i live in a small city (some stores) but i suppose i could muster up a bank credit card to buy onlin

do you REALLY get good discounts by buying online? i've looked and i'm
still confused. anybody think they can clear this up?

 

What is there to clear up? Use the total price include shipping etc to
decide if there is enough of a saving to justify the added wait for
delivery.
Jim

 

very good advice, tyvm. since you are in the mode, what about trying to
get an online discount in the stores that have websites? have you heard
of this or is the walk-in buyer just screwed.

 

There is also the risk of the gear arriving damaged, followed by a
fight with the delivery company over whose responsibility it is,
additional waiting time, and so on.

If you ever need to return something for a warranty repair it can
easily get difficult too. At a minimum, they'll require that you pay
the return postage.

Unless the savings are really significant, I shop in local stores.

 

I've seen huge savings on cameras etc online.

 

Likewise. And if you mention an on-line price, the local guy will often
come down in his price a bit. I give locals a 10% 'fudge factor' on the
price (meaning I'll let them be 10% more expensive than the next guy), just
for the convenience of dealing with a face that you can actually go and
talk to about problems. Or even to share your delights with. And you never
know, you may make a new friend.

RobG

 

Have you checked the larger online retailers, such as Amazon and
Newegg, or price search engines, such as Pricewatch, Pricegrabber, and
Shopper?

A bank debit card isn't a very safe way to shop, locally or online,
since its federal protections are much weaker than for credit cards.
There are no legal requirements for banks to process chargebacks, and I
know of none that offer 1-use card numbers that can be obtained online

 

Yes, there are real bargains. But you need to be careful. Some online sellers are not
reliable. But then again, some stores aren't reliable either. A good guide is, "If the
price SEEMS too good to be true, it probably is."

 

I think it is always best to support the locals. Shopping is not about
price, it is about value for money. Value for Money = Benefits / Price.
So to get better value for money, either the price comes down or the
benefits go up. The local suppliers can almost without exception give
better benefits than the websites. You have the advantage of being able
to see and feel the goods before purchase. The advantage of being able
to talk to someone about it and get advice. You also have the advantage
that if by chance you have a problem or a fault with the unit, you have
a real person that you can talk to about the problem. Especially in a
small region, you will find the service offered by the locals will
almost always be excellent, because they know the best advertising they
can do is word-of-mouth. They know that if they screw you over you will
tell 10 friends and their business goes down the tube.
With a website, it is hard to know who is reputable and who is a thief.
You will have to wait for your goods that you are buying sight unseen.
There is a high risk of getting grey-market goods. If by chance you have
to make a warranty claim, you don't have someone to talk to
face-to-face, and are left at the mercy of direct-to-manufacturer and/or
the postal system.
The local will almost always have a higher price than a website - and
that is fair, because they have higher operating costs. A local store in
a smaller region will usually have to pay more for their stock than a
big-city store or a mass-merchant, because they cannot order in the same
quantities. Accept this, understand that they aren't ripping you off if
they are 10% higher than a website or big-city mass merchant, they
simply charge more because they have to. Then weigh up the advantages of
buying from a local. For me the equation is always weighted in their
favour, despite a small saving in $ if I went online or to the big city.
A little over a year ago I bought a new film SLR. I could have saved
about 30% in price by shopping online - that is a big potential saving.
After about 3 months, it developed an intermittent exposure problem.
I took it to the store where I bought it, who sent it away on my behalf
to the manufacturer's Australian importer, who returned it saying no
fault found. A week later and one more roll of film, I went through this
again. The third time when I went in, they decided enough was enough and
replaced it for me on the spot. Not only that, they gave me a pack of
film as compensation for my problems, and a bunch of vouchers for free
film processing. I didn't ask for any of that. That is the kind of
service the local guy can give that a website can't. If I bought at a
website 30% cheaper, I would have had to post the camera at my expense
either to the supplier or to the distributor. Goodness knows how many
times I would have had to do that, and what costs I would have incurred
in doing so. Chances are I would still have the faulty camera and
probably would have had to buy a new one myself.

 

I often buy online with Visa (debit card) or Paypal when I know
exactly what I am buying and cannot get it locally at a reasonable
price, but usually not very expensive items. I only order online from
a reputable shop (always one that has a verifiable address, and
usually one that also runs a normal store). Since I am located in the
EU, I choose an EU seller because of tax and shipping considerations
(unless I cannot find what I need in the EU).

There are many online and phone order camera scams, especially in the
US, so you need to be careful. Place a small order for something cheap
and wait for a satisfactory delivery before buying something expensive
from the same shop. If they insist in tacking something else at a
"special price" onto your original order, or if they tell you the
advertised price applies only when combined with other purchases,
cancel your order and hang up.

Check the Paypal customer satisfaction ratings for the shop you are
considering . A single dissatisfied customer may be a dufus who did
not know what he was buying (you can usually detect this from his
comments), but a string of bad ratings (or no rating at all) should
make you steer clear of that shop.

 

By that time they already have your credit card details.

 

Yes, it is worthwhile if you buy from a reputable vendor. B&H and
Adorama are probably the best.

 

And WATCH THAT SHIPPING CHARGE.
Shipping charges can often exceed the cost of merchandise on small items.

 

but a lot of online sellers don't charge sales tax, where I live I save 8.6%
on tax alone.

My son and I just ordered parts to build a new computer, buying online we
saved 200 bucks plus the 8.6%...but then there was 50 bucks in shipping




| >
| > Unless the savings are really significant, I shop in local stores.
| >
|
| Likewise. And if you mention an on-line price, the local guy will often
| come down in his price a bit. I give locals a 10% 'fudge factor' on the
| price (meaning I'll let them be 10% more expensive than the next guy),
just
| for the convenience of dealing with a face that you can actually go and
| talk to about problems. Or even to share your delights with. And you never
| know, you may make a new friend.
|
| RobG
|

 

Plus you have no guarantee that the complete system will work, if you've
been unfortunate enough to get incompatible components.....

 

Why not? I've actually had more parts failures from brick & mortar stores
than from online suppliers.
Of course if I fry a part thats my fault isnt it?



"David J Taylor"
message | Crash Gordon wrote:
| > but a lot of online sellers don't charge sales tax, where I live I
| > save 8.6% on tax alone.
| >
| > My son and I just ordered parts to build a new computer, buying
| > online we saved 200 bucks plus the 8.6%...but then there was 50 bucks
| > in shipping
|
| Plus you have no guarantee that the complete system will work, if you've
| been unfortunate enough to get incompatible components.....
|
|
|

 

My point was that if you don't know what you're doing, you can end up with
incompatible parts when building a system yourself, and if that happens
saving a few pennies hasn't got you anywhere. It's increasingly difficult
to compete on price by building a system yourself, although it /is/ much
more satisfying.

David

 

"David J Taylor"

Although I usually hold to the theory that you expound, I found myself doing
exactly the opposite, and found out, to my cost, that you're right. I
bought a battery pack from B&H that wasn't available from my local store to
power our flashes. Even though Sunpak claims it's compatible with "most"
other flashes, it works admirably with our Canon flashes and uses a Quantum
power cable, it isn't compatible with our Quantum flash. A fact that B&H
cheerfully acknowledged in a return email, and one that Sunpak steadfastly
refuses to comment upon, despite several attempts to contact them.
The bright side is that the pack is $150 less than a Quantum Turbo...

 

Skip M wrote:
[]

In the UK if, when you had ordered, you said "I want a model-X battery
pack to work with a model-Y flash", I think you would now be entitled to a
refund as the goods supplied are not "fit for purpose". With their good
reputation, I'm slightly surprised that B&H haven't helped you out, or
perhaps it's good enough for your purposes.

But it's interesting to see incompatibility issues are not confined to the
computer parts world!

David

 

Last Oct I purchased a Canon A520, a Maha battery charger and NiMH
batteries, and a 256M Sandisk memory card, all online. But I had
carefully checked on each of the 3 companies I bought from at
resellerratings.com and they all had ratings of 9 or better. When I
found the camera locally for $10 more and the card for way less, I
cancelled with 2 of the online vendors. Neither of them gave my any
hassle, and cheerfully refunded me my money. Obviously, I felt better
about buying it locally for all of the obvious reasons.
I feel buying online from reputable vendors when there are significant
savings is worth the trouble. Of course, I've never had any trouble.
Most of the horrible stories I've heard online were about companies
whose rating was poor. Buy from a reseller whose rating is 7, you've
got a 30% chance of being unhappy. Pay to ship it back and get a lot of
arguing about it. Who needs that? But if you buy from vendors like B&H
or Newegg, no problem.
I also don't pay any attention to people who come online and rave about
some company because they bought something there and it worked out. Or
if someone badmouths a company because they had a bad experince. Every
company, sooner or later, will have a dissatisfied customer. I go by
the ratings. So far, it's worked just fine.
Hope this helps in your world.