Online stores. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Yoska

I do online shopping alot. Being a nerd I mostly buy hardware and various form media and while I have only good experiences I would like to hear about if you have ever had bad experieces, what stores you would recommend and what stores you would advice to stay away from.

I'm afraid I don't have much to tell myself, tho :ermm:. At least nothing interesting.

Play.com has become my number online store. I just like their free shipping and even if Play.com is a UK company and I live in Finland the shipping usually takes just a week. Play-asia.com is nice for some more exotic, import items. But shipping from Hong Kong usually takes almost a month -_-.

I used to use Amazon.com and it's different country specific siblings but I kinda stopped doing that due cheaper alternatives. I have used Pixmania couple times and nothing bad happened but I know Pixmania is regarded rather dubious. Verkkokauppa.com is a Finnish store I like to use for more expensive hardware (like I bought my current television from there) and tax free games.

Darkstorm

Amazon & play for anything english.
Axelmusic for R1 dvd's, videogamesplus.ca for North American game releases. Play-asia for Japanese stuff. I used to use animecornerstore who were exceptional in every way, except sadly their international shipping was too expensive.

Axelmusic & Animecornerstore in particular have really good customer service.

captain usopp

not sure if this counts, but I like the site "game trading zone" for those hard to find games. I've had good and bad experiences with that site. due to you having to rely on individual people, rather than an actual company. Needless to say, I learned to check user ratings before I decide to buy anything.

I love buying from amazon.ca cause the warehouse is really close to me. I get things sometime THE DAY it was shipped out. ^^

Kaze

If you don't like strange people, stay away from Kreg's List.

You'll meet some of the creepiest people out there.

but the stuff they sell is usually legit.

KaizokuFan22

Amazon.com-I use it for Manga,Games, and books
HLJ,Playasia-Mostly for my collection
EBay- hard to find stuff..plus i sell items on there ( with horrible luck though)

Sakonosolo

Manga - Sasuga Books or Yesasia
Japanese Games - Yesasia or Play Asia
Books - Borders, Amazon, or Barnes and Nobles
Games - Amazon or Gamestop
Everything Else - Amazon

I'll occasionally use Ebay for hard to find stuff but I haven't used it in a while.

IrishLuigi

Currently using Amazon. Mainly because they don't ask you to confirm your age.

Yoska

I just remembered I actually do have had bad experiences with online stores too.

Twice I have received games with slightly broken/cracked casings. Once via Play-Asia and once via Play. While I of course didn't like it I didn't mind about it too much at all, obviously since I had all forgotten it, and I don't know who to blame either. The mailman, the online stores or somebody between them? So, yeah, not a perfect record. But nothing catastrophic.

One thing about Amazon which I would love to be able to utilise: Kindle. I would love to have a Kindle.

captain usopp

what's a kindle?

Sakonosolo

It's like a little PDA that you download books to I think. Seems like a waste of money to me.

Yoska

Okey. I just read I can actually soon buy a Kindle DX! Including shipping costs and "Import Fees Deposit"… 700 US dollars -_-. And no 3G support in Finland (why?).

Fuck it. I ain't that big reader. I hope once Apple makes it move toward e-reader market Amazon will come into it's senses.

Malintex_Terek

Uh, most mainstream stores are legit. My Dad received an email once for a website that had insane prices, he bought something but they never shipped it. His money was returned, but it was still a bit shocking.

Local-chan

lol I was just saying to Alina how when ordering figures online I feel ripped of the chance to walk into a store, see a figure I want, Squee and then buy it. Of course since they don't sell them here anyways I have no choice.

Anywho. I tend to favour Amazon over play.com myself. More for the fact that Play, while having free postage seems to take FOREVER to arrive. (I live in the UK and 9/10 times it takes about 5-7 days for the stuff to arrive. Maybe even longer.) whereas amazon tends to be cheap on the p&p and arrives between 1-3 days. Sometimes even the next day (I recently ordered DW Specials on Blu Ray on the Monday Night (about 6pm) and selected first class post. Paid about £1.50 p&p and the next morning it was there waiting for me.

captain usopp

@Kairouseki:

It's like a little PDA that you download books to I think. Seems like a waste of money to me.

oh those things. I might actually read manga onine if I had one of those. I ain't spending the money though.

Sakonosolo

I think you can only read books that you download from Amazon though.

captain usopp

well that's dumb. good thing I'm not spending money on it.

Yoska

@Kairouseki:

I think you can only read books that you download from Amazon though.

I believe Kindle DX let's you read PDF files. Besides Amazon stuff.

You would think e-readers and comics could have a prospecting marriage. Comics are a thing of geeks and youth, and those two groups has a high adaptation rate of new tech.

S7evin

@Local-chan:

l
Anywho. I tend to favour Amazon over play.com myself. More for the fact that Play, while having free postage seems to take FOREVER to arrive. (I live in the UK and 9/10 times it takes about 5-7 days for the stuff to arrive. Maybe even longer.) whereas amazon tends to be cheap on the p&p and arrives between 1-3 days. Sometimes even the next day (I recently ordered DW Specials on Blu Ray on the Monday Night (about 6pm) and selected first class post. Paid about £1.50 p&p and the next morning it was there waiting for me.

Just out of interest: Which amazon do you use? .uk ; .com ; .jp (is there one?) ?

Sakonosolo

There is a .jp Amazon.

Local-chan

@S7evin:

Just out of interest: Which amazon do you use? .uk ; .com ; .jp (is there one?) ?

.co.uk since I live in England.

Local-chan

HOLY SHIT. Amazon's gone down the pan recently. Their prices are up and down like a yo-yo.

A few weeks ago I bought Bioshock 1 for the PS3 for £9. A week later it was £16 and now its £25

Dynasty Warriors was another weird one. It said £11, now its £22, only a few days later.

Their postage is weird too. First class is no £3 and says up to 2 working days. So if I ordered today that would be arriving Tuesday (9th) at latest in normal working minds. Amazon says Friday the 12th. 0.o

So I clicked on the 'Prime' Next Day delivery. Item itself was cheaper than everywhere else AND in stock so it didn't matter. £9 P&P 0.o considering its been £5 for Next Day delivery for months now this is just silly. And even then I'd probably not get it till Monday. Lame.

On another note however. Zavvi.com is a VERY good online store. You can usually get NEW games £10-£15 cheaper than everywhere else AND pre-orders tend to come out a few days earlier (some people have reported getting FFXIII already whereas the release is Tuesday.)

Ichnob

That's how Amazon works actually. They'll have something that's a low price, then when demand crops up for it, the price will slowly rise. Best bet, check out a few things before buying something at Amazon.

Lightning Deals, Gold Box Deals, and Daily Deals. Lightning Deals happen at a set time during the day. You never know what goes on sale (mostly crap), but every now and then, you'll find something good. Gold Box Deals are a deal on 1 or 2 items until their stock sells out. It's universal for throughout Amazon, and videogames definitely fall into the Gold Box Deal at least every other week. Videogame Daily Deals are usually hit or miss. Except for days when Videogames are the Gold Box and Lightning Deals. Those are pretty awesome.
Check Slickdeals.net. Like religiously. It's community run, and people post some really good deals there. Most big ticket items like computers, laptops, TVs, and even consoles will get posted up on the main page. They're always links to other sites, one of the main ones being Amazon. So checking that page is always a good idea. I generally see 1 good Slickdeal every other day that I wish I had money to purchase. Oh, and it refreshes every few hours when new deals come through the day.
Amazon Prime. It's an $80/year fee (at least for the US Amazon.com site). However, you can share it with up to 4 other people, so it'll only come out to $16 per person. For any purchase off Amazon that's actually sold through them (not through sellers using Amazon), you'll get free 2-day shipping, already bundled with no tax. And you don't need to pad your purchase to get to $25 for free ground shipping, because you'll already have 2-day shipping.

Yes, I shop on Amazon a lot.

Local-chan

Over in the UK you can select the free shipping whenever you like. No matter what the cost is. At least that's what I found. It just takes 3-5 days so XD (and that's only cus they hold onto it for a lil while.)

Another example I just had of the weird postage prices. I chose a CD. Just your everyday run of the mill CD. Easily available in shops. P&P First Class (Up to 2 Working Days.) £4 (considering the rare game was £2) Next day delivery £11 (The rare game was £8. Other games have been £5)

It's kinda…wtf XD