The bitter disappointment of Australian online businesses

[Poppa]

I've bought lots of things online. I will usually support a local business if I can, even when buying online, unless the difference in price is so large that I feel that the local business is just trying to rip me off (and I know about the costs of importing etc because my wife runs her own business doing just that). I have usually had good experience both locally and internationally when buying online. There are 2 exceptions that come to mind. One was with an Australian online-only retailer for 2 tablets that I purchased recently. It turns out that they have an established reputation for poor customer service. I normally check such things on another forum website (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the name of it - it is a very well known Australian website that has a vast amount of information on technology subjects and the internet. The name of it is the same as an Australian brand of whitegoods...), but on this occasion I didn't think to do that. My experience with the retailer was terrible, as lots of other people had reported. I will of course never shop with them again, and I wish I could mention the company here to warn other forumites, but of course I will respect the rules. The other experience was in buying some USB flash drives from HK a few years ago. They arrived and seemed to be what was ordered, but upon using them they were not the size ordered and within days were not usable at all. Many emails later I came to the opinion that the seller was basically a crook. I referred the matter to eBay but of course it is easy for an online seller to register again with another business name, so I doubt it cost the seller any lost business, apart from mine... I agree that customer service generally in this country is poor, but I also agree that there are exceptions - and when you find one isn't it a pleasant surprise? I'm a repeat customer with businesses that treat me well, and I never go back to the others unless I have no choice - like Telstra in some circumstances...

[RedShirtGuy]

Without naming names, in my decade as a corporate web developer of online stores for major brands and household names (Australian and international), I've been absolutely shocked at how the wetware systems (humans) behind the technology have operated. I've developed, quite frankly, freakin' amazing front end systems that allowed for the easy display of all products for sale, stock counts, simple contact systems, automated stage-by-stage emails and all the lovely stuff that I customer likes to see and use...but after their order was placed electronically it came down to the lowest paid guy in the warehouse to do his job properly in following through with the process to get the product shipped out.

It was incredibly frustrating to be contacted by the business complaining about customers complaining about orders when it was their own internal staff screwing up an otherwise totally streamlined process that took months to develop.

Cripes...once it took over a week of convincing one massive company to put their URL on their catalogs and TV ads. They had absolutely no idea of the power (and requirements) of an online presence.

TLDR: Companies get web sites made just to get more orders in, then fail to develop the important internal processes, and connection with the customer to make it a worthwhile venture...and it blows.

[Chris Parks]

I buy OS regularly but this past week I have emailed two US companies for info and neither have replied. I usually just use the phone but they are difficult time zones for me so I guess the phone calls will have to be made.

[Mobyturns]

Without naming names, in my decade as a corporate web developer of online stores for major brands and household names (Australian and international), I've been absolutely shocked at how the wetware systems (humans) behind the technology have operated. I've developed, quite frankly, freakin' amazing front end systems that allowed for the easy display of all products for sale, stock counts, simple contact systems, automated stage-by-stage emails and all the lovely stuff that I customer likes to see and use...but after their order was placed electronically it came down to the lowest paid guy in the warehouse to do his job properly in following through with the process to get the product shipped out.

It was incredibly frustrating to be contacted by the business complaining about customers complaining about orders when it was their own internal staff screwing up an otherwise totally streamlined process that took months to develop.

Cripes...once it took over a week of convincing one massive company to put their URL on their catalogs and TV ads. They had absolutely no idea of the power (and requirements) of an online presence.

TLDR: Companies get web sites made just to get more orders in, then fail to develop the important internal processes, and connection with the customer to make it a worthwhile venture...and it blows.

Or they had good internal processes and decided they were too expensive to continue to run on shore so off shored them into another time zone

[Mobyturns]

There should be a law in this country that prohibits an item being put up for sale on a website that is not available for immediate shipment (read, in stock) unless otherwise stated. It is 2014 and a simple computer system can tell these things. Even some of our larger companies are simply a little backward when it comes to these matters. Online shopping has been around for 20 + years now. So they are simply stupid or unethical.
My tuppence worth.
Les

There is its called Australian Consumer Law http://www.consumerlaw.gov.au/conten...oc=the_acl.htm

The sorts of practices described fall into the false, misleading & deceptive conduct and some may also be considered to be scams (relist on Ebay). We all need to report this sort of behaviour to the Office of Fair Trading in QLD etc http://www.consumerlaw.gov.au/conten...sumers_ACL.htm so a profile of their conduct can be built to launch a sucessful prossecution.

If consumers stay silent and don't exercise their rights then nothing changes. Off shore based businesses are a little harder to deal with but it can be done.