To make a long story short, the company later tried to send two orders (they had already sent one, but didn't know it) and then sent a make-up order. So now I had to explain to this woman why I sent two sets of flowers when it was a one-set-of-flowers-sized guilt. Of course, the company also tried to bill me twice.

All in all, that online ordering experience was unpleasant. And no, I'm no longer seeing her.

Example #2: Audio Book Club
Recently, I went on an audio-book buying spree. I love these things. I tend to buy mostly business-related books and I listen to them in the car. So I bought a bunch from Amazon. Too many, but that's not their fault. I lack self-control.

An hour later, I wanted more. Addictions are sad things. So I went to http://www.audiobookclub.com and signed up. On signup, you get four free books for a penny, and can get another for $7.95. You have a small purchase obligation later, but I consume these things, so I wasn't too concerned about the later purchase obligation.

I got most of the Amazon books within two days. The rest (the weird, back-ordered books), showed up within two weeks. Two months later and still nothing from Audio Book Club.

Finally, the books arrive. Three of them. There should have been five. The invoice said one was backordered, for a total of four. One was still missing. The $7.95 add-on book was listed, but there were only three attributed to the "for a penny" offer instead of four.

So I called the handy customer service number. That was fun. Customer service informed me that the order was placed on the Web, so it was a Web issue. OK, fine, but where was my missing book? The nice lady at customer service said, "I don't know about that book sir. It certainly seems strange. But that's a Web problem. I can't help you."

"So where do I go to get help?"

She replied, "I don't know, sir. Perhaps you could go to the Web site."

So I went to the Web site. There's no customer service number for Web-based orders. Just a form you fill in to get email support. As far as I can tell, there's no direct connection between the online people and the phone-based customer support. Of course, my bill listed the customer support number.

There's no one to talk to.

Don't worry. I WILL get my remaining book even if I have to track down the company CEO and take it from his (or her) cold, dead hands. But I hate to go through this much effort.

What can we learn from this?
There are a number of lessons we can learn. Both sites had some form of technical problem. 1-800-Flowers lost an order because of some strangeness related to the transit time between their Web operation and their shipping/customer service operation. The Audio Book Club lost a book someplace in their ordering system.

Technical mistakes happen. As Notes and Domino administrators, you surely know that bugs do show up. And once a bug is located, you'll do you absolute best to locate it and terminate it with extreme prejudice.

But the core problem in these two examples is not technical. The core problem is management stupidity and piss-poor customer service preparation.