'Your order is being processed'

We attempted to place an order on a website yesterday evening, carefully entering all our details, checking them back to ensure accuracy, then hitting the magic 'Confirm Order' button. Nothing happened. Well that's not strictly true. There was an annoying little scroll wheel whizzing round and round in an apparently endless cycle next to the misleading missive 'Please wait, we are processing your order'. It continued thus for about fifteen minutes until he who fixes the computer was forced to admit defeat.
It's always tricky when this happens, because you can never be quite sure what's happening at the other end. Has the order gone through but failed to confirm at our end? Do we try again and end up placing the order twice? We settled instead for a quick email to the company asking them if the order had gone through. This morning, very promptly, they replied to say they had no record of the order and would we mind trying again. So I did. I have to report that the little scroll wheel was back on fine form again this morning, fiercely guarding its website against my best endeavours to make a purchase.
So, I phoned the company. 'What browser are you using?' asked the lady at the other end. 'It shouldn't make any difference,' said I. 'Oh, it does,' said she, rather condescendingly. 'No, it shouldn't,' I insisted. 'Well,' said she, 'we find that the only time people have trouble placing orders is when they're using Mac.'
At this point I despaired of her shop, her webdesigners, the internet and the world as a whole. How can any online retailer possibly hope to survive if they have set up their shop in such a way as to exclude an estimated 10% of their potential market? And that percentage is increasing, as more and more people discover the advantages of Mac over Windows.
I politely declined her offer to take my details over the phone. If she can't set her website up properly she doesn't deserve my business. I did a rather more in depth search and found the item I wanted, cheaper, on Ebay. My platform, browser, software and more over, my money, is good there!

Incidentally, a quick check on the stats for this blog reveal that audience figures from Mac users stand at 39%, Windows 54%, and Linux 5%. Mac users have a very significant web presence. Ignore them at your peril!