When will I get what I purchased?

I always been a fan of buying things online. The convenience and the unbeatable environment of your home. You can shop at the comfort of your couch or bed, while buy things such as a car, or lawn mower. Technology has made life simpler. But there is one thing I found to be very irritating. Unlike buying grocery at the local super market or dvd at the electronic store. You get charge when you don't have anything in your hand. Actually you may get charge, few hours, few days, and sometimes even weeks before your item even left the seller's hand. I can understand the seller wants to protect themselves of fraud, simply not wanting to send things out until the check clears, but credit card transaction is immediate.

I strongly believe that there should be government regulation on when the transaction of charging your credit card should happen. This method should exclude checks and electronic banking because those does take processing time. But for credit card, I believe the charging of your card should not happen until the item is leaving the seller's hand. Such as a postal worker that will be authorizing the charging of your card. Would you want to walk around an electronic store, every time you pick something up, you'll get charge right away, and if you decided that you don't want it or the item is broken, you'll get reimburse in 5 - 10 business days? Does that even make sense?

There are little or no consumer protection against how long it takes a seller to ship out an item after they charge your credit card. Its an analogy to you going to the store, find what you want, pays in advance, and you have to wait unset amount of time before someone comes out with the item you brought. I think this type of behavior need to change.