TJ wrote:
Check out this site
I just read more of the reviews at reseller ratings, and most of them
are quite old - in computer terms, at least. It's entirely possible that
they've cleaned up their act by now. It's equally possible that they
haven't, so they still bear watching.
TJ
I read the complaints and my opinion is that the reported behavior was
so eggregious that no matter how they'd cleaned up and repented, I'd
avoid them until the end of time. What I read was that they were, at
minimum, an accessory to theft.
The complaints regarded a "site partner" who glommed onto the customers'
credit card numbers during the transaction on the main site, and then
plundered the credit account without notice or permission. If that's not
theft, what is it? PP refused to help, claiming that the partner's
behavior was not their concern (hell, they'd posted some sort of fine
print notice that there are site partners who do what they'll do).
On a general-purpose "public web site," it's common for the site owner
to "take in advertising laundry" to subsidize the cost of running the
site. I can live with that, so long as the overall behavior is
tolerable. Now, let's say, that the site contains five ad service
"partners," each of whose rotating customers places 5 cookies on my
machine per visit in addition to the main site's three cookies: I've
just picked up 28 unwanted files on my hard disk. This is not civilized
behavior, and can create nasty problems down the road for an
unsophisticated user. A site owner is responsible for the behavior that
he subjects his visitors to, including the behavior of his "partners,"
regardless of disclaimers. That's common ethics.
On a commercial web site, a site that I'm using to buy something, to pay
money to the site provider, I do not want to see any third-party
presence. I want this communication to be totally private between me and
the vendor (and maybe a trustworthy payment service). Print Pal violated
this compact.
I'm in awe of what I just found this past week. In checking various ink
sellers, I came across two or three who had partnered with Google for
some sort of search function. And, amazingly, the vendor's site now
presented me with advertising links and blurbs _for their own
competitors!_ Is this stupid or what? Do I want to do business with
anyone this dumb? They probably apply the same care to their ink
formulations, the same care to checking the condition of the cartridges
that they'd ship to me. Frankly, I don't give a damn about "money-back
guarantees." If I've got to send them back a defective product, it's my
dime and my time, and my aggravation. For mail-order and web purchases,
it's got to be right the first time. This begins with being able to
trust their web site.
This says something, doesn't it...
Richard
