DVD Survivor - Which stores should be voted off
09-06-00 | 03:18 PM
#26
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From: The Garden State
CDNever
Amazon
CDU
CDU may have horrid CS, but I got my stuff relatively quickly last time and each time it was a great deal.
Lately even the supposed good Amazon service has gone way downhill. Major hold times and screwups by their order specialists messed up a large preorder of mine that thanks to ONE good CS person, should be fixed and on the way today. Next time I will flood their system with cancellations and reorders rather than make it easy. There is no reason two FULLY paid for orders with GCs should not be able to be combined to save shipping and get a piece of the GC back.
Amazon
CDU
CDU may have horrid CS, but I got my stuff relatively quickly last time and each time it was a great deal.
Lately even the supposed good Amazon service has gone way downhill. Major hold times and screwups by their order specialists messed up a large preorder of mine that thanks to ONE good CS person, should be fixed and on the way today. Next time I will flood their system with cancellations and reorders rather than make it easy. There is no reason two FULLY paid for orders with GCs should not be able to be combined to save shipping and get a piece of the GC back.
09-06-00 | 05:44 PM
#27
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From: Silicon Valley
Interesting discussion. It seems the ones most of you want to boot are the ones I'd keep.
I've probably placed over 50 orders at buy.com, and yes, a few pre-orders didn't arrive before street, but most of them arrived the Thursday or Friday before street, and considering that most of them are free (coupon + WebCertificate), I can handle a delayed shipment or three. And one of my reel transfers didn't go through, but I picked that title up somewhere else for the same price, so I'm not too pissed. The bottom line is that buy.com has consistently low prices plus coupons. So even though I have to pay sales tax, on my island, buy.com stays.
Amazon is another place that has its flaws, but is still high on my list. I've managed to snag the 40% pre-orders in their random pricing game, so that doesn't miff me. And their new privacy policy doesn't come as a surprise in the everchanging world of dotcoms. Every dotcom will eventually consider its customer list an assett. With GCs from places like Vividence and Freeride, I'll pick up the occasional 40% preorder at Amazon, and appreciate that they don't charge me sales tax. So Amazon gets to stay on my island, at least for a while.
800.com has the occasional low price plus coupon, so I'll keep them.
CD Universe has low prices and the occasional coupon, plus I still hope to get some GCs frpm bungo. I don't trust them with my credit card, so I always use a WebCertificate that just has enough of a balance to cover the cost when I shop there, so I'll keep them for now. But they'll be the first of this group to go.
The following get kicked off:
cdnow.com. It only takes one incident to get you to swear off a company. Mine was with cdnow.com. They claimed to have shipped me a dvd which I never received. I asked them to track it, and it turns out that even though they charged $4.95 for S&H they didn't use any kind of tracking or delivery confirmation. So I asked them to send a replacement and they said they'd have to charge me for it. In other words, if your package gets lost in transit, you pay for it. For this reason alone I will never buy anything from cdnow.com again. Off the island.
bigstar.com has high prices that even the occasional coupon can't help. The end of Monday Night BigStar was the end of shopping at bigstar. Off the island.
I made one and only one purchase at checkout.com. It was shipped in a padded envelope and was crushed upon arrival. If you can't properly package my merchandise, I won't buy from you (CD Universe learned this pretty fast). checkout.com gets the boot.
FamilyWonder has raised their prices, and although I got all of my rebates, it's a hassle so they go.
And then there are the companies in limbo. DVD Empire and Express both have reasonable pricing. But I haven't shopped at either, at least not recently, because frankly I can get what I want cheaper elsewhere. What would make these companies more attractive would be the occasional coupon, or an alliance with one of the click sites where GCs can be awarded. Heck, I'd take either an Express or Empire GC over an Amazon GC at FreeRide, but since they aren't available there, I get the Amazon GC or the WebCertificate.
The unfortunate thing is that it's a highly competitive e-commerce world out there, and each and every company has to cut back on something in order to survice, whether it's discounts, coupons, or customer service. Reel already showed us what happens when a company doesn't cut back. The good news is that you can focus on the attributes that are most important to you (cost, delivery speed, customer service) and concentrate on those e-tailers that haven't cut back on those areas.
I've probably placed over 50 orders at buy.com, and yes, a few pre-orders didn't arrive before street, but most of them arrived the Thursday or Friday before street, and considering that most of them are free (coupon + WebCertificate), I can handle a delayed shipment or three. And one of my reel transfers didn't go through, but I picked that title up somewhere else for the same price, so I'm not too pissed. The bottom line is that buy.com has consistently low prices plus coupons. So even though I have to pay sales tax, on my island, buy.com stays.
Amazon is another place that has its flaws, but is still high on my list. I've managed to snag the 40% pre-orders in their random pricing game, so that doesn't miff me. And their new privacy policy doesn't come as a surprise in the everchanging world of dotcoms. Every dotcom will eventually consider its customer list an assett. With GCs from places like Vividence and Freeride, I'll pick up the occasional 40% preorder at Amazon, and appreciate that they don't charge me sales tax. So Amazon gets to stay on my island, at least for a while.
800.com has the occasional low price plus coupon, so I'll keep them.
CD Universe has low prices and the occasional coupon, plus I still hope to get some GCs frpm bungo. I don't trust them with my credit card, so I always use a WebCertificate that just has enough of a balance to cover the cost when I shop there, so I'll keep them for now. But they'll be the first of this group to go.
The following get kicked off:
cdnow.com. It only takes one incident to get you to swear off a company. Mine was with cdnow.com. They claimed to have shipped me a dvd which I never received. I asked them to track it, and it turns out that even though they charged $4.95 for S&H they didn't use any kind of tracking or delivery confirmation. So I asked them to send a replacement and they said they'd have to charge me for it. In other words, if your package gets lost in transit, you pay for it. For this reason alone I will never buy anything from cdnow.com again. Off the island.
bigstar.com has high prices that even the occasional coupon can't help. The end of Monday Night BigStar was the end of shopping at bigstar. Off the island.
I made one and only one purchase at checkout.com. It was shipped in a padded envelope and was crushed upon arrival. If you can't properly package my merchandise, I won't buy from you (CD Universe learned this pretty fast). checkout.com gets the boot.
FamilyWonder has raised their prices, and although I got all of my rebates, it's a hassle so they go.
And then there are the companies in limbo. DVD Empire and Express both have reasonable pricing. But I haven't shopped at either, at least not recently, because frankly I can get what I want cheaper elsewhere. What would make these companies more attractive would be the occasional coupon, or an alliance with one of the click sites where GCs can be awarded. Heck, I'd take either an Express or Empire GC over an Amazon GC at FreeRide, but since they aren't available there, I get the Amazon GC or the WebCertificate.
The unfortunate thing is that it's a highly competitive e-commerce world out there, and each and every company has to cut back on something in order to survice, whether it's discounts, coupons, or customer service. Reel already showed us what happens when a company doesn't cut back. The good news is that you can focus on the attributes that are most important to you (cost, delivery speed, customer service) and concentrate on those e-tailers that haven't cut back on those areas.
09-07-00 | 05:59 AM
#28
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From: Sydney, Australia (The other side of the planet).
I can see advantages and disadvantages for most sites we all shop at.
Personally, I don't care if I pay 30% off rather than 40%. Obviously I'd rather 40% but I don't lose sleep over the extra couple of bucks.
As for service and postage speed. I've been ordering online since it was first started back it mid 95 and every shop has fast orders and slow orders.
I usually just select the cheapest option now days and just wait for DVD's to arrive.
Because I buy almost weekly, there is always something turning up every week at my place.
As for Amazon. I found they're just as bad / good as all the rest of the bigger shops online?
What can you do?
------------------
Regards...
John 3:16
Personally, I don't care if I pay 30% off rather than 40%. Obviously I'd rather 40% but I don't lose sleep over the extra couple of bucks.
As for service and postage speed. I've been ordering online since it was first started back it mid 95 and every shop has fast orders and slow orders.
I usually just select the cheapest option now days and just wait for DVD's to arrive.
Because I buy almost weekly, there is always something turning up every week at my place.
As for Amazon. I found they're just as bad / good as all the rest of the bigger shops online?
What can you do?
------------------
Regards...
John 3:16
