When purchasing stuff online I always pay attention to the design of the vendor ‘s Web site to assess if it ‘s a large company of a fly-by-night guys that quickly put together a cheap Web site. I know that creating of a professional-looking Web site costs tens of thousands dollars or more. If you play by the business rules, you must hire a professional Web designer – we all know this. But…

Yesterday, we realized that the heater in our house got broken. We have this air unit that started to make noise without pumping in the hot air. I ‘m not a handy man, but this time Iopened the heater ‘s cover and quickly realized that the ignitor was broke in this gas unit. What ‘s first thing that you should do when something like this happens? You have to unscrew the ignitor, try to find there any tatoo that resembles the model number and … go to Google. I did exactly this and found a Web site that sells them. When I looked at this Web site , it was clear that this site was created at least ten years ago by an amateur who never paid a dime to any Web designer. It ‘s just horrible. Some time ago I purchased a book that was called something like Web sites that suck. This Web site is worse than any imaginable poorly designed site, because it has no design at all.

I ‘d never returned to this Web site, but apparently not too many places sell these ignitors online so I decided to give this site another look. When I saw a photo of two grandkids at the bottom of the site, I immediately visualized a loving grandpa and understood that he can ‘t be a crook. Than in the middle of the page I found this text

“Below is a note from me, Steve Arnold, explaining my philosophy of business and life……

“I Kenneth S. Arnold (I go by my middle name, “Steve “), president of Arnold ‘s Service Company, Inc. guarantee you there will be no problems with Arnold ‘s Service Company, Inc. in standing behind any guarantee and warranty. I believe that you should always treat others as you would want to be treated. Always exhibit a Christian attitude…. honesty, caring, dependability, reliability are a must!

Sincerely, Kenneth S. Arnold, President/Owner of Arnold ‘s Service Company, Inc. ”

You can ‘t fake such a statement. Look at the banner of the Dodge pick up truck… Needless to say that Dodge dis not pay a penny for hosting their banner there. It just tells me that this guy loves his little truck and lives by the principle “American, buy American “.

This guy is real. The only thing that I did not like about this site was that he put an image of Santa Claus but did not have guts to say “Merry Christmas “. He did what ‘s a little better for business: “Happy Holiday Season ” . I guess heater furnaces get broken in the homes of muslims, jews, buddists, and voodoo followers too.

Anyway, I ‘ve order the ignitor from this guy and I ‘m positive that I ‘ll never have any problems with this small business owner. I wonder if this might become a new trend – instead of pouring thousands of dollars into development of rich Internet applications, just be sincere and people will make your business a success?

Merry Christmas Mr. Arnold and Happy Khanukah to all your Jewish customers!

Update. I placed this order on Sunday morning, then wrote this blog, and on Monday at 8AM I ‘ve received the shipment notification with the UPS tracking number. Told ‘ya!

Update #2. The ignitor was not even a problem. There was a crack in the housing of the Heater ‘s fan. Morale: If you are a programmer, do not try to fix heaters. Keep programming and pay the professionals to do other things.