silicon.com e-tail survey: few shopping horrors online this Christmas

Most viewers have enjoyed a successful online Christmas shopping experience so far this year, praising the order, delivery and customer service of most UK retail sites.

One reader made his first online purchase this Christmas, ordering a DVD from Future Entertainment online. "As I had left it until late Thursday afternoon to make the purchase I thought I'd get it one day next week if I was lucky - not really believing I'd get it before Christmas," he said.

"Next morning it turned up in the first and only post here in the Welsh mountains. If this is the future of online ordering then I believe the high street will have a lot to do to catch up with it."

But not everyone has had a happy run up to Christmas. One site which frequently cropped up was group buying site letsbuyit.com. "Although advertising some exceptionally good prices in the press, their website is like death, their call centre is permanently 'call waiting', and their fulfillment is terrible," wrote one silicon.com reader.

"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."

Another letsbuyit.com customer was stranded without his squash racket. "When I phoned them, they said they couldn't phone me back - email only. No news for weeks, then they blamed a slow supplier. It finally arrived two and a half months later, with no apology or any other attempt to alleviate a very irritated shopper."

streetsonline.co.uk has also been suffering with delivery problems in the busiest weeks of the retail year. In an email to some of its customers, it warned it might not be able to deliver before Christmas.

Part of the email read: "Unfortunately there remain a small number of products that require technical resolution before we can progress the orders. We had envisioned this problem would be rectified by now but unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances, at the moment we are unable to provide an expected delivery date."

Mike Stockdale, logistics manager at streetsonline.co.uk, told silicon.com the technical hitch was due to a problem transferring order data but only a small number of customers had been affected.

To tell us about your best and worst experiences email editorial@silicon.com