Après nous, le déluge, or e-commerce, Web 2.0 style

I send an official order to a institution for some goods they provide. They refuse it: they will only take orders with credit cards hand-written on a form one has to print from their website and then fax to them.
I have a telephone conversation with a pleasant woman. "Please tell me, why do you not accept official orders from a major university like us?" I ask. "Oh", she replies, "that would open the floodgates". I put the telephone down. What flood does she fear? A flood of customers wanting to spend money on buying her goods?