Survey finds customers unhappy with e-commerce sites

Monday, March 10, 2014 - 13:03 by Graham Miller

A new study from Which? has found that 46 per cent of people who have shopped online encountered at least one issue during the execution of this process, according to the Guardian.

Amazon and eBay received the most mentions when customers were asked about any complaints they might have, although of course, these are two of the most popular and widely used online retailers in the UK and are, thus, most likely to receive attention when things go awry.

Almost a fifth of respondents said that they had had to deal with an item being delivered later than was originally planned, with 13 per cent complaining of products arriving with a fault or some kind of physical damage already having occurred.

Four per cent said that they encountered fees and charges which they were not expecting, although as with the other elements of the survey, it is apparent that only the minority of people ever find that their e-commerce experience is seriously hindered in some way.

Report spokesperson, Richard Lloyd, said that it is important for British consumers to know what to expect when they use sites offering safe shopping online. Part of this is establishing the rights they have when they make a purchase, because this will help them out if issues do occur and something needs to be done.

There are obviously certain elements of online shopping which require a bit more attention than others, especially when it comes to delivery and charges. But the biggest retailers tend to be the most transparent and with millions of customers across the country using Amazon and eBay to buy and sell items, it is impressive that so few issues arise, given the size of the infrastructure involved in the process.