Surprise surprise: cupcake incompetence

So when my friend S told me that she might treat herself to birthday cake this Saturday, not having done so for aeons (S is the most disciplined dieter on this planet) I had a Bright Idea. Why not surprise her with a delivery of birthday cupcakes from a smart little cupcake place in her home town of Toronto? Remember that word: surprise.

Googling such a service was easy; choosing one with glorious cupcakes in wonderful flavours was also easy. Ordering was the first hurdle in the progress of the Bright Idea. I emailed the firm to ask if they used Paypal. No they didn't, but they would accept Visa from the UK. Right, I'd go ahead. A nice little surprise....

The order form gave options; I chose a gift box of six cupcakes - well, sabotaging a diet of such superhuman endeavour needs to be subtle and restrained - and duly filled in the 'amount' box with the number 6. There was nowhere on the screen to pay, but I assumed that we would move on through the usual checkout/payment process. Wrong... a page came up confirming that I had ordered six gift boxes - and worse, that I would be charged $144 for the privilege. Someone would ring me for my payment. Oops. There were limitations to this internet ordering lark.

I emailed the firm, and admitted my stupidity. I was assured that my order would be amended at once, and that if I emailed or rang with my debit card number, I could pay for one gift box. Not being a complete 100% ninny, I elected to ring rather than send my unsecured card details out into the interweb ether, paid for my order, specifying a bias towards chocolate cupcakes, and a card to go in the box to let S know who had surprised her, and the process was duly completed.

Except that it wasn't. A very short time later, S emailed me, forwarding the confirmation email that she (instead of me) had just received - for six gift boxes, for which she would be charged $144. In her understated way, she only wrote: "Is this for real?"

By 11.30 p.m. BST and several emails later, to S and to the rather unapologetic shop, it may or may not have been sorted out; too early to say, really. I will scan my bank statement carefully; S will tell me if she receives six or a deluge of cupcakes, and I will never yield to another Bright Idea that involves surprise. I went off to bed as hyper as if I had overindulged on sugary birthday treats. Those cupcakes had better be good; they cost me half a night's sleep.