Um, not that I’m bitter.

Before you can even check out on hallmark.com you must select a ship to address type (drop down) and delivery zip code –so they can compute the shipping cost for you (this is a Web 2.0 sort of site). OK. That’s nice to know though maybe annoying to do before I finish shopping.

I go to check out, reviewed the order (canceling the card). On the billing/shipping screen I got “Please enter the correct information in the required fields.” validation error.

The problem: NO required fields left unfilled. NO “incorrect” information. NO fields marked in error.

I was stopped dead in the check out process.

Normally I would have given up and gone elsewhere but I was doing this as a favor needed to get the order done to make a order deadline. So I tried different browsers, dumped the cart and started again, sent an email (which received a reply two working days after the event).

Eventually I found the service number (on a previous web page –not where I was stuck– and with phone routing system that talked about only about “flower orders” when I was ordering a kid’s gift) and a CSR. He was about as stumped except for the idea that I should “re-enter” the city.

That didn’t work at first until I spelled out SAINT (for my home city of St. Paul). Eureka! I could get the order in before the 1PM deadline. I told the CSR to report this as a bug and to be sure to add it to the CSR FAQ.

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Now what should we make of that error:

* Never EVER report an error without being certain there’s a field with an error the user can identify.

At least in Jared’s case you know that the zip code was the “error.” In mine, they trusted the reporting to do it and it didn’t.

* Have error messages that correctly identify this issue (for those who live St. Louis, St. Paul or Ft. Worth)

Apparently no one in the design process lived in town that uses a common abbreviation. One hopes they’ll do the substitutions for me in the future.

I went back and confirmed the developers spent some time checking that zip code against other fields. Putting in the wrong city could reports an error for the street address (assuming the street doesn’t exist in the zip code). If I put in surrounding community names –it was happy.

More interestingly in the hallmark case is they pre-filled the zip code on the form complete with state (which were NON-editable), but not city. Why not pre-fill the city also and let me edit it if it’s something that I might want to change (like a suburb name)? That would have been even more helpful and probably prevented the error in the first place. Not to mention it would have made having to enter it in the first place easier (and let’s ignore what happens if you got the zip WRONG at the start).

Speaking of Zip Codes…

In a mailing/shipping situation, if you have a correct zip code, why should the user EVER enter city and state? About all the user can do is confirm a zip code typo (which for many city dwellers would be the first 1-3 digits). Either they match or they don’t –and the user has to debug it it’s checked and found to be “wrong” (as in this case). Do we make users enter three pieces of information because we’re trained to do that and might consider it an error if we lost that control?