Contrasts In On Line Shopping

[Jim Koepke]

In the past week I have had a few very different on line shopping experiences.

One has been going on for a while. The seller first contacted me as I mentioned an interest here on SMC. They have been very thorough and the contact has been much better than one usually expects. We are mostly working on the details so I get exactly what I want.

The second was an order for bandsaw blades. There was no indication of a delay, no email of my order being received and nothing to tell me when it may ship. I called the toll free number and was told they always have a bit of a back log since all blades are made to order. I somehow got the feeling that there would be an email when the blades shipped. Since nothing came in my email, a second call was made. I was told they already shipped and the person checked the shipping information and said UPS should deliver them this coming Friday.

The third was yesterday with a company known for their customer service. I received an email confirmation within minutes of placing my order showing all items were in stock Shipping confirmation with a link to track came in my email this morning.

I wonder if the second company is costing themselves by having to take and pay for my call rather than to somehow let it be known on their web site that all blades are made to order and sending emails to the buyers. It sure would have made me feel a bit better about them. Right now their blades will have to be pretty good for me to not go back to my previous source next time blades are needed.

jtk

[Chuck Wintle]

the online experience is probably as variable as ones experience with brick and mortar type stores....some treat the customer very well and others could not care less if the customer gets what he/she wants. I have been in some stores where it was impossible to ask a question or get help and other stores where the staff were very helpful.

[Brian Elfert]

If a company's business isn't mostly done online they tend to not do so well as a company that does all of their sales online. If you called them and ordered something you probably wouldn't expect them to call you three or four times with shipping updates.

However, this is not really an excuse as an ecommerce site that does all of the emailing pretty much automatically is not that expensive to set up. In the old days this could have meant hundreds of thousands or millions in cost, but the old days are behind us.