Trying to buy an iPod

It's amazingly difficult to buy an iPod. There's such a range of prices, and the differences between physical shops and online shops is incredible. And then there's the range of iPods themselves...

I was torn between the 20Gb 4G iPod, which I saw at a very good price at Digital Planet, and the new 6Gb mini (blue!), which wasn't a whole lot cheaper. After looking around I realised that I really wanted the mini (it's cool, and the sides are all round, and it's blue), even though later I might regret the lack of extra space; so then I had to try to remember where I'd seen the best price :-)

It came down to Digital Planet, at R2045, who didn't have stock; Project 3, at R2099, who not only had stock but are just around the corner from me; or Have2Have at R2025, plus R135 overnight shipping. Of course, now that I've decided to get one, I wanted to get it right away, so I went out to Project 3 at lunch time to pick one up. The price on the shelf was higher (R2188, I think), but they said that the price I'd been quoted was the cash price, so that was okay - except that when I pulled out my credit card to pay for it, they said that credit cards don't count as cash. Odd, because everywhere else they do... but, fine, I thought, they've lost a sale, I'll just buy it from Have2Have.

So I went off to order it online, only to find that the credit card details submission page isn't secure! I was stunned - who doesn't secure that kind of information these days? And the worst part is, they have a whole page on how secure their site is, because it uses SSL, and you can tell by the little padlock in the browser. I suspect that if they do have SSL set up, someone forgot to hook it up to their actual site, because there's no hint of security on the submission page - http, not https; no padlock; no certificates; no nothing.

Their help page not only says how secure their site is (which would be nice if it were true), but also says how it doesn't need to be secure anyway, because the media has just blown it all out of proportion, and really, what are the odds of a bad guy stealing your credit card number while it's in transit, etc. And they go on to compare it to people stealing your bank statements from your garbage, and they go on, and on. I was totally stunned at the level of ignorance and irresponsibility they display. And while they do accept internet banking direct bank transfers as well, I decided that I wouldn't support a site that is as security-deficient as their's is.

So this morning, before work, I was back off to Project 3, cash in hand, to buy my iPod. It takes a really long time to charge (and it's worth doing the initial charge properly), so I haven't got to play around with it yet. But it looks really cool ;-)