Caveat Surfer

“Cyber Monday” is only one of several terms we weren’t using 10 years ago. As we head into the second decade of the 21st Century, the technology advances have been just dizzying. Ten years ago, a blackberry was still just fruit, nobody was saying “app” or “tweet” or “LOL.” We took photos with a camera, surfed the web on our desktops, recorded TV shows on VCRs and used the telephone as a telephone.

But one subject remains unchanged. In 2000, everyone was wondering whether shoppers would abandon stores in favor of Internet shopping? They haven’t, but the threat continues to hover over the bricks-and-mortar retail world like a gray, ominous cloud.

At the turn of the century, retailers were insisting that shoppers would always need to touch, feel and see the merchandise in the store. Terry Lundgren was still saying that last week in a TV appearance on “The View.”

If you, like I, have questioned that position as so much whistling in the dark, an article in this past weekend’s The New York Times is a must-read. The headline for the Nov. 26, 2010, article was “A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web.”

It’s a story about a web site, DecorMyEyes.com, selling designer sunglasses. The site is full of the classiest brand names – Alain Mikli, Balenciaga, Christian Audigier, Armani, Ferragamo, et al. – at discounted prices. But classy here is purely skin deep. The proprietor of the site is an unrepentant swindler from Brooklyn who doesn’t fulfill orders as ordered, baits and switches, and threatens, even stalks, customers who want returns or refunds.

He even called into a customer’s credit card company to cancel her complaint and its investigation. Hey, he has your number! (And, by the way, the bank was no help at all in resolving the issue until The Times contacted it, and then the bank was “mortified” but hardly apologetic. So what’s in your wallet? Much less than the TV ads would have you believe.)

Is the DecorMyEyes guy embarrassed by the complaints and bad publicity? Hardly. Because, he explained, every online notice or complaint or bad review posted simply raises his position on Google search results. His site even invites customers to post their feedback. Take your best shot – good or bad, he couldn’t care less.

“I’ve exploited this opportunity because it works,” he brashly told The Times reporter. “No matter where they post their negative comments, it helps my return on investment. So, I decided, why not use that negativity to my advantage?”

Obviously, not every online merchant is dishonest. But how would you know? Apparently not by its position on the Google search index. Customers may not like having to get out of their pajamas to go to the store and fight the holiday crowds, but at least they know with whom they’re dealing.