... if a certain product doesn't arrive at PC World Towers.

As keen readers will know, I've been trying to buy a coffee machine online, a team reward from our Dear Leader following a go-go Xmas and new year for PC World on newsstands.

Ferrit listed our desired model, but for some reason couldn't sell it directly so flicked me on to Noel Leeming's website. A confirmation email said the order would take 10 days. That was back on March 15.

At one point (actually a Saturday), someone, swallowing their name, left a message asking me to call an 0800 number to confirm my email confirmation. I called the number to find it was the main Bond & Bond switchboard (Bond & Bond and Noel Leeming being part of the same mash), which directly sent me to voice mail hell, with no option anything like confirming internet orders. I finally reached a baffled receptionist who sent me back to the automated phone tree.

I subsequently emailed to re-re-confirm my order, explaining I'd failed in my allocated phone mission. A reply said the PC World crew's new coffee machine was indeed on its way. But now, on April 4, we're still waiting.

We're caffeine starved, and we're mad as hell.

Least I sound too bitter and deranged, I'll leave you with a story of a Kiwi site getting e-commerce right. On Tuesday I ordered a Go-Go Bag from Merino Kids. On Wednesday it arrived by courier. Not that I needed it, but I was also given a tracking number to follow the progress of my delivery via the courier's website.

When I previously purchased from Merino Kids, around six months ago, I asked the women who run this fast-expanding company if they were happy driving the business from their Ponsonby home office. Yup, they had the tech sorted, and they had (at the time) never even heard of Ferrit, let along thinking of hosting their wares there.

Now if only they'd expand to selling coffee machines as well ...