Guys, guys, guys!
Hold on there. This thread is totally starting to slide into murky waters.
Be very clear. This has very little to do with "the law"
First of all. If you purchased the iLiad with a credit card, non-delivery is not really between you and the seller anymore. It's between you and your credit card company and between your credit card company and the seller. Basically, the CC company has your money, the seller has the cc companys money. So if you want your money back, you go to you cc company. Then they go back to the seller.
Second, no one said Irex broke any laws (at least I didn't). At worst, they may be in violation with agreements that they made with Visa/Mastercard/etc in order to accept credit card payments. Each card company can set up it's own guidelines to vendors in order to ensure quality. If a credit card company gets a large number of complaints that a vendor is breaking these agreements, they can decide to pull thier service and the vendor could not accept that type of credit card anymore. I state again. This is a global deal as credit cards are a global deal. Doesn't have anything to do with regions or national borders. You get the same protection when you use a credit card in Brazil, Tokyo, or Paris.
The only way this becomes a problem between you and Irex directly is if you paid in cash.
But none of this is really the point of my original post.
What this shows is that Irex is *REALLY* unprepared to enter the mainstream marketplace. As unfinished as the product is, the company itself seems to be in even worse shape.
ecommerce is really not that hard. There are online shops that pop up overnight that can get billing, shipping, and customer service down with no problem. They just sign up for "Online store package A". It's not much harder than setting up a web domain. Irex's system looks more like something the president's 16 year old nephew who is taking computer classes put together.
But as I stated before, even this could have been dealt with very easily. So they put up a lemon of an online store. Well, eventually most of the kinks were worked out. But, by taking payment in advance of shipment, my expectations have shifted. I'm not a person who has just ordered a product, I am a paying customer waiting for delivery of a product.
Go into a nice French restaurant for a meal. Assume that under any circumstance you are going to pay the full price of the meal. How would you feel if it takes an hour after you are seated for the meal to come out? Would you feel any different if they asked you to pay the bill in full before you were seated and then made you wait an hour?
Now what if the waiter came out every 5 minutes to apologize for the delay, explain what was going on and update you as to when the meal would be ready? What if the manager came out a few times to do the same and chat you up a little to make the time go by, explaining some of the history of the restaurant, making small talk, and describing the menu to whet your appetite.
Some people might not care for it, but personally I would consider that great service.
If you look around, you will note that many technology product companies put forums on thier websites so that customers and potential customers can ask questions and get them answered by actual representatives of the company. You can see what kinds of problems others may be having as well as an official response. Other companies have employees who are allowed to post to public forums on other websites to interact with thier customer base rather than just spy on them.
But Irex doesn't have to do any of this. They certainly have broken no laws that I know of. At worst they seem to be playing deep into the "minimum effort we can do without getting into big trouble" pool. And yes, it would be very easy (I hope) to cancel my order. I am sure it would mae the next guy in line happy
But again, that is not the point.
I have been an ebook reader for many, many years. As a mobile professional, an ebook reading device has been part of my kit for almost a decade now. I wrote one of the first user reviews of the Sony Librie to circulate on the internet. I concider myself a power ebook user and I have been waiting VERY long for the medium to catch on.
I joined this test group, not to read books. I got books. I joined to review the device. Since I got no device I review the company. I review the customer service. I review the store. If Irex is gonna mess things up, you can bet I will be posting with criticism and suggestions on how to improve. If Sony had listened to practically anyone who purchased their book, things might have turned out quite differently for the Librie. If Irex shapes up, starts talking to it's customers, maintains the device through regular firmware updates, and continues to expand content, you can be i'll be buying these things as Christmas presents till the end of time. I'll be posting glowing reviews of the device just about the time Sony dumps it's version 1.1 on the market. and better yet, I'll be telling the guy sitting next to me in business class that he has got to buy one of these.
Now assuming I am not the only one who thinks like this, does it really sound so hard for iRex to send someone out to sit down and talk about the food?