Started online purchasing around 2010 and my first order was a Kindle from Amazon. Now it’s sitting somewhere in the drawer collecting dust. Feel sad for it
Over these years I have ordered from various websites and pleasantly ALL my purchases came nicely without any problem. As in there was not any missing items, and the items are good and working (many of them electronics).
Few days ago I decided to make up a list documenting my purchases and there were about 41 purchases (might have missed some), and they span from Amazon, Dealextreme, Ebay, Miniinthebox, Tmart, Manafont, FastTech, Wallbuys, Doingoutdoor, Aliexpress, and Dinodirect, and also people from other forums (including meet-ups and sent through post).
I’m glad to say my experience with online purchase is good. It’s just so great to be sitting in front of the computer and some days later some item arrive at your doorstep/mailbox. So how have your online purchasing experience been?
so far so good. worst thats happened to me was i got unprotected trustfire flames instead of protected from dinodirect, and got a full refund and got to keep the batteries. then ebay i got a knockoff aa clone of a romisen rc-c6 that i got a partial refund and kept the light. other than that, besides delayed shipping, all has been good
The large majority have been just fine. I average about one Paypal Claim per year. I usually order 3-4 items of some kind a month. I have never really “lost” yet.
I no longer order from Dino Direct and it’s been a while for Deal Extreme.
With top sellers like Intl-Outdoor, Fasttech, FancyFlashlights and some others…I just don’t need to.
I am aware that Intl-outdoor recently had a data leak, however, what was leaked does not hurt me. My name, address and phone number are in the phone book. Tons of other data about me has been mined by Google and everyone else. Only my Paypal password getting out would worry me.
Even then, PayPal has some protections in place. I have had purchases held up while PayPal calls me at home to ask if it’s OK, due to some anomoly.
I got very lucky a couple weeks ago on Ebay. I was the winning bidder on a smartphone from “re-sell-all-electronics” and they contacted me after I paid and said that they accidentally sent me wrong phone, I was thinking “wtf” and all they said was it was an HTC phone and not the Galaxy I had bought. I told them I still wanted the galaxy so they sent me that phone too and gave me a full refund +shipping costs (for the inconvenience, I guess) . BUT when the HTC arrived I was shocked to find out that it was a much better phone than the Galaxy anyway. So I ended up getting two nice smartphones for free. That’s pretty good customer service!
I’ve made a couple of dozen buys from chinatown over the past few years, only ever had one big problem and that was DX, however, they now seem to have vastly improved.
I received several items over the last two years that showed defects (dx, fasttech), but everything was handled well by the sellers, the only thing really going wrong sadly is that my BLF-mini never arrived although the tracking said that it had been delivered .
I've been shopping online for about 15 years with thousands spent through Newegg alone, and a lot through Amazon. Some through eBay, but not much. A fair amount through DX, Manafont, and now Fasttech too.
My worst experience was my attempt to purchase my first digital camera, a used unit from an eBay dealer sometime around 1999-2000. It was the Kodak DC215; it was recently discontinued, but it had the features I wanted at a price I could afford; a full megapixel, and a 2x OPTICAL zoom lens! I purchased a "Like new" unit from an eBay dealer. On receiving the unit, I found that it was not like new, but dented with trim missing, and showing obvious signs of the case having been pried open. I opened a complaint with eBay and was able to return the camera (at my own expense) and get my money refunded. Shortly afterward, that dealer had his account cancelled.
I have also been buying on the Internet for a long time. At least 10 years, if not longer. Not just hobbies, but anything from big screen TV's to all types of electronics, tools, etc. I do a lot of comparison shopping and always look for free shipping. I do not pay shipping on 95% of the items I buy and I always get them from 20% to 50% less than retail prices.
I have been burned many times. I always was a sucker for "too good to be true" pricing. Back before ebay or PayPal gave a damn, I lost lots of money. I lost $500 on a digital SLR and a few hundred more on other items over the years. ALL of it was on ebay. Ebay is the worst rip off site there ever was, (although crime is getting worse and it is hitting more sites). Now I just walk away from the "too good to be true" deals and settle for "less than retail", with more reputable sellers. Really, I find more and more that I can find better prices on the Internet other than ebay and in fact, many times ebay is the highest on-line price. Ebay has priced themselves out of the marketplace, with all of their fees and the rising cost of PayPal.
Overall, I can't really complain and 90+% of my transactions have been good. I just take ebay and DX with a grain of salt. Neither one can be fully trusted.
I've also been buying stuff online for many years, in fact I can't remember the last time I went to a brick and mortar store to buy something!
Can't recall ever having had any problems other than slow posting from some places.
I always go by my own rule of "is the price to good to be true, is it on ebay" if the answer is yes it's more than likely a scam :p
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