture available (similar to Diana Couture but for larger sizes), but now I'm not so excited to get either Elena Couture or Diana Couture if that's all that's available. Fact is, I have not sewn a single thing from any of the foreign sewing magazines I have acquired over the last few years. I'm close though. I have a skirt cut out and another issue has a little knit top I'd like to make. The clothes in the "Couture" magazines are very simple and would be easy to make, even with the sparse, French instructions, but I don't really need the magazines.

The foreign sewing magazines are fun to look at and I do like the styles, but good grief, Burda shows up in my mailbox every month and I can't manage to sew those clothes either...and it's in English! On top of that, I also get Marie Claire Idées, so I have plenty of French craft stuff to read...and try to make if I had the time, energy, and no other hobbies.

Some knitting friends have graciously offered to find some sewing magazines when they're in Europe this summer. But I really hate burdening them with my silly obsession. It's bad enough I make my husband wait while I check every news kiosk and newsstand on our trips abroad. (But he now knows what to look for and brought me back an Elena Couture from his business trip to Quebec!) I also have a friend who lives near Brussels and she could probably get me quite a few and maybe even the highly desired Patrones magazine if I'd only ask her, but it's not like I'm starved for patterns.

So I will put this silliness behind and turn my energy toward sewing something. Now wouldn't that be a novel idea!

UPDATE!!! No, I didn't get my magazines, but I did find out what I think was the real problem. The credit card interface did not ask for the 3-digit security code on the credit card and that together with the non-English website of journaux.fr led my credit card company to deny the purchase and put a hold on my card. It's a seldom-used card so I didn't know they put a hold on it. I received a letter from my credit card company (took 2 weeks to get to me!) simply saying they were unsuccessful at reaching me (??), there was a problem with my account, and they put a hold on it. I called them and found out why - the attempted journaux.fr purchase. Oh and they couldn't reach me because they had an old phone number. I suppose if my French was better I would have contacted journaux.fr directly to find out why the order was n'a pas été validée but I just assumed it was because the magazines were out of stock. And now they are. Oh well.

1 comment:

  1. LOL, I have about 90 craft mags and I've only made something from one of them - and that was a freebie with the mag I actually bought. Then there's the 500 or so patterns I have.... Sometimes it's nice to have these things to give us inspiration. (Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it, lol.)

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