A truly miffed Shel posted:
Yesterday I ordered an istDS2 from Adorama. The item was prominently
posted on their site. It's time consuming to fill out all the forms and
provide the information, but it had to be done ;-)) I was so happy to
have
found the camera I've been looking for available here in the US.
This afternoon I received an email from Adorama. The camera is on
"backorder." They don't have the thing in stock. What a friggin' waste
of
time. That info should be posted right up front with all the other
ordering and camera info.
Welcome again to the world of customer-service that is not customer tested.
I can certainly empathize with you. Of course, you could have spent your
time on something more productive (like sleeping) and never had the desire
to have your expectation raised to only have it dashed by lack of
availability of the item you enthusiasticly plowed through the process to
order.
Unfortunately, this is all to common. At work (I'm a retired
consultant/systems designer working at RadioShack) I have to deal with
systems that were evidently not tested using real people. For example, to
issue a new Cingular cell phone I request a desired area code early on page
2 and than enter all sorts of detailed information in pages 2, 3, 4 and 5
before the system tells me that that area code is not currently available
and I have to back through all the pages and select an alternative number.
Then I have to re-enter the data going forward again. This can happen for
several iterations. No one bothered to think of checking for availability
when requested.
It would be all too easy for the site designer to have the system go
through a routine to check availability before asking you to give them all
that detailed data. But then again, their database may have indicated
availability and the software would have blithely let you go on anyway.
Sometimes I think that there is a huge market for people who will test and
critique websites before they go live to the public. Usually the testers
have too mujch knowledge and make assumptions that the real user wouldn't
know enough to make. The public often just gets annoyed and goes away. The
opportunity losses would pay for an huge amount of real testing.
So what's the solution to your issue? I'm a systems kinda guy (beginning
with first generation vacuum tube computers and programming in machine
language), but when I really want to know about something, I call. This
means I can talk to a real person who will tell me about the product
actually being physically there and available for shipping to me. Most of
the standard internet companies we deal with (e.g., KEH, Adorama, B&H, etc.)
will actually do this.
Every once in a while, this process doesn't work for a more arcane product.
I saw a Refconverter-A on the 17th Photo site for a great price. Not
trusting this, I called and their rep went and got it. I ordered it and
received a Refconverter (huge difference). I was even more disappointed than
I had been while I was in the search process. I called them and they took it
back and refunded me all my out of pockets with an apology. They even
updated their website. I'm not complaining about 17th Photo. They made a
mistake which they corrected. I'm just pointing out that even working with a
live person leaves room for customer service errors.
Good luck with your ongoing quest for a DS2.
Larry in Dallas
