On Mar 23, 3:54 pm, mm wrote:
On 23 Mar 2007 13:47:02 -0700, "runsrealfast"

wrote:

But a couple years ago, I had just looked at one-handle kitchen
faucets and wanted to review online what they had. Couldn't find a
one at the lowes site, even though there are 10 different models at
every store. I wrote them, but afaik it hasn't gotten better.

BTW, I rarely write companies, but in this case I thought there was a
specific bug they might find which would caused the faucets and 100's
or 1000's of other things not to display. And if they fixed one
thing, it make things work. Like maybe they were checking a code that
shouldn't have been checked and deciding not to display things with
this irrelevant property. Or failing to check one that mattered.

I used to be a computer programmer, and finding one item out of place
most of the time pointed to a mistake that caused many more problems
than just the one item.

Most programmers do their testing on a test system with test data,
usually a lot less test data than in the production system, which may
or may not adequately represent the real data. AFter the system goes
into use, they depend on people finding bugs, and should be diligent
in solving them.

Also, I don't think any software testers use dial-up, so they may be
oblivious to the issues facing users who only have dial-up. Someone,
a boss, should be on their tail to remember them, but they can end up
writting a webpage that is too slow for the dial-up user.

Mouser Electronics is one of these. Everything is in pdf and to see
anything from the catalog, you have to download an entire catalog page
in pdf format. Even at the library with their high speed connectino
this takes 3 or 4 seconds, and again if you move to the next page. AT
home with dial up it is just impractical. Fortuntely they will send
out a CD which doesn't depend on my internet connection.


Not sure if you are familiar with the concept of MDM but I would hope
that major companies like HD and Lowes are using a MDM system. But if
the local stores bring something in and the data in the store is held
outside the MDM system it may not make it to the website, which really
is another issue. My guess is that the stores and the website are not
properly linked together and thats where the disconnect is. But your
correct, a programming change might be in order with those. It would
be worth it to pay a small handling fee to be able to shop from my
office and then stop on the way home for my stuff. Circut City has a
system like this, although I don't shop for electronics enough to know
if there is a disconnect with them.

From what I understand, Walmart has recently used this MDM concept and
created there own system. I am told they recently just integrated
their European stores with the North American Stores. I hate to say it
but it looks like many retail stores (and in this case home
improvement stores) could learn a lesson from Walmart

john