I'm going to wade into the pool just a little bit.

Many of my dealers use portal for a variety of reasons.

As a distributor, when someone places an order with portal directed to me, portal processes, sorts and forwards an email to me. I get it, and I open it, and I acknowledge address, shipping, and items. If I don't open it, portal sends me a reminder email after a while (same day, half an hour?) saying look at this.

I look at it and if pricing is wrong (due to manufacturer promos, price increases, etc) I notify the customer. Most of the time pricing is good, because we provide it to portal on a VERY timely basis to make sure it's accurate. If pricing is inaccurate, do not blame portal, blame the supplier you chose. Frankly, it's set up so it's their responsibility to update pricing.

After completing the order, I send a confirmation to my dealer saying all in stock, shipping today, due to you by such and such, depending on all that stuff.

The failsafe is if I don't look at the order, and it's not entered, portal won't send a confirmation email. So looking for a response is a way to not only know it was received, but also stock status, etc. To me, it's like emailing an order; if I don't get a "got it" message, I'm nervous.

Hope this helps clarify some of what the process is like from my side.

Does not address any of the other issues, like charges, etc. Good luck with those.