Your first item in this (week's newsletter) hit a nerve. Many vendors' treatment of people with APO (Armed Forces Post Office) or FPO (Fleet Post Office) addresses is ridiculous. Here's my story:

I called Intuit on Dec. 26, 1998, to order TurboTax Home and Business, which sounded like a perfect solution to both my personal tax filing needs and those of my home-based business. They told me that the federal version would ship at the end of December and the state version in mid-January.

When the software had not arrived by early March (Mail to APO addresses can be very slow.), I called Intuit again. They had no record of my order, but I had noted down the date and the amount I expected to see on my credit card bill, so at least I had a record. After asking for a supervisor, we got to the bottom of the matter. They had not been able to ship the product I ordered, because the Internet browser software bundled with it contained a level of encryption that could not be exported. Huh? I was buying tax software -- not a browser -- and couldn't care less about filing my tax return via the Internet. Why didn't Intuit tell me they couldn't ship me the product when I placed my order? Why didn't they suggest a different product? Why did they cut millions of people out of their potential market?

Needless to say, I finally bought tax software from a company other than Intuit.

Ordering via web sites for shipment to an APO address is equally a hit or miss affair. It has taken me many months to find reliable software and hardware vendors who can handle APO shipments. I placed an order with one low-price vendor in early September and got the order in late December. I know mail via APO can be slow, but that was ridiculous.

For what it's worth, here's my short list of web commerce sites that come through for those of us with APO/FPO addresses with most, if not all, of these features -- easy ordering, automatic calculation of USPS Priority Mail shipping, order tracking on the web site, and sturdy packaging:

Computer software and hardware -- www.pcconnection.com, www.pczone.com

Clothing and outdoor goods --
www.llbean.com (unbelievably fast shipping),
www.landsend.com

Books -- www.amazon.com