Computer FAQ

for June 25, 2003

Hi, All;

This week: On-line Ordering

I received this note about on-line ordering and thought I would share it and my on-line ordering experiences with you, although I am sure many of you order more on-line than I do, especially from Ebay.

My son had ordered on-line binoculars from a "business" in New York City. Very expensive item, he waited over a month to tell me he didn't get his order but the money was taken from his visa. So I hammered away at these keys to my former brother in law who lives in NY. We looked up the address of the business, brother in law hiked over there to find out it didn't exist. He is also a lawyer, after some letters to who ever he wrote - the business resurrected from somewhere, returned the money to my son's acct. My son wound up ordering them from Cabellas. The order was delivered on a heartbeat.

On-line ordering just doesn't strike me yet as the way to go. Admittedly, that was a bad experience. I have had more positive experiences than bad, so I order on-line frequently. I try to order from stores that operate brick and mortar stores also so that if something does to awry, I have a tangible entity to which I can direct a complaint. With businesses getting smart and connecting their stores with on-line ordering, one can get support from real people rather from just a web site. I just worked an issue with a company with whom I placed an order the first of the month and had received no confirmation or shipping info and received no reply from an email request. But I did have a copy of the order (you print a copy, too, right?) and called the company. The order desk person told me what the problem with the order was, that it had been corrected, and I should have it soon. That's great, but why did they not put that info in an email and let me know? Would have saved them a phone call on their toll-free number and made me a much happier customer.

Next Week: Some More Icons Explained

'Til next week, (ComputerFAQ#145)

Robert

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Index to Past ComputerFAQ Columns:

(under construction)

July 05, 2000 Introduction to ComputerFAQ
July 12, 2000 Computer Definitions
July 26, 2000 More Computer Definitions
August 02, 2000 Defining Bits, Bytes and Hex
August 09, 2000 Internet Service Providers (ISP)
August 16, 2000 Backup up your PC
August 23, 2000 Backup Devices.
August 30, 2000 What is the slowest PC for Internet Access
September 06, 2000 PC Nomenclature
September 13, 2000What to do with Mail Attachements.
September 20, 2000What Happens at boot up
October 04, 2000Desktop Areas
October 18, 2000Start Button
October 25, 2000Display Made Bigger
November 01, 2000 More Monitor Controls
November 15, 2000 Right Click Display Menu
November 22, 2000 More on Desktop Menus
November 29, 2000 More on Desktop Menus
December 06, 2000 Desktop Properties Menu - part 1
December 13, 2000 Desktop Properties Menu - part 2
December 20, 2000 Desktop Properties Menu - part 3