I've recently had a couple of... well, I wouldn't say bad, more frustrating, experiences with online comic stores (FP & FPI). These experiences highlighted the fundamental flaw with shops having a web presence and their general lack of forethought in how to handle customers.
My first experience, I ordered a couple of books. A Nexus trade and a Knights of Pendragon trade. I really wanted the KoP trade, and only really bought the Nexus trade because it was on sale, and I thought why not make up for postage by adding in another book? Rather neatly they shipped the Nexus trade and it arrived within a couple of weeks. Great, thought I. But where was the Knights of Pendragon trade? It wasn't showing as a pre-order. It wasn't showing as sold out. Time passed, and by time I mean months, two months to be exact, and nothing, so I took at look on the website, only to find the book listed as unavailable. No email. No call. Nothing.
My second experience was when I pre-ordered an action figure. I ordered it a few months in advance. After it had been released, I hadn't received one. I waited a couple of weeks, just in case there was some lag in shipping, but received no figure, nor any update as to what was going on with my order, so I contacted them. The reply did them no favours. Apparently they had exhausted their pre-order supply and "would not be getting any more in". The thing is, nobody had told me this. I fully expected to receive my figure at any moment - why wouldn't I?
More recently I ordered three books, including the pretty much sold out L'Incal by Jodorowsky & Moebius. I placed my order on the 6th Jan, and received an update on the 12th stating that L'Incal was out of print, as I'd expected, but they'd continue to process my order unless I wanted to cancel it. I wanted the other two books anyhow, so I didn't contact them. My order is now a month old and I haven't seen a despatch note or an update on the two remaining books. So what's happening? Should the onus be on me to chase it up?
From what I've experienced, the issue at hand seems to be down to these stores still thinking like a brick & mortar comic shop and having an over-reliance on Diamond. What's listed for pre-order are the contents of Diamond's Previews catalogue, and I suspect much of what stays on their on-line catalogues are also within the Previews catalogue. But this doesn't mean they're available, nor that they will ever be available. So where is this information on the item page? It's not. A quick read through FPI's terms & conditions doesn't yield much more information, there's no statement about stock, just that an order is "no guarantee of supply", which I guess is as close as you get.
It doesn't improve the experience, though, does it? You're still sat there with nothing to show for an order you placed a month ago, where none of your items were pre-orders. It's also not an experience I've had from my other, now main, avenue for purchasing comics: Amazon. You see, that's who they're competing with, whether they understand that or not. With Amazon I get full visibility of what I'm after. Is it in-stock? How long will it take them to get it? When is the pre-order for? What's happening with my order? All of this is either emailed to you or available on the site. I know if something isn't going to be delivered or not.
It's not like it's a difficult concept, either. I work for a company that has both retail outlets and mail-order, with a large part of the mail-order coming via the web. Our web system has near live stock information, and we email through to our customers what's in stock, and what's due in when. We also let them know if we've had to cancel an item, or if the due date for stock changes. We keep them informed until they have the goods in their hands. It really isn't difficult. Unless you don't hold any stock, and my experience of these companies makes me wonder if they actually do...