Slashdot Mirror

I'd be filled with happiness to find a dress with actual practical pockets! Amazing! What an idea!

They exist, try Lands End

https://www.landsend.com/produ...

"What's an End Land?"

http://www.landsend.com/

{Just TRY to find jeans with 27-inch waist and 34-inch length.... and if you DO find a non-custom/tailored source, PLEASE let me know...}

{Just TRY to find jeans with 27-inch waist and 34-inch length.... and if you DO find a non-custom/tailored source, PLEASE let me know...}

To see it in action, go to their site. and click on 'My Model' in the upper left corner.

That's right, Lands' End has a a virtual model to try on clothes before you buy!

Get some very comfy slip-on shoes like these or these.

They don't have laces, so you can slip them off to pass them through security and have them back on in seconds. They also make it easier to run out the door when you're late. :)

My 12" PowerBook travels in style, or more precisely, in a Marware SportFolio Sleeve, which goes in my Land's End Square Rigger Classic Attache. No complaints on either; the Marware case fits like a glove and the Land's End attache is ridiculously durable. (As is its warranty; this one's been in use for about four years, and its predecessor made it to five before one of the clips for the shoulder strap broke and they replaced it for free.) Bit spendy, but you've got a Mac, so you clearly don't mind laying down a few more ducats for quality. :-)

sPh

Lands' End has a selection of briefcases that are designed to carry a laptop . They also have a backpack and a shoulder bag.

The Ballistic cases are heavy weight nylon and the others are canvas.

They have a selection of COLORS if you don't like boring black.

The Canvas Square Rigger Laptop Attache that I bought years ago is still going strong. It is great to be able to stuff almost anything into the bag. It also has the advantage of not looking like a laptop bag. The briefcase models range from $90 - $120.

Since I bought my briefcase model, they've come out with a backpack for laptops that looks pretty decent - I'd get one if I didn't already have the briefcase. It has a pocket for a portable CD player with a pass-through for the headphone cord. There is also a cell phone pocket. This one is about $50.

The shoulder bag sounds like it has a bunch of pockets for Cell Phone, PDA, etc. which might be a good thing for some people.

Lands' End stuff is typically very well made and is guaranteed forever - if something breaks (unlikely) or wears out - send it back for a refund or new item.

I've been using and abusing my Land's End notebook case for over five years and love it and wouldn't trade it for the world. Other bags have gotten better reviews, but this bag has never let me down and has outlived four different notebook computers

Switched to mocs.

It's absurd to say that Amazon.com can't succeed because of shipping and customer service costs.

Amazon.com's business is identical to that of a mail order company. Take Land's End as an example. The company takes in orders from phone and the web, ships the orders out, and handles customer service by phone and e-mail. While e-commerce companies avoid the high costs of printing and mailing catalogs, the costs of the software and hardware systems to run the web site are similar. E-commerce is nothing new. It's not a scheme. It's not doomed from the start. It's identical to the well established mail order business.

It seems to me that Daisey is overdramatizing his brief stay at Amazon to try to increase the sales of his book. His creditability is damaged by his admission of morally questionable actions, including calling themselves to improve efficiency numbers, stealing, and pretending to be a supervisor. Daisey describes himself as lazy, dishonest, and disloyal. While he tries to smear everyone else at Amazon as equally pathetic, perhaps it's just him.

During the height of the dot.com boom, Amazon could do no wrong. After the crash, Amazon can do nothing right. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

I recall seeing in an old computer magazine a company offering shirts with pockets big enough for 8" (or maybe it was just 5.25") floppies, to cure 3.5" envy. If there is demand, they'll build it.

Chris

--

Many high quality mail order companies have a 100% satisfaction policy. L.L. Bean and Land's End come to mind. They realize that consumers will be fiercely loyal to a company that treats them with respect and acts quickly to correct even perceived problems.

A friend of my mother was getting backpacks out of the closet for her son's start of school and found that the backpack she bought the previous year from L.L. Bean for her son was badly worn and had a broken zipper. She returned it to have the zipper fixed, explaining the situation. They sent a new backpack, no questions asked. She later found the backpack that she had in fact bought the previous year (the one she returned was 5 years old). Needless to say, she has been loyal to the company ever since.

People want to be honest, but they want respect and are willing to pay more to a company that they trust and that gives them the benefit of the doubt. While I hadn't thought of it in this context previously, much of the loyalty to Open Source comes from this kind of experience. Any user that has found a bug and gotten rapid response from developers will never want to go back to the dreaded tech support line to wait an hour to get to the person that knows enough to tell you that it is a known bug and _may_ be fixed in the next release. And the satisfied customer will likely tell his friend.

The flip side of this is that bad experiences are also spread by word of mouth. We must do our best to realize that we are all the company in the open source movement and the customer deserves 100% satisfaction.

--