Selling has never been more competitive in the internet age. Never has been easier to lose sales rather than gaining them as customers pursue high standards of service and price. With so much competition about, it's incredibly easy to lose a sale. Let me give an example:

I needed a camera light meter and visited several shops. None of them sold them. One of them, company J told me to check their on line store to find the item.

Mistake 1 - They had computers there. They could have volunteered for me to order it then, or to make this possible by giving me their number.

Having failed to find the item easily I did go online. The choice was far too exhaustive. As I was buying the item for someone else, I asked them exactly what they had in mind. They told me. I went to the website of company J and found a suitable meter. I asked the recipient if that's the sort of thing he had in mind. Yes.

I visited the company J website and noted there was a carriage charge so rang one of their bigger branches fairly close to me and asked me if I could get the item at the shop. No they said, I could order it online and collect it at the shop.

Good, reasonably information, helpful advice.

Fine - I went to website but when it came to locating this store for the purchase of collecting the item, the website was simply not up to it. So I rang a contact number they had. I waited. They had two options. Pre-sales, and post-sales. I initially went for pre-sales. No reply after lots of waiting. Then I went for the post-sales, finally a woman answered. She said, after I made my inquiry that I was in the wrong section. She told me to ring again and select the other option (even after I told here there was no one there). She was a bit irritated. I had played a 5 minute waiting gave and was not even being transferred.

Mistake 2 - The lady was irritated. I had made a mistake. She put me off re-dialing.

I knew the item specification now. I Googled it. I found it over here in the UK and over there in the USA. I actually found it at a lower cost with no delivery charge as it was above a threshold amount. I phoned, and the helpful girl told me it would be with me the next day. I saved money. Company J lost the sale for a costly item.

These days, when I know product specifications of a mass marketed item I can Google it. I can find better and cheaper options for obtaining it. However, I would have purchased if they got me when I was hot,

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