The news in the technology sector keeps getting worse. Results this week from a raft of companies including Compaq and Lucent spoke of diminished expectations barely met, with announcements accompanied by news of swingeing job cuts.

And it appears many customers are still struggling to get a proper service from the New Economy. More than 15 million people in the US tried but failed to buy goods over the Internet in the run-up to Christmas, according to data released this week. The cost to Net retailers was about $1.5 billion (€1.6 billion).

On the plus side, more people than ever before shopped online and they spent more too. But given that roughly half experienced problems of some sort gives the struggling retailers little cause for celebration.

Dominic Coyle can be contacted at dcoyle@irish-times.ie