When we all buy things on the internet from major brands it makes everything so easy. For example yesterday I bought  a new iPod Touch from Apple. I know exactly what I’m going to get, and I know for certain that I won’t get a “bad” product, and that in the odd case where an iPod doesn’t work Apple will replace it straight away.

I think this means we have lost the ability to search for a product and buy from a lesser company. Recently I had to be some trace heating equipment and was shocked when I suddenly realise that no “big” brands that I’d heard of in the past manufactured it. That meant I had to look around at all these companies I’d never heard of and work out which was the best.

In the end I took the plunge and have been very happy with my purchase. I’m sure most of the companies I looked at could have done the job, but you really have to be careful ordering products from companies you’ve never heard of. Especially if they are such a small company that it’s difficult to find any online reviews or even people talking about the brand. This is often the case with companies that mainly sell to the industry rather than directly to consumers – so not having many reviews on the internet does not automatically mean that a company isn’t trustworthy (I made the mistake of thinking this in the past to my own detriment).