[LINK] E-Commerce woes

[richard@auscoms.com.au]

Rachel,

My most vivid memory of bad e-mail response is this: out of 48 companies asked
"do you have an Australian office?", 34 did not answer - ever. All 48 were
"customer relationship management" specialists -- I'm not kidding.

On my only attempt at online book shopping, I ended up incurring a month's
interest charge for $50 because it took that long for said bookstore to e-mail
me saying "sorry, out of print" and to then reverse the debit. I have banned
ever mentioning the bookstore's name, so I don't.

Once, in trying to buy software from a US site, I was told to "come back on June
17th" -- as late as June 23rd. Same site has given up on selling its software
and now gives it away for free (http://www.anvilstudio.com).

I'll go further than you, Rachel: I'm sick both of the mavens (love that word!)
and of the unpaid evangelists for e-commerce. I'm sick of the analysts who
routinely lie for their clients, I'm sick of the experts who can't answer any
question which falls outside the catchphrase manual, and I don't ever want to
hear about Amazon again. Yeah, let's take a gamble that the book will hit the
post BEFORE Amazon goes Chapter 11. 

RC


____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject:    [LINK] E-Commerce woes
Author: r.polanskis@nepean.uws.edu.au
Date:       19/06/00 1:27

OK, 
so I bit the bullet and bought a Macintosh laptop 
(Powerbook 540c) for $200.   I think I did really well but the little 
beast (I call it "fifi") has only 8Mb in it and as such is a bit slow 
on the uptake. 

I decided to shop around and see if I couldn't get an upgrade for it 
in Oz, before venturing overseas. 

I ended up finding (I think) what I wanted at:

http://www.palaeographics.com.au/

So far so good - I had heard these guys were well known so I thought I'd 
try.   First I needed some info about the RAM, making sure I was going to
be getting the right thing so I decided to email their support address.

So far, I have waited a week with no response.
Palaeographics have just lost several hundred dollars of my custom....

I'm sure glad I didn't use the so-called shopping cart and give 
'em my credit details.

Does this sound familiar?  It is like a litany of repeated problems
with various "E" initiatives in this country (and elsewhere).

Has anyone found an E-Commerce site that is actually the "grail" yet?
I mean one that promises and delivers 24 hour turnaround to customer queries
and one that gets the delivery details and everything right?

Just when am I going to be able to order that pizza on the net I was promised 
4 years ago?

The promises made by the E-Commerce mavens mean nothing to me - the system is 
horribly broken and doesn't deserve anywhere near the hype it's been getting 
by the Govt, Business and the hangers-on it's created.....

I shudder when I see those Win 2000 or Sausage ads on TV promising they will 
make creating an E-Commerce site as simple as plugging in a toaster - 
things are bad enough as they are.


rachel  
- anyone got a 32MB Powerbook 540 Simm they want to sell me?!  ;)

Rachel Polanskis                 University of Western Sydney, Nepean
Senior UNIX Admin                PO Box 10, Kingswood NSW 2747
Systems && Operations            Information Technology Services, Kingswood
r.polanskis@nepean.uws.edu.au    Phone: +61 (0247) 360 291