Is This You? Are You Sure?

So I really like doing business online. And when it comes to the charities I support, I prefer to make sure it’s something to which I am deeply committed and then sign up for its monthly giving program. I tell the organization how much to take out of my account each month and it takes it; all I need do is make sure the money is there for the taking.

On Dec. 4, after being moved to tears by a television spot for the organization in question, I went to my computer to sign up for its monthly giving program. The “Donate Now” link on the home page took me to a donation page that gave me the option of making a one-time or monthly gift. A pull-down menu next to “Amount” listed numerous denominations, but none matched the amount I wanted to give. Not a problem — there’s an “Other Amount” option where you fill in whatever number you want, which I did and then supplied the rest of the required data — billing information, payment method, etc. I clicked “Submit” and got an error message that told me “an amount must be entered.” Thinking I had inadvertently skipped that box, I filled it in and then realized that my billing information had been wiped out. A security measure, I assumed. So I filled it all out again, hit “Submit” and got the same message.

This time, I was certain I had filled in the amount. I was beginning to think the Web site was malfunctioning, but as I was about to click out, I thought maybe I had entered the amount in an incorrect format. So I checked the format in the “Amount” pull-down list and entered my amount in that format: $XX.XX, re-filled in my payment information, clicked “Submit” and got the same message.