Tired of Newegg; looking for alternative... [Archive]

shegs

06-14-2008, 09:35 AM

ok, I am looking to build a new computer when I come back to the states in 2 weeks.

I usually order from newegg but they are #$%^ing on me saying my billing address is messed, they say it will take upwards of 2weeks to fix the problem.

I am curious if everyone uses newegg or is there some alternative that actually cares about their customers.

burkhartmj

06-14-2008, 04:45 PM

I imagine most of us use only use Newegg, I know I've never had a bad experience

Though, I have been known to go to www.zipzoomfly.com for price reasons. They aren't as good with shipping as Newegg, but they are pretty decent and on rare occasions beat Newegg prices.

mikec

06-14-2008, 05:03 PM

What is the board's view on Tiger Direct?

tokenuser

06-14-2008, 05:48 PM

What is the board's view on Tiger Direct?Boooooooooo. Two thumbs down. They have good prices - but only with rebates that never seem to get fulfilled.

jdhore

06-14-2008, 06:47 PM

Boooooooooo. Two thumbs down. They have good prices - but only with rebates that never seem to get fulfilled.

And their customer service sucks, their prices are more than Newegg and it takes them a long time to ship. ZipZoomFly...I've never ordered from then and i never will after Alex Albrecht's experience...Back in the day (Maybe G4, maybe early Diggnation), he ordered a supposedly New In Box (not refurb'd or open box or anything like that) CPU and they sent it to him, looked NIB, he opened it...It had dried thermal paste on a bit of the CPU...I think that is damn screwed up, so i refuse to order from them.

Sadly, i hate to say it, but Newegg is prolly your best option, barring that, Micro Center doesn't have as good prices, as good of a website or as good of a selection, but they're pretty damn decent.

burkhartmj

06-14-2008, 08:48 PM

And their customer service sucks, their prices are more than Newegg and it takes them a long time to ship. ZipZoomFly...I've never ordered from then and i never will after Alex Albrecht's experience...Back in the day (Maybe G4, maybe early Diggnation), he ordered a supposedly New In Box (not refurb'd or open box or anything like that) CPU and they sent it to him, looked NIB, he opened it...It had dried thermal paste on a bit of the CPU...I think that is damn screwed up, so i refuse to order from them.

Sadly, i hate to say it, but Newegg is prolly your best option, barring that, Micro Center doesn't have as good prices, as good of a website or as good of a selection, but they're pretty damn decent.

I dunno, I bought a Logitech G7 from them fairly recently, and it was pretty great service. Perhaps they had to improve their practices recently because of Newegg competition?

As far as tiger direct, they are a horrible company that preys on people who don't know any better. Every now and then you can find a good deal that beats out newegg, but expect to get screwed when something like that comes along.

iccanui

06-15-2008, 01:18 AM

I would just suck it up and realize that mistakes happen. Newegg has been spot on for me for years and year. A mistake sucks, but i dunno, over all i think newegg is worth sticking with.

But i understand where your coming from.

tokenuser

06-15-2008, 03:36 AM

I usually order from newegg but they are #$%^ing on me saying my billing address is messed, they say it will take upwards of 2weeks to fix the problem.Thinking about this ... since Newegg are an online company only, it is good to know they wont let you order unless alll your details are correct. A little fraud protection can be inconvenient, but it is nice to know that they have measures in place to detect and deal with it - even if it slows your order down by two weeks (doubtful).

Other places to order parts -
Outpost.com (Fry's Electronics online)
Amazon (its worth a shot)
Overstock.com
Woot.com - it might be only a deal a day, but if its what yo are looking for its a damn good deal.
Even Staples & OfficeMax/Depot have deals on hard drives and CD/DVD ROM/RAM drives sometimes.

happynihilist

06-15-2008, 03:51 AM

I would have to say Newegg is still the gold standard. Zipzoomfly was pretty good back in the day when they were still Googlegear (seriously, did they honestly think Google would NOT have a problem with that name?) I ordered quite a few items from them and they were great on ship time and cost compared to Newegg.

Since then, Newegg has improved and Zipzoomfly became one of the also-rans - smaller selection and more expensive shipping that is slower out the door.

I have yet to have a bad experience with the Egg (knock on wood) so I stick with them unless I run across a particular deal or a coupon at Amazon, Buy.com, etc.

shegs

06-15-2008, 04:48 AM

my problem is more with the preferred card... I am a student and cannot afford a whole PC in one shot, so I use the card. just so happens that randomly and every once in a while I get stuck getting declined because of a bad billing address when I have used it before.
the kicker is that since it is random when it happens I then have to wait upwards of 2 weeks before they can resolve it... not cool if I need something sooner.

anyways I looked around and no one has their selection and other than the random problems with declining my newegg credit they are damn good.

I was just pissed because they weren't telling me why my address was causing the problem... oh well

mikec

06-15-2008, 05:19 AM

I usually order from newegg but they are #$%^ing on me saying my billing address is messed, they say it will take upwards of 2weeks to fix the problem.

Are you using a debit card? If so, contact the bank that issued the card. We have a friend who had a debit card and the zip code associated with the card was wrong. When they tried to use it with certain on line merchants it was rejected. A call to the bank fixed the issue in less then five minutes.

As for Tiger Direct, I have not bought anything from them but wondered since they bought the CompUSA name/brand.

dark_shroud

06-17-2008, 08:01 AM

Tigerdirect is ok, I've found things cheaper with them than newegg. As for their rebates it depends on who is offering them.

There is also Geeks.com and pricewatch.com.

oct_dragon74

06-17-2008, 10:51 AM

I have used tigerdirect on many occasions with no problems what so ever. The rebates are dependent on who the rebate is through. It took me like 9 months to get one from western digital once.

darknessgp

06-17-2008, 03:13 PM

I've had bad experiences with tiger direct, I suggest avoiding them if possible.

I had major issues with Outpost.com when I had to RMA my video card I got from them. I RMA'd it back to the manufacturer, but I couldn't find my receipt that they sent with it. For one they have almost a non-existent customer area on their web site. Seriously, I had no way of going online and getting a copy of the invoice. I had to email there tech support, explain why I needed to RMA my video card, and request a copy of the invoice. To which they snail mailed to me. It took about 3 days of email conversations and another 3 days for it to get mailed to me. Such a giant pain for just a copy of the invoice.

fishtoprecords

06-17-2008, 04:02 PM

jdhore

06-17-2008, 05:05 PM

I usually use newegg first, but check out tigerdirect and use them regularly.

I hate rebates. Hate, hate, hate!

I wish there was a local Frys here, but the closest one is 1000+ miles away. Talk about attitude, Frys invented arrogance. But they have the stuff.

I you live "outside Washington DC" as your profile says, there are 2 Micro Center stores (One in Rockville, MD off Montrose Rd and one in Vienna, VA just of I-66) which in my opinion is better than fry's and almost as good as Newegg, but they have a storefront.

fishtoprecords

06-18-2008, 12:45 AM

I you live "outside Washington DC" as your profile says, there are 2 Micro Center stores

I frequent the one in Fairfax. But it doesn't compare with the Frys in Palo Alto. Not nearly the collection of hardcore PC stuff, and hardcore general geek stuff- no oscilloscopes, signal generators, etc.

Let alone the junk food, magazines, etc.

tokenuser

06-18-2008, 01:30 AM

I moved from having 3 Fry's within 20 minutes driving time in SoCal (Anaheim/Fullerton and Fountain Valley were closest - Irvine (?) a close third) to a tech wasteland.

Fortunately, A Tiger Direct Outlet (yeah they have B&M stores) opened up nearby ... it's no Fry's, but I hope they have the USB to 5.25" drive adapter (not enclosure) I am looking for tomorrow :)

dj29152

06-18-2008, 01:45 PM

shegs

06-20-2008, 11:46 PM

so just to wrap this up,

it is a newegg preferred account card (lets me have no payments/interest for a year and they blindly gave me (a student) $2000 limit). though this card is probably the primary reason my credit has jumped from the low 400s to high 700s in about 18 months...

anyway, I resolved the issue and have decided that the credit company needs to better train their representatives. I don't find it odd that I am ordering something from another country to be delivered to my home awaiting my arrival. so they either need some type of "abroad" flag or train their people to understand the problem.

after I realized it was the fact I am in Korea, it was a simple act of having my friend make a remote account for me on his computer so I could order the parts as if I were in "America". the cards were billed and the monitor has already been delivered.

newegg is once again my favorite web based ordering place, and always my first choice. frys will be the "oh shiz I need one thing to make this work... lets go to frys" place.

thanks guys for your suggestions, too bad none of them offer proper credit, a necessity for me as a student.

iccanui

06-21-2008, 02:16 AM

You know, just as a alternative, now that i remember.. www.pricewatch.com

The reviews have always been trust worthy in the past. Its been a while since i actively used them cause my part purchases have halted for a while now, but i still hear good things. Leo was just talking about them on Twit today, so thats a good sign. Was the best way to find prices and i always felt confident cause of the rating and comment systems. Just watch for injected comments from the people selling you stuff. Should be illegal to manipulate the system like that, but oh well.

Anyway, just thought it might help some day.

fishtoprecords

06-22-2008, 04:23 AM

I moved from having 3 Fry's within 20 minutes driving time in SoCal (Anaheim/Fullerton and Fountain Valley were closest - Irvine (?) a close third) to a tech wasteland.

So you must do the virtual office thing, I assumed that Rev3 was in the valley, and not like, San Fernando, like. what with Patrick always saying "if you are in SF and have a great hack and are as good looking as Julia, Camilia or V, come talk to us"

I guess mail order is killing local stores except in special places, MicroCenter is as good as we have here in the land of Political Hot Air. CompUsa was better for parts, but of course, they are gone.

Even back when Northern VA was the center of the Internet (with AOL, MCI, UUnet, NetworkSolutions, CyberCash, etc.) there was nothing like a good Frys. Probably too many suits and not enough engineers.