PE> Especially if it's business you wouldn't otherwise have.

RS> Yes, but you are talking about attracting new business.
RS> You still get that new business if you say 'get an internet
RS> account with Ozemail, send your orders to xxxx'. You still get
RS> the new business and THEY get to wear the support calls, not you.

PE> Not necessarily.

We'll see.

PE> It costs to join up to Ozemail, but you can dial a BBS for free.

And the sort of person who is capable of looking after himself
can use one of the other cheap or free internet service providers.

PE> I know that *I* am happy to dial a BBS, but not internet.

Thats entirely your choice. I doubt its a vital consideration
for too many tho, they would be paying FAR more than that in a
single brokers fee for a single transaction. And they discount
the fee if its done via the internet anyway.

I agree that the BBS route has lots of advantages for people who know
what they are doing, particularly using a mailer to move the messages.
Even the security is much better. It operates essentially like a fax.
BUT you have to trade that off against the fact that the user has to be
rather more capable to be able to go that route. Its not really feasible
to say provide a floppy that you give to the customer and say 'put this in
and type INSTALL' and be quite sure that they wont be having any problems.
When those problems can be of considerable financial importance to a
customer who stuffs up an order, you have a very real support problem.

--- PQWK202