Black Friday/ Cyber Monday 2019 tips?

PostWoke

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are on the way. Hoping to build a rig out of it. Thought we could build a little OT for it with tips, considering shipping can be tricky for us in Ireland. I have a few questions,

Is there any point using an Amazon Prime Trial during these events? Do we get free or cheaper shipping to Ireland? Might more stuff ship that ordinarily might not? Does the Prime trial work across all European Amazons? (.co.uk, .es, .it, .fr).
What Amazon is the recommended one to use? In my experience .es can be quite cheap, and that way you're not converting currencies, but .co.uk has the best selection. Is .de an option or do they not ship here often because of the distance?

How do people go about setting up their alerts? Any good apps for that that work in Europe? Any good browser extension like Honey that can check for the cheapest prices of a product, that work in Europe?

What other sites are typically decent for BF/CM? overclockers.co.uk? Any others that will ship to Ireland? Any Irish retailers that put on decent deals usually?

I'll put any questions and answers in this original post, maybe get a proper OT going for it.

WEBSITES:

https://www.cclonline.com
https://www.hotukdeals.com
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsalesuk/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/
https://www.amazon.es/
https://www.amazon.fr/
https://www.amazon.it/
https://www.amazon.de/
https://www.currys.ie/
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/

K.O.Kiki

I just use [url="https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsalesuk/]r/buildapcsalesuk"[/url] & HotUKDeals for bargain hunting.

Prime trial is a good idea, as some sales will be open to Prime members first/only.
I don't think it works across different Amazon sites though.

AFAIK Amazon still ups the tax to Irish rate during checkout (which they'd have to, legally).

PostWoke

Updated the OP with a few websites, christ Curry's are shocking; over 110 euro for a 500GB SATA III SSD.

smacl

PostWoke wrote: »

What Amazon is the recommended one to use? In my experience .es can be quite cheap, and that way you're not converting currencies, but .co.uk has the best selection. Is .de an option or do they not ship here often because of the distance?

I use whichever one in Europe happens to be cheapest at checkout on the day. During the whole crypto thing I ended up getting a couple of GPUs from Spain which were way cheaper than the UK.

Also would look at CCL but wouldn't touch laptops direct.

PostWoke

smacl wrote: »

wouldn't touch laptops direct.

For shipping reasons?

smacl

PostWoke wrote: »

For shipping reasons?

Nah, just very bad experiences using them in the past. Probably fine most of the time* but if, like me, you're unlucky enough to have to return a faulty product you'd be using someone else next time. For me it is a balance of cheapest price and confidence in the returns process where things go wrong. I'd take a punt on a low ball price for a couple of hundred euros or less but not for anything more than that. Amazon Prime is currently the sweet spot for me, but certainly have no issues with CCL or Overclockers either.


*I've used them twice, disastrous both times and unpleasant to deal with. There won't be a third. Could just have been terrible luck, but I'm out.

PostWoke

Interesting, good to know. Anyone else had a similar experience?

rosmoke

Just 2 months ago ordered a Grade A dehumidifier from appliances direct, they are same as laptops direct I think. Arrived broken and I am struggling to return it, they kept sending parts for me to try fix it (water tank, float sensor, etc). Finally they said they will collect it this Friday, courier didn't came, I'd stay away now even though I ordered once before and was ok.

PostWoke

Will take it out of the OP so, that's a let down, they have a monitor I'm looking at going with.

Laphroaig52

You will get the UK rate if you use a Parcel Motel address. So if the VAT differential is more than €4, PM will be cheaper.

mossym

bought a 2070 super from CCL a few weeks back, arrived no issue in a coupel of days, so the following week ordered new 3700+, mobo, ram, cooler, again all arrived couple of days later well pacakged.
iv've got amazon prime but for PC parts haev no hesitation in recommending CCL

PostWoke

CCL do seem really good, very good deals already, hopefully even more for BF/CM.

B Rabbit

Good idea for a thread! I have a build spec'd out. I may as well wait till black Friday / cyber Monday to buy at this stage.

Amazon's Black Friday sale starts on the 22nd and runs to the 29th.

PostWoke

Can we not edit OPs? Well, that's a little counter productive for this purpose.

Shiminay

You can't edit a post after 48 hours, but a mod can, so maybe a PM to the forum mod will sort it out.

HeartOfTheCity

PostWoke wrote: »

How do people go about setting up their alerts?

Recommend using PCPartPicker - you can specify parts, and an email alert should the price drop below a threshold defined by yourself.

Laviski

if anyone spots some decent listings .. .do share
Also OP, talk with mod about getting first post updated with the info.

Kimbot

Laviski wrote: »

if anyone spots some decent listings .. .do share
Also OP, talk with mod about getting first post updated with the info.

OP appears to be banned....

Im hoping a few of my parts price drop over the next week so I can pull the trigger and buy my build.

Uriel.

Kimbot wrote: »

OP appears to be banned....

Im hoping a few of my parts price drop over the next week so I can pull the trigger and buy my build.

From an amazon perspective I've a load of camelcamelcsmel alerts set up for my parts list. 1TB Samsung 970 evo plus ssd on sale today about €45 less than normal on amazon. Lowest its been I believe.

Today's price being £155, about €182

TuringBot47

smacl wrote: »

I....but wouldn't touch laptops direct.

PostWoke wrote: »

For shipping reasons?

I ordered a WD Red 2TB NAS drive from them a week or so ago.
It was dead on arrival. Not great for a drive thats key selling point is reliability.

In fairness, after a semi-slow response they're sending DPD to collect it direct from my house.
But I'm sure it'll be a few days to return to them, longer still for them to test it and then either a refund or replacement.

Annoying and pushes back a personal project.. lucky I'm not in a hurry as such.

So first experience with them isn't good.
They took over a working day to respond to the initial RMA request.
Then I e-mailed them last Wednesday to collect it last Friday... they didn't.
Only just got the RMA label this morning for collection tomorrow.
So yeah, slow customer support.

rosmoke

TuringBot47 wrote: »

I ordered a WD Red 2TB NAS drive from them a week or so ago.
It was dead on arrival. Not great for a drive thats key selling point is reliability.

In fairness, after a semi-slow response they're sending DPD to collect it direct from my house.
But I'm sure it'll be a few days to return to them, longer still for them to test it and then either a refund or replacement.

Annoying and pushes back a personal project.. lucky I'm not in a hurry as such.

So first experience with them isn't good.
They took over a working day to respond to the initial RMA request.
Then I e-mailed them last Wednesday to collect it last Friday... they didn't.
Only just got the RMA label this morning for collection tomorrow.
So yeah, slow customer support.

They sent DPD to collect my one as well and DPD didn't came, waited another week for courier and sent it on the 8th. Now waiting for money back ..

K.O.Kiki

Uriel. wrote: »

From an amazon perspective I've a load of camelcamelcsmel alerts set up for my parts list. 1TB Samsung 970 evo plus ssd on sale today about €45 less than normal on amazon. Lowest its been I believe.

Today's price being £155, about €182

You can get HP EX950 / ADATA SX8200 Pro / PNY XLR8 CS3030 for less even without sale, and they perform around the same as 970 Evo in many workloads.

Or if it's for games... just get whatever cheap SATA drive, load times will be the same :pac:

TuringBot47

TuringBot47 wrote: »

I ordered a WD Red 2TB NAS drive from them a week or so ago.
It was dead on arrival. Not great for a drive thats key selling point is reliability.

In fairness, after a semi-slow response they're sending DPD to collect it direct from my house.
But I'm sure it'll be a few days to return to them, longer still for them to test it and then either a refund or replacement.

Annoying and pushes back a personal project.. lucky I'm not in a hurry as such.

So first experience with them isn't good.
They took over a working day to respond to the initial RMA request.
Then I e-mailed them last Wednesday to collect it last Friday... they didn't.
Only just got the RMA label this morning for collection tomorrow.
So yeah, slow customer support.

Ordered on Oct 25th.
They only just got back and said they were processing the refund, but hopefully not a mistake as they were only refunding the €85 and not the €12.70 in delivery costs.

Immediately getting back to them now... but definitely painful and slow to deal with.