From Greenberg's column this morning ....
Online shopping: An article in yesterday's New York Times mentioned that a new survey shows many online shoppers were less than overjoyed with the experience. Lemme add: Until recently my online shopping experiences have been limited to Amazon.com and OfficeDepot.com (ODP:NYSE). Both executed flawlessly. Reality, as this column has pointed out, is that most sites have limited offerings or empty icons.
An exception, I found, was Shopping.com, which is being acquired by Compaq (CPQ:NYSE). I liked Shopping.com's ease of use and the breadth of its offerings. No empty icons here; the closest thing I've found yet to a real online department store. I also liked its prices on the Krupps coffee maker I wanted -- $20 below the closest catalog and online price. Such a deal! (Shopping.com prides itself on selling items below cost.) "Now let's see if they can execute," I told anybody who would listen.
That was 11 business days ago. The thing should've been delivered within seven to 10 business days. An email to customer service wasn't answered for two days. And a call to the company's customer service department was greeted by an employee who was clueless. (She said it has been hard to keep track of anything because the company's computer system keeps crashing. Now that's comforting to hear from an online company!)
Meanwhile, the few things my wife ordered by phone after my online purchase, via catalog, have already been delivered by the guys in the FedEx (FDX:NYSE) and UPS trucks. Great selection and low prices are fabulous, but they quickly become irrelevant if delivery isn't part of the equation. (The dot-com'll only get ya so far.)
|
