The Magic of Macy's

At times our registry experience was magical, at other times it was not.  I had visions of us happily flitting about the store, the future Mr. Palindrome delighted to be holding the clicker, and after a full day of registering, we would eat junk food in the mall food court with smiles on our faces.  Seriously.  Where do I come up with this crap?

Our real experience went something like this:
After a long morning at my outdoor graduation, we went to the Greenbriar Mall Macy's.  We waited for 15 minutes for a representative to show up in the china department.  It took about 45 minutes to set up the registry.  This also included the time to open a Macy's credit card account so we could take advantage of the Star Rewards system.  We didn't think too hard about this and learned the hard way - do not open a credit card (even at a dept. store!) when your loan request for a mortgage is being processed.  We finally got the clicker and walked aimlessly around because we had no idea what to register for when we didn't know where we would be living.  After registering for a roaster and some mixing bowls (and wasting another 30 minutes), we gladly handed the clicker back and vowed never to come to that Macy's again.  It's small and definitely not worth registering at because their selection is quite limited.

I have been using the online system exclusively since then.  There is a big draw back however.  I have repeatedly run into the problem of the registry site, which is run through Wedding Channel, not matching the Macy's website.  I'll find something I like, I'll try to register for it, and it will not be available to assign to my registry.  Leave it to me to find the 10 things that you can't register for, but it's definitely annoying.

The reason I keep the registry open is twofold.  The first part is that it's the only brick and mortar store where we registered.  The second is that when items are purchased online, Macy's makes a donation to the charity of our choice (Special Olympics in our case)

Have you been happy with your registries?  Did you have a smooth experience?