IP: Why Ecommerce Still Doesn't "Work"

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: jspira () basex com
> Subject: IP: Why Ecommerce Still Doesn't "Work"
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
>
>
> Dave, I thought that IPers might be interested in my article, which was
> published in the May 19, 2000 issue of VB:TechWatch.
>
>
> Best.
> /s/ Jonathan
>
>
> POINT-OF-VIEW BY JONATHAN SPIRA
> Why Ecommerce Still Doesn't "Work"
>
> It started off simple enough.  Early April, thoughts of a flowering garden.
> So I looked through the Burpee catalogue and picked out what I wanted.
> Then I noticed they had a Web site.  And it was a very good Web site, I
> thought.  Almost all of the thousands of plants and flowers were shown and
> ordering was fairly simple, given the complex number of SKUs present.
>
> So I proceeded with the order.  April 9th, to be exact.  I thought the easy
> part was entering the Bill To and Ship To details (which differed).  I
> wasn't able to order several of the items in the catalogue, but placed my
> order anyway, e-mailing customer service as a follow up.  Strangely enough,
> Peg answered under Darlene's e-mail.  And to my query about my order, Sally
> answered under Thomas' name.  But they did reply fairly quickly.  And I
> received an e-mailed confirmation of my order shortly after clicking on
> "SUBMIT."
>
> I started to wonder where my flower and fauna were.  So I e-mailed Peg, or
> was it Darlene?  No reply.  I sent a follow up, marked Urgent (wondering if
> their e-mail system would even display 'urgent').  No response.  So I
> called.  Well, this company's customer service department is only open 9-5,
> and I called when I thought of the problem, at 21.30.  So today (May 5) I
> telephoned.  After getting busy signals for 10 minutes, and waiting in
> queue for 20 minutes, I spoke with Nancy, who had just the sympathetic
> nature to be in customer service.  Nancy checked on my order and told me a
> good part of it had been shipped on May 3rd to my address; the rest would
> be going out next Monday.  "And what address was that?," to which she
> replied with my "Bill to" address.  Needless to say, she was shocked when
> informed of the mistake, and even more taken aback when told that my "Bill
> to" address had changed as of last Thursday and I of course couldn't be at
> the old address to even redirect the shipment.
>
> But why had the problem occurred.  Therein lies the reason for this essay.
> Burpee's Web ordering system does not in any manner, shape or form,
> communicate to their order system.  An incoming order is printed out, and
> then keyed in by a mail order entry clerk.  And the entry clerk hadn't
> noticed the differing "Ship to" address.
>
> Well, at the very least, the items not yet shipped could be intercepted.
> Not a chance.  "We have 16,000 orders at the nursery waiting to go out,"
> Nancy helpfully advised.  "It would be like finding a needle in a
> haystack."
>
> Maybe I'll just let my computer grow weeds instead.
>
>
>
> Editor: Cassandra Mays.
> Contributors: Samantha Fraser, Till Moepert, Charles Canning-Smith, Ellen
> Pearlman, Greg Spira and Jonathan Spira.
> Copyright 2000 The Basex Group, Inc.  All rights reserved.
> All data, opinions, and projections are based on Basex' judgment at the
> time of publication and are subject to change.
>
> As a leading authority on new and emerging technologies, The Basex Group
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