Net losing consumer confidence

Australian IT - Net losing consumer confidence (Correspondents in Washington, JULY 18, 2005):

"AFTER enjoying phenomenal growth in its first 10 years, internet commerce faces new challenges amid growing fears of viruses, spyware and a range of fraud schemes."

This article just about sums up all the things which are annoying people about the Net. They are sick of phishing and credit card fraud. They are fed up with stupid emails and viruses. So yes, they have changed their behaviour. People expect us to put up with it. People think we can constantly be used, abused, sucked in and ripped off. No. We will jsut change our behaviour.

I haven't got the impression people are lacking confidence as consumers on the Net. They just are not going to give crredit card details or allow invasive spyware. Some people have just stuck to the places they know to be rock solid and reliable. Businesses here have offered differing forms payments and that's what I do. I will use the Net to find products and prices and if it's a company I know I will order online but I will not pay online. I have had some excellent purchases this way and the service has been outstanding. MP3 Direct is my most recent example of outstanding Net purchasing. I could not believe the level of care and response. Out in the wild, my best real life purchasing recently ( other than food shopping and my supermarkets are great on service and customer relations) has been at Harvey Norman's. They have this happy balance now of giving you good help and advice if you need it, but letting you direct your own shopping and they always have nice things! Shiney! Other places can have good things but either no one is there to serve you (yep!..can't find a soul..those businesses just need to liven up their slack staff) or they have a product advertised but do not have the product in the store when you ask. They have the picture, though!! That's why I ended up online buying my MP3 player. I went out to buy one..first shop had a nice picture, second shop had no staff to sell me one and the third shop didn't have what I wanted. In 15 mins on the Net MP3 Direct had it all sewn up and delivered from Sydney in 2 days. Unbelieveable. So it's not the Net which is the problem nor consumer confidence( Do you seriously think we don't want to spend out money???). It's those who play you for a sucker and mess you around who are mucking it all up and this article nails it very well.