My apoligies in advance, but I'm fit to be tied right now and will try to control my language.

I'm on a fairly fast computer, but use dial up (56K). I've just spent the better part of many hours trying to place a large order with a certain sponsor (which I will not name out of respect but have emailed directly) and during all of the ridiculous navigation my "shopping cart" was fine, Suddeny, my "shopping cart" and everything that was previously there was gone except for the last 3 entries, out of many.

I've wasted an entire night trying to get components that I need.

No real point but I just needed to vent some frustraion as politely as i can. If I said what is truly in my mouth, Tom would ban me for life. I'm very fluent in profanity

i've encountered problems having a few web pages display correcty on my mac, and with another very large sponsor, i had problems with the shopping cart. pages simply would not load. i just reloaded several times and finally it would begin working again.

eric
fresno, ca.

Define "fluent", Dundee

Putter
Williston, ND

There are various software packages for vendors. Many are just not very good and many take a very long time to work with because of all the various images that just take a long time coming through a phone line via a dial-up modem. Hopefully this will get better as time goes on - it is the one stumbling block for internet sales and it's not at all limited to rod building component supply dealers. What I usually do is use the online catalog to make up my orders, then call the vendor and order over the phone. Unless it's just for one or two pieces that is.

.............

Eric, I spent a half an hour hitting refresh. I checked again this morning. Most of my order just vanished. <shrug>.

Randy, you want fluent? Gimme your phone number again and I'll give you a ring and demonstrate. LOL. Seriously, I do need your phone and address again. Your info is on my old puter.

I am on a fast connection, but for reasons listed above I usually fax in my orders. Gives both them and me a hard copy of what was ordered.

Lou

Tom, that is the biggest problem. Waiting for pages to load after selecting items. I'm trying to work up a phone order and I've been at it for over an hour now. Great online catalog but not at all user friendly for stone age folks like me. Serves me right for not being able to find my paper catalog.

i forgot to mention i'm on a dialup too. my problems include @#$%& and it's paypal pages. the first or second paypal page often times comes up blank except for the heading at the top and i have to tell the seller i'll have to try again on a pc soon. the large vendor i use from here, clicking on a delete item or adding something or clicking on any link will, within short time, have no effect at all. and a second vendor takes FOREVER to laod and ofteimes never completes. these thre sites are the only problems i have really and ai cruise the internet quite a bit. except for slow loading at other sites which is very rare (my own newspaper's is the most frustrating and i refuse to visit it anymore).

this is going off on a tangent from rodbuilding, so i'll stop now. just wanted to add some empathy here :-)

eric
fresno

Dundee, I know that jarhead language well; made my living in the oilpatch for 27 years and it's prevalent here, also!! I'll email you, Mick. LOL!

Putter
Williston, ND

If it is a large order I would say Call Them. This way they can check and see that they have it all

Mick,

I always use e-mail even though a "Shopping Cart" is available.. Quicker and I just save the e-mail until my order arrives! Too easy (for me) for a misunderstanding on the phone.

Mike

Mick - I pt together an excel spreadsheet which I can either e-mail, or Fax (from work). Much safer, you can make 100 changes, keep track of what you got, plus have a history of what you ordered for future reference.

email....<smack>... Sometimes it's the simple things. sheesh. I really AM too stupid to order stuff!! hahha

Billy, I like the idea of using Excel. Gonna have to give that a go. Thanks!

Then you could print it out and have a paper copy

Mick - FWIW - You can "customize" the spreadsheet to have the same format (column-wise) as the place you are ordering from. If ordering from a paper catalouge, I add a column for page number. You can also get a total and know how much you are spending before placing an order, although most times I rather not know.

I don't know what they all do, but when I e-mail an order to Mudhole, I quickly get a confirmation e-mail as well as an invoice by e-mail and another notice when it ships. I also no quickly if anything is backordered.

Mike

This may help your browser to load pages faster, that is if you can do what you need to in text only mode. It will make a huge difference in how fast pages load if you don't load all the images.

Also if a vendor has a online catalog it will normally be in .pdf format and you can save to your PC and run it locally, much faster on that too. If that is the case you can open the catalog with adobe and have IE load the website without images and you will be cruising right along.

Below are instructions on how to turn off loading images. Hope this helps.

To turn off graphics to display all Web pages faster

On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options.
Click the Advanced tab.
Under Multimedia, clear one or more of the Show pictures, Play animations, Play videos, or Play sounds check boxes.
Notes

If the Show pictures or Play videos check box is cleared, you can still display an individual picture or animation on a Web page by right-clicking its icon, and then clicking Show Picture.
If the pictures on the current page are still visible after you clear the Show pictures check box, you can hide them by clicking the View menu, and then clicking Refresh