Your Online Experience

fearliath

Hi Folks,

For academic research purposes and more specifically as part of a college course I am doing a small project on EXPERIENCES OF INTERNET SHOPPING.

I am looking for feedback from any of you who have used the Internet to do any shopping at all. I would appreciate it if you could write about an experience of Internet shopping in accordance with the following instructions.

Describe a satisfying experience of Internet shopping which you have had. Your description can be as long or as short as you wish.

Thanks for your assistance.

J

BloodBath

The majoirity of us order off the net because it's cheaper and a lot of the time more convenient.

I, like many people on here, ordered all my pc parts off an online shop and built my pc myself. It worked out near enough to 800e cheaper than shop prices for a similar spec machine so you could say that was a satisfying experience.


BloodBath

Amazon.com, very happy.

Love the convience. I order two books on a whim at 2 o'clock in the morning!

Got a Tshirt from some random website in the US

Mac daddy

I have been shopping online f'or the last two years never had any major problem up untill two weeks ago - I wanted to order a camera of Pixmania.com gave them the credit card details - Got a mail back of them the next day asking for a Copy of my passport or driving license, i canceld the order straight away nevr before have i been asked to provide that, ordered the same camera of dabs.co.uk and got the camera in two days

The first thing that came to mind was indentity fraud that is why i did not provide them with the information.

Word of advice for anybody ordering of pixmania do not order of them.....

pickarooney

I managed to find a set of long-since out of print Freak Brothers comics in great nick on eBay or similar, which went down a treat with my other half, who's a major fan but ha an incmplete collection for years. Only cost a few quid and made her very happy.
Haven't had any bad experiences, but I tend not to buy so much, I get all my computer equipment at trade fairs.

ShiverinEskimo

Spent over 1500 on play.com so far and spent plenty on other various websites be it amazon (here and US), komplett, booked holidays, flights and hotels regularly. Never had a single problem - play didn't deliver once or twice but they are great at just sending one out again as soon as 14 days expires - no questions asked.
Online shooping has saved me tons of cash and saved me even more frustration at avoiding crowded shopping centres - I hate the accumulated general public - specifically those found loitering in shopping centres. Thats a different story for a different thread..

Cabaal

Since about 1997 I've done the following....

Ebay.com properly 2000e
amazon.com properly about 800e
komplett properly about 2000e+
overclockers.co.uk properly about 2000e+
play.com properly about 900e

In all I've been happy with every site/company and in all my years using a credit card I've never got ripped off on-line...ironially the only place I got double charged when using my credit card was in a clothes shop in town and it took about 2 weeks to get the money back

I shop on-line because prices are farrrrr cheaper, a good example of this is the Canon Powershot S30 I got from ebay for 400e but it cost 950e in a shop in town. I also shop on-line because of the better choice of items.

Khannie

I've been shopping online for about 6 or 7 years now. Since the really "early" days of e-commerce. Always preferred it to shopping offline because it can be done at any hour and because it's nice to look forward to having stuff arrive in the post.

Also, stuff tends to be cheaper online, and direct price comparisson is quite easy (you don't have to trek for hours to compare 3 or 4 stores).

I purchase most of my stuff from:
www.komplett.ie
www.amazon.co.uk
www.play.com
www.hitide.ie
www.marx-computers.com

I try to purchase from Irish stores, but selection tends to be limited.

mordeith

So far I've bought products online off:
dabs.com
hitide.ie
play.com
cdwow.ie
amazon.co.uk
crucial.com

All of the offer great service with excellent delivery times, except amazon which can take about two weeks.

I've also booked flights and hotels with no problems. I prefer shopping online because of convenience and price. One major example was a Braveheart double DVD. I got it for €18 off play.com and the exact same copy was €35 in Virgin!

Eurorunner

Books (amazon), flights (ryanair/expedia/lastminute), computer components, contact lenses, satellite components, online banking, road tax, holiday vouchers....thats all i can think of right now..but i'm sure there are other things I have purchased.

Describe a satisfying experience of Internet shopping which you have had. Your description can be as long or as short as you wish.

Nearly every internet shopping experience is a satisfying experience as in general, they work out cheaper than conventional shopping. Furthermore, you can research your purchases and know that your getting what you need to do the job - and avoid the waffle and misinformation you can sometimes get with a conventional purchase.

po0k

Having a choice in google/search engines on whether or not to include merchant sites in the results would make my life a hell of alot easier.

Semantic Web should help that.

fearliath

Thanks for all the replies to date. Your comments are much appreciated. Looking forward to hearing from more of you.

Thanks again,

J

Lydesia

The price diffirence between Digital and high tech stuff is unbelievable.
Got a camera off the net for 860 E and the same one was 1400 E in town.

Nuts

byte

I've been shopping online for approx 3 years now.

I mostly have used:
cdwow.ie
Komplett.ie
Play.com
eBay.co.uk
Cartex.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk

Never had any problems with orders from any company thus far (touch wood). Prices are of course much better usually online.

Wertz

My first ever online purchase was a PC from Dell, ironically enough.
The funny thing about being able to shop online is you can be more inclined to impulse buy (at least I know I can) and things are usually so well presented on websites...you can read about details and features that few sales assitants would even know about.
Apart from Dell, the usual eBay, Amazon, Crucial, random record stores. One or two dodgy experiences on eBay but I've used it a lot.
Bought a PSP from NCSX in New York last week; had it 5 days later.

I can safely say that I've spent more money online, on stuff that I otherwise may not have bought in a RL shop.



Someone mentioned CC checks..the shop may just be as worried that you're not who you say you are, as you are that they may be trying to steal your ID...small UK stores have no way of verifying Irish CCs.

Webmonkey

Shopped a few times on amazon on skateamerica.com. Found amazon good, skateamerica were slow but that was just because GLS had my package in customs in dublin for 3 months and couldn't be bothered to tell me.

rsynnott

namecheap.com

Kazaanova

I've been shopping at Sendit.com and Play.com for the past year. Its not really for convience as I hate having to wait a week to get my stuff, but the prices are amazing, plus who doesnt love getting stuff in the post?. In the past year I've seen one game in the shops cheaper than online, one single game. And that was a sale thing. I hardly even go into game shops. The same with DVD's.

As for computer parts, I shop online because I've found that most shops just dont have what I need. I dont mind the prices that much, but again I've only ever seen one computer item cheaper in the shops, again in the sales. For me shopping for computer parts outside of the internet just seems wrong and stupid.

Creamy Goodness

i'd say i've bought about 3500 worth of items off the net.

my two biggest purchases would be my Gibson Guitar 1400euros opposed to 2500-3000 in shops here.
my custom built pc about 2 years ago set me back about 1500.
some cd's dvd's from play and ebay
and my mp3 player aswell (380 euros)

kinkstr

Ive shopped online twice, both times buying computer components from komplett, which worked out a hell of a lot cheaper than if i had bought them in an irish shop, id agree with Khannie when he said its nice waiting for your merchandise to arrive at the door
the only problem ive had was waiting almost 2 weeks for a parcel to arrive, which in fairness is a minor gripe seeing as the whole experience of buying online saved me alot of money.
I think ill be buying alot more online from now on(dvd's, games etc.)

Khannie says: Soz kinkstr....just think that sig's unsuitable for a public forum....I'm sure you know the furore it's caused in mod world

ixoy

Shopped online for years now. Must've spent 3k+.

Spent mostly at:

www.ebay.com - Mostly books. This was several years ago. Found it a great resource for hard-to-find books that just couldn't be got elsewhere.

www.amazon.com/.co.uk - Spent hundreds on books with them, as well as a few DVDs and a multi-region DVD player (which was great value). If I had a problem with them, that they could rectify, is that final shipping cost isn't immediately transparent as it is with their competitors.

www.play.com - Spent hunderds here. Definetely cheaper than the stores by min. 20%-25% normally. The one time an item didn't show up, they had no trouble replacing it.

www.dvdsoon.com - More hundreds here. Canadian DVD seller. Very cheap although notoriously slow on sending out orders. Seem to have cleaned that up a bit lately.

www.getlenses.com - Cheap contact lenses. Nice and easy. When my last order was delayed, and I was running very low on my supply, they had no hesitation in sending out a few extra to me. Good service.

www.komplett.ie - Built my PC from their components. Didn't have a GLS problem like others and found the prices far better than shopping locally.

Various airlines - Cheap tickets. 'Nuff said.

Generally then I've shopped online for the convenience, the prices, and to get items that I couldn't get elsewhere. I will definetely continue online shopping and would broach into other areas (e.g. groceries) as time goes by.

MisterAnarchy

I've been using the web to shop for years
I reckon I do most of my luxury shopping there.
Keep a track of all my credit card spending and I have spent over €12k online
I bought 2 PC's :www.komplett.ie and www.ebuyer.com
A Widescreen TV and surround sound system :www.richersounds.ie
Camera and Camcorder from www.amazon.co.uk
Clothes,shoes,health products,DVD's ,Cd's ,Games,Xbox Console,Flights,Magazine subscriptions,Stationery,Office furniture,Golf Equipment (Lots of !), Blank DVD's ,
Exercise equipment ,computer products,Books, Car Tax, Household Equipment plus many more
I hate shopping in stores as the crowds,annoying salespeople and prices irritate me
I've only ever had one false transaction and that was refunded by my credit card company
I also highly recommend AIB's Transactonline service as its fantastic

Hobbes

Mac daddy wrote:

The first thing that came to mind was indentity fraud that is why i did not provide them with the information.

Word of advice for anybody ordering of pixmania do not order of them.....

If it is a UK company, a lot of these do this. Normally when you ask for trade prices. I personally would not (and have not when requested) supply them that information. Your credit card should be enough.

You could ring your credit card company and give out about it as well.

I buy from Amazon mostly. Various stuff. When I was in the US I used to buy my shopping online because I never had to time to hit the stores.

MisterAnarchy

Word of advice for anybody ordering of pixmania do not order of them.....

Nonsense .
They are a very reputable company and have a very good service.
The extra security check is there to help you the customer.

Khannie

MisterAnarchy wrote:

Nonsense .
They are a very reputable company and have a very good service.
The extra security check is there to help you the customer.

Have to say I was /totally/ freaked out the first time this was asked of me, and politely declined. It seems like a step too far to me, though I have heard of it working out for plenty of people, I wouldn't be doing it myself.