E-Commerce customers have plenty of complaints about their Web shopping experiences, according to an Opinion Research Web survey of 1,092 consumers, but "receiving an item that doesn't look anything like it did on the Internet" was the top concern at 24 percent. "Not being able to speak to anyone to answer questions" was next on the list, chosen by 23 percent of participants.

Rounding out the complaints was "learning that items are back-ordered or out of stock after they are in the cart" (19 percent), "Web sites that malfunction as the payment is being processed" (14 percent), "an unclear return policy" (8 percent), "unclear shipping information" (6 percent) and "not getting an acknowledgment after the order has been placed" (6 percent).

Linda Shea, the Opinion Research SVP and global managing director of customer strategies, argues that the inability to answer questions was represented a type of e-Commerce double-whammy: it reflects a rapidly increasing set of consumer expectations at the same time that retailers are slashing customer service budgets.

"The level of customer service is way down and expectations are continually being raised," Shea said. "As the economy starts to slow, companies look for places to cut and customer service is often at the top of the list."

A lack of follow-up research makes it difficult to gauge the response retailers must take to address the “can’t talk to anyone issue,” the researchers admit. Not being able to talk could mean “talk” as opposed to text or chat, or it might mean that customer service reps were available or unresponsive. If it’s the former, we can expect increased emphasis on “click to call” capabilities embedding into Web sites.

That’s something along the lines of what EBay expected when it purchased VoIP provider Sype for $3.5 billion a few years back.