OFF: Online shops (was Re: HW: QS&C)

[Stephen Swann]

On Wed, Nov 28, 2001 at 12:00:03AM -0500, Moonglum . wrote:
> I tried to order 3 HW cd's from White Rabbit, they were Warrior, Sonic
> Attack and something else...not QS&C... Anyway I got an email back from
> them saying they couldn't get their hands on *any* Hawkwind CD's very sorry
> etc. etc..
>
> Never mind being sorry, WHY LIST THINGS THAT YOU DON"T HAVE?!  This is a
> shabby practice that a lot of web retailers go in for, and it's one that I
> particularly loathe.
>
> So I wouldn't bother with White Rabbit if I were you...

A lot of online discount sellers do that.  They don't
actually stock much of _anything_, they wait 'til you place
your order, then they order from the distributor.  That's
why they seem so cheap: no overhead.  The fact that it
irritates the shit out of their customers when they don't
keep their listings up to date, the way they raise your
hopes of finding something that they can't actually deliver,
doesn't seem to be a matter of major concern to them...

On the other hand, some of the better ones will keep trying.
I actually found an incredibly rare OOP album (The Straw
Dogs _Complete Discography_, only ever issued by some tiny
German label, even though they were a Boston band, go
figure).  This one online shop in Europe that I've used a
couple of times told me I'm sorry it wasn't available
anymore.  I tried Ebay, Amazon's OOP finder service, etc.
No go.  But that little online shop eventually found a copy
for me, almost 6 months later, probably the last copy on the
planet, and dropped me a line to ask me if I still wanted
it.  God, that made my day - now that's service.  :)

Steve