« Online Shopping: Some Merchants Just Don't get It »

It’s been one of those years, time gets away from you, weather drags you down, and all of a sudden it’s the middle of December and you’ve got to shop on line, and swallow the expedite charges.

I L-O-V-E shopping on line. I can browse for hours. The warm fuzzy feeling of clicking the shopping cart. It’s a little slice of heaven.

E-commerce and online shopping isn’t new, it’s not even novel. It *should* be table steaks for any bricks and mortar shop. For EVERY bricks and mortar shop. Why is it then, that there are so many screw-ups when it comes to online shopping.

1. I’ve ordered things and never received an email confirmation.
2. I’ve ordered things only to find out (via PayPal) that the order has been canceled (with no reason given).
3. I’ve emailed on-line shops to find out the status of something, only to be ignored for weeks on end.
4. I’ve been sent to confirmation pages that end up displaying a web server error (not a 404) that made me think the order was lost. [it wasn’t and now I’ve got too many ShamWOWs]

I’m still struggling with a boot company in the US, trying to find out if my order was accepted, lost or cancelled. Paypal isn’t any help any more, since the payment has been accepted, rejected and now on hold.
Cripes folks. This isn’t rocket science any more. E-commerce has matured, why haven’t the e-tailers kept to a minimum of service for on-line shoppers?