Friday November 19, 2004

Web purchasing has it come of age ?

Over the last few years I have used the web to buy things. This year I have taken the ultimate purchasing (bar one) decision and bought a Golf GT . The ultimate decision would be to buy a house on the web.

I have also bought a breadmaker , DVD recorder and other items.

As you know I also contribute into the Good pub guide which is also buying things on the web as you can select a pub to visit.

Recently I had two purchasing crises which had to be resolved. I had run out of DVD-R discs for the recorder and the local shop I had used before no longer stocked them. One annoying issue was when I tried to purchase an alternative vendor discs from another store. I took the discs to the checkout and the assistant scanned the bar code in and the till said "no such product". The assistant called for help and the supervisor said hand key in its product code - again no joy. So she called for help again. This time the response was "we cannot sell the item to the customer !" An amazing response. I walked out with my mouth tightly shut.

So I did a search using Google I found the Panasonic shop but they were out of stock too. I emailed them and within their 24 hours response time they emailed back saying they had no stock but expected some before Xmas - too late for me. I continued my search and found these guys placed my order and they have shipped my DVD's according to their email. The price was also cheaper than my local store and Panasonic.

My second crisis was related to the need to buy shallot and onion sets for next year. I went to my local allotment society shop and found the cupboard bare of these bulbs. I searched the web and found Mr Fothergills who sold the bulbs but I needed clarification. I emailed them and within an hour I got a reply. Meanwhile I had found these folks who I have ordered the sets from. The site says they are heat treated and delivered in the spring so there is less chance of them bolting ( going to seed)

So if the car, DVD's and bulbs arrive I will be happy and can report that online shopping is looking good.

Check your lights !

A surprising number of road users seem to be going round with some of their lights not functional. I know from experience on a cycle the boys in blue will catch you eventually..

In fact I have to say any cyclists I am seeing on the road during these dark evening journeys home are well lit up. Being encased in a tin box gives people a false sense of security it seems.

Here is a tip to check your lights. When you are stationary you should be able to see reflections for your indicators and rear lights including brake lights. So what I do is just check indicators I have on when I am in a traffic queue. Then as I have my handbrake on and do not sit with my foot on the brake pedal while stationary just touch the pedal and you should see the brake lights reflected in the car behind you. Every so often when I come home I check the front lights reflection on the garage door.

When I go out today I will probabley be stopped for having defective lights. It seems when you enthuse about something on these weblogs something always happens... Safe travelling whatever your method of transport. ( Nov 19 2004, 12:00:01 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [2]