Ahh, the entire purpose behind this website (er, well, resellerratings.com anyway). So, how do you be sure to get a good shopping experience with the vast amount of computer parts retailers? Well, if your local shops are anything like here in St. Louis, there's only one option for buying, and that's online. So how to pick out a good reseller:
1) Check the company's karma on
http://resellerratings.com
2) Check their history on
http://bbb.org
Two very good steps in beginning to eliminate possible frauds or just plain lousy businesses. If you don't like what you see, look for another reseller. There ARE good computer part dealers out there...but I do feel there are more bad than good (by my records, anyway).
3) Call the company. If they do not give a phone number, don't even think about giving them your money. Ask to speak with a few different departments. I usually ask for the RMA department first, since that seems to be mighty important if something were to go wrong. This may help give you an idea of what you may be up against in case of a toasted item. Other departments I have conversed with prior to a purchase include tech support, sales, and customer service.
4) Email them. Though this isn't quite as effective, as emails are much easier to screen than phone calls. So if they're notorious for not replying to RMA and TechSupport emails, this may not help, as they will probably be quite quick to respond to a new victim...er, customer. But you can still try, as if it takes a while to respond, then you know what to expect in the way of expedience in their electronic communications.
And remember, if a company is getting about 2/3 positive feedback and the rest negative, that means an entire 1/3 are being ripped off. There are plenty of vendors that do not have these kinds of records, as it is not a good way to conduct business. Don't risk your money. The difference in price is often a couple of dollars. And what happens when you save $5, but get a DOA item, and can't get a working replacement? You just paid twice for that item; so much for saving any $$$.
Seem like too much work? How much do you get paid an hour at your job? Just think of it like this: if you get ripped off, how many hours' pay were lost because you weren't willing to spend one or two hours researching your purchase? (And that little time would have probably been otherwise spent watching a movie or TV, eh!)
After you filter out the bad guys, lets hope you don't get unlucky on your purchase, and UPS ships it to your crack-head neighbors, never to be seen again! And don't forget to post your experiences online at
http://resellerratings.com as it only works when we all put in our $.02
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