UKNM: e-commerce experiences (long!)

[Rod Begbie]

Blimey, this is a biggie!


Someone here at work was asking for e-commerce experiences, so I scribbled

this lot down.  I figured I might as well share it with you guys too.


Let's see if Sam lets something this size through, eh.


[Sam says: mais bien sur...very interesting reading, if I get the chance I'll relate my own Xmas ecommerce horror stories]


rOD.



I've done absolutely bloody shedloads of online shopping of late, especially

since my family are in Britain, and I'm over here.  I've been meaning to

write this up for a while, so this is a fairly lengthy, if complete, list of

my on-line e-commerce experiences in the last month.


Just a quick note -- I've been doing the online purchasing thang for over 6

years now -- Ever since the days when I would telnet onto books.com to order

US books that weren't available in the UK, which makes me a slightly more

seasoned net-bunny than many.


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boo.com (international clothing trendyfest)


I decided to get my sister some funky threads.  I'd played around with

boo.com when it launched, mainly out of curiousity since I'd heard loads of

people bitching on a NetMarketing list about how awful/slow/overdone it was.

But the offer of 15%-off piqued my interest.


Since they've added the "Back" button to the top of the main window, the

site is a bit easier to navigate these days.  Although some of the

completely unnecessary Flash interludes and the at times painful navigation

system slowed me down considerably (and that Miss Boo character can piss

right off, in my not so humble opinion), the Zoom and Spin functions were

indispensible.  Being able to see the backprints on T-shirts, or examine the

motifs really made the decision-making easier.


The fun really started at the checkout.  I had been browsing in US$, what

with living in the US and all.  After inputting my sister's address in

Britain, and pressing the Next button, my $60 of clothing suddenly became

�50 (roughly $85).  Phoned up Customer Service (no wait times.  Nice!) and

was told that this was due to the instructions of the clothes manufacturers.

It sucks to spring a nasty surprise on the user at this time in the

transaction, but they *were* offering free delivery, and it was faster and

easier than buying her clothes here and mailing them, so I went ahead with

it.  The shirts were delivered two days later.


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blackstar.co.uk  (British video shop)


My mum wanted videos of The Sound of Music and All The President's Men

(there were reasons for both of these -- just don't ask!).  British videos

are a different format from US tapes, so I had to search British stores

only.  I went to http://www.empireonline.co.uk -- website of the best movie

magazine ever.


I searched yalplay.com which came back with 7 different versions of Sound of

Music (widescreen, standard, limited edition, etc), and no indication as to

what was different with each one (Why was one widescreen edition priced

�14.99 and the other �12.83?)!  Not helpful.


So I then tried blackstar.co.uk.  It returned back a similar number of hits,

but actually told me that most of them were out of print, and had been for

several years.  (I'm still curious as to what would have happened if I'd

tried ordering them from Yalplay, although by my previous experiences with

Yalplay, they'd have promised me that they would be in stock soon, then

cancel the order after 8 weeks).


So I ordered the tapes from Blackstar.  Got them gift-wrapped for a few quid

extra, and they were delivered within three or four days.  Hurrah!


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valueamerica.com (online department store)


So, I was after a breadmaker and an electric toothbrush for my Christmas

(yes, I realise how sad this sounds, but if I don't get my parents to buy me

stuff like this, I'd blow all my cash on CDs and gin).  I had a nosey

through some of the big department stores sites --  Sears.com didn't have

any online ordering, JC Penney.com was down, and Walmart.com was... well..

Walmart.  So on the recommendation of a teammember, I searched

ValueAmerica.com.


The amount of detail for all the products was fantastic.  Really descriptive

chunks of blurb.  So I copied the URLs, and e-mailed my folks asking them to

buy them for me.


Of course, nothing in life is easy:  When my mum went to the site and tried

to order, she couldn't enter her address as the billing address.  Because we

Brits generally are not in possession of States or five-digit zip codes, she

couldn't actually order anything.  In the end, I ordered it myself, and she

sent me a cheque.


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buy.com (Hi-tech & Entertainment stylee shop)


I am a bad boy, and I'm going to hell.


I say this, because I cheat.  I regularly patrol a website called Find It

Now (http://www.finditnow.8m.com/) which lists loads of coupons offered by

online retailers.  I haven't paid full price for a book or DVD in over six

months -- Indeed, it's not uncommon for me to get new DVD movies for less

than $10, including shipping!


Buy.com have been offering a $10-off-your-first-order coupon for a while

now, so I'd opened up two accounts -- One at home, one at work.  Then over

Thanksgiving weekend, they e-mailed all their existing customers with

another $10 voucher, and offered free shipping on all orders placed that

weekend!  So I opened another two accounts!  Through careful use of

different e-mail addresses, delivery addresses, extensions/contractions of

my name and credit card numbers, I opened another two accounts, and had a

merry spending spree.


So I placed a few orders.and collected my ill-gotten discounts.


But somewhere in their magical computer systems, something ballsed-up.  Two

items were to be delivered to me here at work.  Y2K probably hit it their

database, or something, though, cause the word Sapient dropped off my

address.  I don't know if you've visited One Mem Drive, but there are a lot

of companies in this building, and the post office really can't be arsed

working out which floor some Scottish git lives on.  So I never saw my

lovely new toys.


I looked at the receipt they'd sent me, and replied to the e-mail address at

the top.  I get a reply minutes later.  "Don't e-mail us.  Go to our

customer service website"  I go to the website, and get a phone number, but

no e-mail address.  So I give em a call.


After steering through several layers of the "Press 1 if your mother knows

the words to the Belgian national anthem" system, I finally got through

to...  the recorded hold track.  Hurrah.  Oh, how I chuckled gleefully as I

listened to thirty minutes of adverts for the joys I could experience if I

were to shop at buy.com.


When a human (or as close an approximation as you ever get on a customer

service line) finally greeted me, I explained my lackingness of goods.  He

informed me that I had to wait ten days from the date of shipping to

complain.  I pointed out that according to their website, it had been ten

days.  He informed me that they meant ten business days.  I hung up.


Three days later, I called back.  And sat.  And waited.  And got through to

someone again.


And they apologised, and said they'd sort it all out for me.  That was

December 17th.


On December 22nd, I got an e-mail telling me that, yes, these items were

missing in the mail, and they'd send them out again.  And then another

e-mail telling me the same.  And then another.  But at least it was a step

in the right direction!


According to the current order status on the website, one item was mailed to

me on the 29th.  Which allowing for Y2K means I should, in theory, get it

any day now.  The other is showing as "Processing", and, since I started

writing this e-mail (which, admittedly was over an hour ago), I've received

another e-mail letting me know that it is still "Processing".  Which, of

course, makes me very happy.


I think I can safely say that, if it wasn't for the fact I cheated Buy.com

out of $60, I would never shop there again.


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So what's the outcome of my e-commerce adventure.  Well, as a guide for

people designing new e-commerce sites, I'd say:


* The innovative viewing features on boo.com made me much more confident

that what I was buying would be appreciated by my sis, but the godawful

navigation and slowness of the site aren't exactly encouraging me to go back

and browse for a while in the same way I do with Amazon.


* The jump in price at Boo's checkout still pisses me off.  In this "global

village" (mimes sticking two fingers at back of throat), I should be paying

the same prices whether I'm in Boston or Bognor.


* Don't display items if there is no hope in hell of you ever shipping them.

Yalplay have done that to me before, and it could have happened again if I

wasn't used to their tricks.


* Back to internationalisation:  Allow people to enter postal codes bigger

than 5 characters.  Let them enter their own State/County/Region field.

Because (and I know this is sometimes hard for those in the US to grasp),

not everyone lives within the boundaries of the 50 states.


* Ship to the address the customer enters on the website.  Don't drop words

from addresses.  They might be important.


* Have enough call-center staff that can deal with your customers.  I would

have been happier sending an e-mail and getting a reply two days later, than

having to sit on hold for 30 bloody minutes, even if it is a 1-800 number.


* If you're going to offer coupons -- Make sure and validate them :)



Laters!


rOD.


------------------------------------------------------

mr. rod begbie      groovymother @ sapient corporation

work:

rbegbiesapient [dot] com

         play:

rodbegbie [dot] com

vox: +1 (617) 761-1753     web: http://www.begbie.com/

------------------------------------------------------

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