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
>provides clients with a wide range of services in the areas of management
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>Founded in 1983, The Basex Group's unique capabilities and resources help
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>
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