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Shopping Online
A reader writes:"I've been buying stuff on the Internet for a while, and wanted to get people's thoughts about the best places to go. I primarily am looking for media or computer parts. Of course, I've used Froogle, PriceWatch or PriceGrabber, but also use places like tigerdirect or NewEgg. Where else do people go, and any recommendations for getting decent deals? " Oh, and of course, shamless plug for ThinkGeek, who is also owned by OSTG.
This will become a bunch of plugs for all the geeks favorite places to shop, so here's mine:
I like Mwave.com, they have just about all the parts you could ever want at comparable prices to other sites on the net. They also ship UPS ground that comes to Idaho as fast as 2 day UPS for 1/3 the price of 2 day.
My best advice for buying PC stuff online is order from the US, and read the reviews on Pricewatch or epinions.com to make an informed decision.
I know what you're thinking. Did I forward 65,535 packets or 65,536 packets?
I prefer Amazon as it usually has prices comparable to most other sites. But a stronger reason is the reviews. Amazon has a huge custmoer base and there are usuually a lot more reviews for a product than found on other sites.
From the original post: thoughts about the best places to go.
What criteria does the poster consider most important for best?
Okay, my main criterion is unequivocably (sp?) customer service. For me this includes only a few but important criteria:
I have long since abandoned picking the cheapest offering and almost ignore that ranking when looking for a place to buy online. I've almost (saved by an attentive and pro-active Credit Union (Watermark Credit Union -- great service!)) been burned big time and the brush with sleeze was enough to nudge me to find a provider with good service and be loyal. That said, I will plug as an example, amazon.com. They come nowhere near to the leaders in lowest prices but they have been amazing in their response to some difficult transactions -- I consider their approach exemplary as a model to emulate.
Amazon isn't the only great provider out their, but they're a good starting point.
Also, for ebay-type shopping, though I'm loathe to penalize newbies, I shop from only highly rated, large sample-space sellers with extremely high ratings.
I haven't seen mwave.com mentioned yet. Admittedly, I haven't ordered from them in a few years, but the few times I did use them they had a good selection, good prices and pretty fast shipping.
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
Check the site with netcraft. If it is running Windows with IIS, do not shop there. If you look at netcraft, you will see that they run about 40% of the https space. Yet, they suffer nearly 100% of ALL credit card thefts. Statistically, that is a disaster.
If you do not believe it, simply netcraft all the known thefts for the last 5 years. Last none-MS theft was Playboy in ~2000 (solaris box that was not updated).
The problem with Fatwallet is that the signal-to-noise ratio is WAY too small, and good deals get buried constantly just because of all the other crap that is posted.
I much prefer a "highlights"-style site such as DealMeIn.net.
Ok, I'm still trying to figure out why you didn't get modded (-1 Troll)
1. Name a single 24/7 B&M computer store. Also it isn't the fault of the on-line stores that delevery is mon-fri during daytime hours...take that up with FedEx and UPS.
2. Is it the store's fault that you are incapable of
googling the item you are thinking about purchasing before you buy it?
3. If that DVD burner actually wrote at 0.4x then it is defective and you should have returned it to
the store and gotten a refund. More likely you are either just trolling or you are a complete incompentent.
You completely ignored the fact that he stated what should be obvious: ThinkGeek, etc doesn't drive the item to your house. They ship via USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc. Some of them offer Saturday delivery, but I'm sure you will pipe up how that costs way more and you should be special or different from everyone else who receives anything via post.
This rebuttal was just garbage. You're saying it takes too long to check out the specs of an item online. And obviously every salesman in brics and mortar stores a) knows what they're talking about and b) won't lie to you. Here's a hint: the first time you go looking for product specs: remember where you got them. If it's a general purose review site you can go back next time for info on other items.
It gets better and better. You can't even remember where you bought it so you can't return it. Well, if you ever buy something online in the future I submit that you should either print or save the receipt page they give you to jog your memory in case this happens again or you need warranty work. Etc.
Actually, you're probably too helpless to shop online. Better to go let the nice salesman spend your money for you.
http://www.andashdesigns.com/
I just bought 2 dvds (different titles) on ebay, from two different sellers and was screwed by one, and disappointed by the other.
This was the first time I bought DVDs on ebay, every other purchase I've ever done went smoothly.
The 1st DVD was a bootleg. When I confronted the seller he just said that it wasn't a bootleg, but an import with a different cover. This was bull for many reasons. The first is that I ordered the DTS version, and the dvd was labeled as that, but the movie itself was Dolb Digital. Next, the dvd was only single layer (it says on the label DVD-9)! I had to return the movie to the seller at my expense, then he gave me negative feedback since I gave him negative feedback.
CAUTION: Be wary of sellers that say their DVDs are imported and may have different covers, this means they are very convincing bootlegs!
With my other purchase, the guy shipped me the DVD that I asked for, but without its' DVD case! He never mentioned this, after I told him about this, he said that throws out the cases that his DVDs come in. What an asshat! Plus, he didn't take paypal, so I had to send a money order (yuck), I should have noticed that before I bid though.
unless the stuff I want to buy are rare and/or the item are just way too expensive to acquired brand new, I'd rather buy it off somewhere else other then ebay. there are just too much noise on ebay now. and their rating/feedback system isn't exactly objective. (a lot of times it's tit for tat, I gave you positive if you gave me positive, vice versa). Item quality is a big issue, since there's not much guaranteed on what you see is what you get. (and those misleading descriptions... )
and we seriously need a good competitor to Paypal. because if something is wrong, Paypal isn't the one that really out to help you solve the problem(most of the time Paypal is fantastic, but if something went *wrong* during the transaction, or wrong with goods, Paypal is really slow on dealing with problem, or sometimes, not doing anything at all).
well the story, and the discussion it generates is indeed stuff that matters to us. If /. decides to embed a few referrer links, more power to them. keeps this community going anyway.
now, if the post wasn't on 'stuff that matters', that would be a different story....