Favourite Retailer
Who's your favourite retailer and why?
I think the way to win loyal customers is great customer service and when I started out building my new PC at the start of the summer all the retailers looked the same to me really. After narrowing down my hardware choices most of the cheapest deals were with Scan Computers. They accounted for 90% of my parts.
Out of around 8 things I bought from them, 1 didn't arrive on time. However they had dispatched it in plenty time, it was the couriers fault. I complained to them about the courier taking ages just to vent some anger but didn't expect a reply. Today I got a 2 page email from Scan apologising about the whole thing and saying they've even passed the details onto the couriers head office cause Scan are one of the couriers biggest contracts. Even if that comes to nothing it still makes me feel valued as a customer.
Also my monitor came with a wrong power cable but I found a spare around the house, Scan gave me £5 off of my next order even though I told them I'd found a spare.
Any other customer service details like adding onto existing orders have all gone smoothly and the people who answer the phones are always pleasant.
Now all Scan have done here is being nice to a customer but now I'm always going to go to Scan first when looking for a new part. Why do some retailers not get this??
I think the way to win loyal customers is great customer service and when I started out building my new PC at the start of the summer all the retailers looked the same to me really. After narrowing down my hardware choices most of the cheapest deals were with Scan Computers. They accounted for 90% of my parts.
Out of around 8 things I bought from them, 1 didn't arrive on time. However they had dispatched it in plenty time, it was the couriers fault. I complained to them about the courier taking ages just to vent some anger but didn't expect a reply. Today I got a 2 page email from Scan apologising about the whole thing and saying they've even passed the details onto the couriers head office cause Scan are one of the couriers biggest contracts. Even if that comes to nothing it still makes me feel valued as a customer.
Also my monitor came with a wrong power cable but I found a spare around the house, Scan gave me £5 off of my next order even though I told them I'd found a spare.
Any other customer service details like adding onto existing orders have all gone smoothly and the people who answer the phones are always pleasant.
Now all Scan have done here is being nice to a customer but now I'm always going to go to Scan first when looking for a new part. Why do some retailers not get this??
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Comments
I just recently had a really good experience with NewEgg. I ordered a stick of RAM for my old Notebook, because it wasn't quite keeping up with running Trillian, F@H, BitTorrent, and Civ4 PTBS all at the same time. The stick I got was bad. I wrote to NewEgg to ask for a RMA number. The rep told me that since I was such a good customer, she would just send me a new one without the RMA process. The new one works fine, my laptop is like a new man, and I have a new geeky keychain.
Seriously tho... NewEgg is the first place I look for almost anything because they have several pictures of everything that is included with the item, they process orders faster than anyone I have ever purchased from, and they either have the lowest price or are within 1% of whoever does have the lowest price.
They also have an easy to navigate website without crap that I don't need stabbing me in the eyes so I can pick my criteria and drill down to what I want in a matter of seconds.
But yeah. I've had my problems with the egg, but the only reason for that is that god hates me. Granted I don't buy anything from there now merely because I don't have friggin' plastic and they want me to bind plastic to my paypal account... Oh well. Great selection of jargle if the site is a little difficult to navigate sometimes..
Due to shipping costs, I also frequently shop at our local CompUSA, which is our ONLY physical retail dedicated computer parts store. But anyway, if I only need a single item or something heavy, like an uninterruptable power supply or a computer case, then I purchase at CompUSA. No matter how good Newegg is, when shipping is included, they just can't usually compete with my local store heavy or single items. Now if comes to specialty items, like high performance motherboards or RAM, I usually have to order online no matter what. CompUSA's RAM and motherboard inventory here is really sad.
There's BestBuy also, but I can hardly make myself go in there without wanting to get violent and smash all the blaring stereo equipment. BB also seems to be a magnet for the brain dead who need a place to wander around. There are also mom & pop computer shops in town, but the parts selection is pathetic and prices are crazy high. Understandable - there's just no way the mom & pops can keep million dollar inventories and compete through volume sales.
Two main reasons pics and price.
Newegg has taken online order fulfillment to an art form. Here's an excellent Anandtech article on Newegg's California facility. Plenty of pictures too. It's a fascinating read.
*statement above may not be 100% accurate
zipzoomfly
chiefvalue
newegg
I know there were some other ones that I've used as well, but these three (two) tend to be the best. Newegg has better pictures, zipzoomfly sometimes has more written documentation (like on cpus), and zipzoomfly processes orders in about a day rather than two days, which makes the 2 day saver air mail actually worth advertising.
Physical Stores:
CompUSA
MicroCenter
To a much lesser extent: Best Buy, Circuit City, Office Depot, Office Max
Unfortunately CompUSA left here. Overhead is ridiculous here for retail, especially with Best Buy headquarters stationed like 10 minutes from my house.
For hardware the UK sites I use most are Scan and Overclockers.
in all seriousness...
hahahahahahahahahaha
newegg FTW
I love you, purely for your avatar.
chiefvalue = newegg.
"Copyright© 2003-2007 ChiefValue.com, a Newegg Inc. Company. All Rights Reserved"
IMO, NCIX.com is the newegg of Canada right now. Awesome prices and selection. Very good weekly sales and affordable shipping. Don't have to pay PST in Ontario since they are in British Colombia as well
My company is even listed at Resellerratings