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Jingle balls: tales of Xmas e-tail woe
New year, same old tales of dot-com woe. eToys Europe has been discarded like an unwanted Barbie by the internet generation (and its mean-spirited US parent), and will wind up operations in a couple of weeks time. Seventy-four people are likely to lose their jobs (see http://www.silicon.com/a41781 ).

By Graham Hayday

Published: Friday 05 January 2001

Meanwhile, Letsbuyit.com had a particularly fruity Yuletide, and we're not talking about the ingredients of their festive puddings. Their stock plunged 70 per cent, and trading in them was suspended on the fifth day of Christmas.

At the time of writing, the company was desperately trying to find at least £50m to continue operations, having been given a stay of execution by the administrators. It's got until 14 March to find the cash (see http://www.silicon.com/a41790 )

(Incidentally, we'd like to take this chance to blow our own trumpets by pointing out that we first broke the news about the company's cash flow crisis back in October. See http://www.silicon.com/a40482 . There. Shameless plug over).

Nasdaq then suffered the kind of new year hangover many of you will be familiar with, finally reaching for a desperate dose of Alka Seltzer on Wednesday as it reached a two-year low. A palliative did arrive in the form of a US interest rate cut on Thursday, perking it up no end. It experienced the biggest one day rise in its history.

But still, the ambulance chasers are rubbing their hands together with glee at the prospect of more dot-com casualties to come. And there will certainly be some more blood on the carpet before the year's out. But many more will flourish - especially if they get their customer service and fulfillment right.

In the run-up to Christmas, silicon.com, in association with Mercury Interactive, tested the performance of 10 leading UK e-tail sites. We'll be publishing the final results today (Friday 5 January).

But more revealing (if less scientific) are the anecdotes you've emailed us about your online shopping experiences. While it's true that for every disgruntled customer who moans there are dozens who are quietly satisfied, can it really be co-incidental that, given its current troubles, Letsbuyit came in for more criticism than any other site? Me thinks not.

Here are a selection of your stories from the e-tail frontline.

From John M: "Amazon and Dabs were the best. Dabs' use of technology is particularly impressive - by logging on to their website from my office mid-afternoon I saw that Parcelforce had attempted delivery to my house earlier that day! Worst: Letsbuyit - although advertising some exceptionally good prices, their site is like death, their call centre is permanently 'call waiting', and their fulfillment is terrible. They've now had the benefit of my cash for six weeks, although they've agreed they've cancelled my order and admit they never actually had the goods in stock at any time."

From Oliver B: "I had a complete disaster with Letsbuyit. No word of a delay they had for a squash racquet I bought. When I phoned them, they said they couldn't phone me back - email only. No news for weeks, then blamed a slow supplier. Finally arrived two and a half months later, with no apology or any other attempt to alleviate a very irritated shopper."

From Richard H: "Amazon, BOL, and Jungle in particular have all done an exemplary job... The worst experience I have had is with Letsbuyit, which is quite possibly the slowest, most dogged site to load that I have ever been to (or in this case tried to get to) and steadfastly refused, even after five hours, to complete a transaction process."

But it's not all been bad news. Amazon.co.uk was consistently praised:

From Carol W: "I cannot speak highly enough of Amazon.co.uk. I ordered my husband's Christmas present on Friday December 4. The package arrived the following Monday."

From Penny D: "I've used Amazon a lot over the last year and each time the service is slick, efficient and the products are dispatched quickly. The overall ease of the service is worth the postal charges and product prices which are often not as competitively priced as their rivals." But Penny didn't have much joy with Waterstone's. "Attractive offers but abysmal service. I spent four days trying to complete an online registration form to no avail. Emails to customer services requesting assistance went unanswered. I resorted to phoning customer services (which obviously defeats the whole point of online ordering) and was assured someone would contact me shortly. I didn't hold my breath, no one contacted me and Waterstone's lost a sale."

Toys R Us annoyed some (and not just with its backwards R).

From Jerry L: "I have used the internet for around half of my Christmas shopping this year. Overall the experience has been very positive, with good service from Amazon, Marks and Spencer, Indexshop and electricaldiscountuk.co.uk. The worst experience was toysrus.co.uk. They accepted my order for two items and emailed an order confirmation for them. I received one item through the post but not the second. I was charged correctly for only one item. I emailed them to find out what had happened to the second item and they did not reply. I emailed them a week later and they still did not reply. I then used the "contact us" facility on their web page and they have not replied to that either. Consequently I have had to buy an alternative present, although one day I suspect the second item may arrive in the post. The "Toys R Us" website states that they usually reply to mails within a working day... Overall though I'm very please with using the Internet this Christmas and will certainly use it again next year."

But we'll leave the last word with a consultant at Deloitte Consulting. We did cover this on the site before Christmas, but just in case you missed it, here is his story in full:

"Ten days ago, I ordered a gift box of Moroccan food items for my aunt in San Francisco from redenvelope.com. It arrived, but without the card I had requested. In the place of the card were two worn shoes. To quote my aunt's email to the hapless dot-com: 'Inside a big box were the following items: tan Birkenstock sandal, size 39, worn; black Birkenstock shoe, size 40, worn; and Moroccan essence. Please advise who sent this odd "gift." Why was I sent an unmatched pair of worn shoes?'

The reply from them was courteous enough: 'My sincerest apology for this absolutely unacceptable gift. I can assure you that our company will investigate this fully... This is an embarrassment to us and I hope you'll allow me to make it up to you.'

As a consultant who resisted - and not without difficulty - trading it all in for the lure of dot-com millions, I must admit it does put a bit of a smile on my face. To think that those could have been my Birkenstocks."

Happy New Year. The Round-Up will be back next Friday.