Good but no secure transaction (Powerhouse)

Member Name: plodder

Product:	Powerhouse
Date:	01/03/02 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: price, OK range, OK layout

Disadvantages: no security, slow replies, no proactive contact

I had heard a lot about buying over the internet but asides form well reported purchases such as books from Amazon had not tried anything major until my washing machine broke.
I trawled sites of various retailers and found a Philips washing machine on the Powerhouse site. As far as site layout and range offered it was average but the machine was offered for around £300 when all else offered the same machine for £400. Maybe they made a mistake but I decided to take advantage.
As I went through the ordering process all was OK until I was asked to enter my credit card details. I noticed theconnection was not secure but for a £100 saving I took the gamble. A couple of weeks later nothing had arrived so I emailed and was told they did not have it in stock and it would be delivered direct by the manufactureer at which point they asked for my card number again. I requested a secure method, but after a couple of email exchanges they said there was not a secure method, at which point I abandoned the transaction. All of this too a few days as each email took a couple of days to get an answer.

Overall, excellent price but no security for card transactions - which is really odd. That put me off as I thought are they really serious about doing business? Also, they did not proactively contact me to let me know the machine was delayed.
I then tried whitebox.co.uk who were excellent

Summary: