Getting the products and services they would like can often be difficult for people who live in remote or isolated places. The internet can make a real difference though, giving people much greater freedom to find the goods and services they are looking for. This was highlighted recently by a story I heard about a couple who live in the Cumbrian hills who desperately needed to find some missing furniture fixings at short notice.

The story of the missing furniture fixings begins with the gentleman's mother, who sadly suffered a stroke at the end of last year. The stroke left her with limited mobility and she spent a long time in hospital recovering. In the meantime her son and daughter-in-law set about transforming her home to make it much easier for her to get around it. This process ranged from simple things, like removing clutter in order to give her more room, to more expensive things like installing an electric lift to help her get up and down the stairs.

One problem they found was that she had a very low bed, so they decided to buy her a new one that was much higher and therefore easier to get in and out of. Finding the right bed proved problematic and the internet proved really useful in finding a small company that sold the kind of bed they were looking for. The only problem was that the company was based over 200 miles away and the remoteness of the old lady's house in the Cumbrian hills meant that they could not deliver it until the day before she was due to come home from hospital. This would have been fine, except that when the bed was delivered, several of the screws and other fixings needed to put it together were missing.

Of course, buying flat-pack furniture and then finding there are fixtures or other parts missing is frustrating for anyone. But at least people who live in towns and cities can pop back to the shop or at worst find a nearby hardware store that sells the missing fixings. Life is not that simple for people who live in remote areas. A quick ? and understandably irate ? phone call to the supplier revealed that the missing fixings could not be replaced for another week! Mindful that they had already thrown the old bed out, the couple realized they would need to buy the missing fixings from a hardware store, but the nearest ones were all over half an hour's drive away.

This is where the internet worked its magic. A quick search allowed them to find the nearest store, check whether they had the right fixings in stock and get directions. They were also able to compare prices between a couple of different stores. The internet saved them quite a lot of time making phone calls and driving to different stores and meant that they were able to get to the nearest hardware store to buy the missing fixings before it closed. All of which meant that the house was ready for the old lady when she came out of hospital.