A little bit OT, and a little bit NOT: Moftware Inc.

I've been buying online for years. I don't worry about security, and those other things. I do worry about getting value. The reason I worry sometimes is that it is possible to look a lot bigger and better than you are, on the web, and it is pretty easy and cheap to do it, too. I once did a website for a sensor company that was very small, and they came out looking like a market leader. Who's to know? I bought a new Blackberry a month or so ago, after seeing all the Honeywell people at the HUG using them to stay in touch. I got seduced by the darn thing. Anyway, I was looking at accessories, and I wanted a leather case. I found at Moftware.com (www.blackberrystuff.com) a combination of a bluetooth headset (which I also needed) and a leather case, so I bought it. What I found out was that this company is really a phonebank in India somewhere, that takes orders, and a contract fulfillment warehouse in the US that ships. The case advertised for my Blackberry didn't fit it, and I returned it for the correct one (I paid the freight). They turned around and sent me the same one back. I returned it (again paying the freight). This time, they charged me $5 more to give me a refund. Something is wrong with this picture. Why is this on-topic for process automation? More and more people are buying automation sensors and products online. Omega Engineering reports that over half their order volume now comes from Omega.com. E-bay's automation portal is a multi-million-dollar business, in itself, and it isn't all stolen demos and used goods. More people are buying their goods online every day, and more automation distributors and suppliers are putting up ecommerce enabled websites. On the web, a two-person distributor in Wakawaka, NE can look like a multi-million-bucks. But will their service back up what they sell you, or will they be like Moftware? The blackberrystuff.com website looks great and professional, but they are a bunch of rank amateurs who don't understand the meaning of customer service. Will your online ventures, O suppliers, be like that? Is that how you want suppliers to do business, end users? Tell me what you think, Walt