I love buying things on the internet, but there
are some drawbacks that drive me nuts. Internet
marketers are a savvy group of people, but
sometimes they do things that are just inexplicable.
Today I ordered a program to help educate a
couple of my people in a specific area of my
business. The material was very good, and
there was some great bonus stuff included.
Not only that, but the price couldn't be beat.
So I ordered up the product. Everything was
going fine with the downloaded material until I
got to what I considered the most important
part of the package.
I can't open it because it's in a special sort of file
that my less than a year old laptop doesn't support.
That is driving me nuts, and here is why. All the other
information is in PDF files, or something that I am
familiar with, and can deal with.
Here's the problem.
Internet marketers are usually way ahead of their
readers and customers when it comes to technology.
Not only that, but they are rabid buyers of the latest
and greatest tools, gizmo's, and gadgets. God bless
them for spreading the wealth.
But...the rest of us, who are not tech junkies, often
run into a problem when they implement some of their
new toys. I have never heard of, or used the type of
file this document is stored in. Not only that, but no one
in my office has ever seen it either. My first calls to tech
genius friends left them stumped.
So now the price isn't a bargain anymore. I have to
find some who can open this document so that I can use
it. Not only do I have to find them, I probably have to
pay them too.
Not only that, but I feel compelled to send a letter to
the seller telling him what a pain in the back of the
ship this experience has been.
I'm glad internet marketers use the most up to the
minute technology, but somebody should have raised
a hand and said, "If we send this out, can everybody
access it easily?"
But obviously no one did.
I'll let you know how this is resolved.
From the big saddle,
Jim Whelan
Chairman of the Board
P.S. Am I going to stop buying things on the internet?
No, I'm not. But I am going to suggest to somebody
that making sure you can deliver your product to
everybody be taken into consideration.
thejamesrwhelanagency.com
206 407 3124
I cannot log onto a site (Amazon) from my hope PC because I get a message saying I need to enable cookies - but they ARE enabled...clearly there is another problem that is getting the same message. All one can get for help is the same automated canned response (even from email query). I prefer to call orders in, but it is increasingly difficult to find a contact phone # as well.
No problems with any other sites, as far as being able to shop - the websites themselves may damage the companies ability to market at all.
Yet the pop-ups and ads covering webpages (till one clicks on the obscure 'close' x) persist - annoying thousands for the one customer that they attract...
As a programmer myself, I see some sites implementing poorly tested web pages and even more inadaquate support - and I see that many publications are for sale using technology like 'Kindle', why not just sell download of PDF File ?
Did you ever consider that you might have gotten scammed? The "unreadable" product might just be fake. I've seen this from many InterNet sellers offering things like cheap Vista packages. They send you a copy of an already registered disk. You can't use it, but they'll make it out like you're not using it right, rather than admit they're ripping you off.
Google is your friend! Search for the file extension - I am going to use PDF for the example. PDF files end in .pdf - In Google search for ".pdf file" and it will give you the information about the file. Just substitute the file extension that this file uses. You should find your answer.