Shopping on the Internet/Pats and Pans

Shop online! Whatever happened to the Sears, Roebuck catalog, where else are you gonna buy a new cast iron kitchen range?

And that catalog! It was great for putting on chair seats, to prop up the little ones!

Really never had a bad experience. Other than amazon and ebay, for the most part I only buy from known retailers.

I just bought a watch online from Macys about 1/2 hour ago. I was in the store last week, and they don't have the same selection as they do online. I was looking for a specific style/look that I had in my head...I looked at 1000+ watches online over the last week, and finally found one.

I recently bought a 32" LCD hi-def TV. I had checked the internet, and then went to a store to buy the item. I got into a conversation with the salesman. He said that a lot of people check out the TV in a store, and then pick it up cheaper on the net.

He said something that made me think. He said that some stores are selling "grey market", refurbished, and returned items as new. He said that some customers are having a lot of trouble with the honoring of warrantees from those places.

Now he might have been saying that, just to put a scare into me, but I don't know. If you look at the shopping sites, there is a positive correllation between a poorly rated store and cheaper prices. I would expect that if most dealers are selling within a certain range, and all of a sudden you see another dealer offering the product for considerably less, that might cause a person to stop and think.

He wasn't lying, there's definitely a lot of refurbished stuff on the internet.

Most of my home theatre speakers are refurbished, but at least I knew that when buying them. Personally, I have no problem buying speakers refurbished, but would probably want to stay away from more complex stuff like receivers.

In the UK, I always look at Shopbot sites such as Kelkoo etc., when I have something specific in mind.

I'm still on the hunt for an LCD TV (got to be 37 inch plus) and hope to spot a bargain soon in the run up to Xmas.

If I don't, then there's always the post Xmas sales....there's no real rush.

Slappy- I have no problem with "refurbished", but I don't want to pay a new product price for something that was used. We once had a Sony outlet store near us, and bought a high end refurbished CD player for a fraction of the cost of the item new. It was really a great buy!

The only things I've ever bought on the internet were books or subscriptions for memberships on chess sites.

I've always been leery about buying a product, not being what I had expected, and having to ship it back. Doesn't that get expensive?

I guess I'm just one of those that likes to look and feel something in person. Kick the tires sort of thing.

I buy a lot on the internet, and like Slappy, I never really had a bad
experience.

I bought about 3 years ago a Sony LCD TV that came from a retailer
out of NY - no salestax and the shipping was waived for everything
above a certain amount. Couldn't get the same price here. The TV
was brandnew in a box with warranty from Sony.

Dto. for my refrigerator, I saved good 400 Dollar by buying it from
a retailer in Wisconsin. Again, no sales tax, and no shipping.
It came with a warranty from the manufacturer.

Phoenix, I think this is the key - the manufacturer would not give a
warranty certificate if the product is refurbished. So make sure you
have the original warranty, and if in doubt, check back with the manufacturer if it is indeed for a new product.

We buy a lot online.

I've only had good to excellent experiences.

Warrants in the EU have to be (at least) two years, so that's no problem either.

However, we bought a dishwasher, a washing maschine and stuff like that at our local dealer - they are (and have) the presons to look at them if something is going wrong.

I bought all my photo stuff (which really is worth a bit) from my photoshop: get the same price there as on the second but cheapest internet side (at least), but a better personal service (she is nicer :wink: ).

You rarely get catalogs here anymore (even the big catalog shops are only publishing once per year) - so you have to look for the latest (both products as prices) on their internet sites .... and when you are allready there, you just buy online.

My refurbished speakers were bought directly from the factory, so they came with a warranty. But I know what you mean Phoenix, you don't want to be duped into thinking they're brand new.

I even bought a rug online. It was 1/2 the price the department store I saw it in had, with no shipping or tax. rugsusa.com.

Free shipping for a refridgerator? How can they afford to do that? Volume?

That sucker was expensive, Reyn, but I guess the manufacturer has
warehouses out here (probably L.A.) as well, and they just shipped
it from there.

Well, that's something I would expect: free shipping for bigger goods.
(Otherwise, no-one would buy online )

Remember, that internet warehouses do not have to pay sales people, and have fancy showrooms. That would cut their cost down quite a bit.

From that point of view, it is a good idea, but so much can go wrong, depending what kind of product you buy.

A couple of years back, we bought a new Maytag washer from a major store where I live. We had problems with it and it had to eventually go back.

If I had bought that over the internet, aren't one's problems to smoothly return compounded?

It's one thing to buy a book over the net, but when one gets into something which could be faulty, isn't this buying trouble?

Can someone speak to this?

I can see Reyn, you're not a true internet shopper

When they delivered my refrigerator, the two delivery guys were very
careful in moving that thing around, and when they unwrapped it in
my kitchen, they asked me to inspect it for any imperfections and dents
which I did.

If there were any, they had taken it back. Exactly in the same manner
as you'd do when you buy one around the corner from you at Sears.
They use a delivery firm to bring a refrigerator and if it were damaged
they would have to take it back. Very simple really.

And since I pay with credit card, I have something to fall back on in
case of a dispute.

Yeah, the return thing is rarely an issue. Most places that sell something that kind of require a "kick the tire" equivalent have free shipping and free returns, like Zappos.com (online shoe store). They include a stick-on return label with the package, and if you don't like it, you just put the shoes back in the box, stick the label on, and drop it off at a UPS store. Onlineshoes.com has a version that you can print out. Some variation of that is pretty common. (People really need to try on shoes to know if they fit.)

All of my purposeful shoes purchases from the last several years have been online, including several returns. (By "purposeful" I mean like "I need a pair of sandals..." I've bought a couple of pairs of boots I didn't really need but were cheap and pretty and caught my eye at a brick 'n' mortar store in that time period.)

Wallingford Bikeparts offers a 6 month guarantee on Brooks saddles. You've got 6 months to decide if you like it. They honor the guarantee. I'd like to see anyone beat that in a brick and mortar store.

I had an incredibly slow shipper on one item, and the didn't answer emails. Ultimately, the order was delivered, but it was becoming a matter of concern. My lesson - if the merchant only accepts payment through Paypal, I'm not going there. Also, I expect a phone number, preferably a toll free phone number.