I hate companies that insist on having web-sites that are nothing but style
and artistic pretty pictures with no real specifications of details on what
they make/sell. The site in my mind is a total waste of time because I
cannot find the information that will help me decide if I want to buy their
products. So I don't buy their products and they loose. But they think they
have a great web presence.

"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote in message
...
A year or two back I took a piece of ceiling panel to our local Lowe's
trying to find a match for it, but nobody could identify it. They said,
"One of the reps. is here now. We can ask him." He looked at it and made a
suggestion about the manufacturer (which I no longer recall, but I did not
find it when I looked at that manufacturer's Web site).

I decided to put up with the few beat-up panels I had intended to replace.

Time passed, then I took down a panel and found a sticker on the back
indicating that it was Armstrong #420. Armstrong's Web site showed that it
is still manufactured and that it should be available at HD, Lowe's and
Menard's (this last a Midwest chain). I knew from experience that Menard's
Web site does not have an on-line catalog: all it does is show store
locations and current ads and allows one to track special orders, so I
checked out the HD and Lowe's Web sites, but no matter what I searched for
I couldn't find this item, so I concluded that, no matter what Armstrong
told me, HD and Lowe's did *not* sell this product.

Menard's was happy to do a special order for me and had it in a couple of
weeks.

Yesterday at Lowe's I happened to walk down the aisle with the ceiling
panels and saw a stack of packages of Armstrong #420 panels, so I went to
the appropriate desk and told the guy what had happened. He told me that
they had always stocked this item, so I asked how come I had not been able
to find it on the Web site. He then looked at the Web site himself and
said, "There's a whole bunch of stuff that we stock that doesn't show up
on the Web site!" I suggested that he report the deficiency back up the
line, but I wonder whether he will.

Maybe I'll find that HD actually has it on the shelf too.

I wonder how many sales these companies (and perhaps many others too) lose
because people cannot discover that they actually sell particular items.

Perce