Online shopping - cuts service to unacceptable levels

Online shopping dissolves half of the hassle of shopping in town - when the object of desire is rarely in stock and thus the goods are hard to find it's plain crazy not to. And then you can choose from all the competition, not just the stuff on show.
And because you can hop from site to site researching details, prices are keen. Prices are keen because there's no shop to pay for, or staff to answer a phone or now in most cases, hardly anyone to deal with an email. The online shopping world is evolving. Who do you think is going to survive? Will it be the shops at the bottom-dollar no-service end of the market ... will these shops win customers as fast as they lose them? Or will it be those with a more blended good price - good service offering ... who will build a loyal following?

If you really want to remove the hassle of buying things online, look for these features:

• There's a phone number where you can sort out problems.
• Delivery charges are fair, for example they go up reasonably with how much you buy or they diminish altogether.
• Offers are what they say they are - not eye-catchers with small print
• Emails are replied to within an hour or so.
• If the item's not in stock, you're given options as to what to do.
• An apology for a messed up order (wrong things delivered) is an apology with money eg a free gift / free delivery next time. In other words the shop guarantees its service as well as it goods
• Copious information on the product and its applications.
• Customers reviews

Duff shops that need to shape up or shut down

• ebuyer.com; dabs.com - offer cut into the bone service; there is no telephone number that answers. For instance what is the point of asking "where's this morining's delivery" when it takes few days to reply to an email . Or see what happens if the item's out of stock.
• neat-ideas.co.uk; simply.co.uk - there is general dimness across the organisation which leads to mistake upon mistake.
• unbeatable.co.uk; hughes.co.uk; dell.co.uk; northerntools.co.uk - slashed prices but delivery charges at their most ridulous

Star players

• maplin.co.uk - has not forgotten it service pledges; if it's in your 'basket' the item isn't removed because it's gone out of stock.
• phones4less.co.uk - home-phones.co.uk - they know their products; they help; they offer solutions
• amazon.co.uk - great website, and they haven't goofed up to reveal anything's not brilliant.
• johnlewis.com; viking-direct.co.uk; diy.com (B&Q) - fantastic ... these are here to sell you stuff well by any means and not cut, cut.
• er.. that's not that many in this list. Your recommendations are welcome