At the risk of making general assumptions, many in our hobby want to call and chat. This can be the death of a small business particularly when you have limited staff and bandwidth and answering the phone comes at the expense of shipping a part. Not saying it is right or wrong, just the reality. A small business could spend hours a day fielding questions and calls that don't result in revenue.
I have ordered 3 times in the last few months from IE through the web without issue. On the most recent one I did a horse trade with another customer on a core they sent to IE to see if a repair could happen. I emailed them CC'ed the customer confirming that their part would be returning to me.
Guess what happened? Everything arrive as requested.
Could they improve, sure, but the reality is that the market (us) no longer pay for expertise, we want lowest price and highest peer review.
I have bigger concerns with the shipping they charge me to Canada.
Thank you team IE.