Choosing and Buying Components - Recommended sources
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The question we hear more often than any other is, “What company should I buy from?” When someone asks us that question, we run away, screaming in terror. Well, not really, but we’d like to. Answering that question is a no-win proposition for us, you see. If we recommend a vendor and that vendor treats the buyer properly, well, that’s no more than was expected. But Thor forbid that we recommend a vendor who turns around and screws the buyer.
Yes, it’s true. Robert is of Viking extraction. On government forms, he describes himself as “Viking-American.” And, no, he doesn’t wear a funny helmet. Except among friends. And he hasn’t pillaged anything in months. Years, maybe.
So, which online resellers do we buy from? Over the years, we’ve bought from scores of online vendors, and our favorites have changed. For the last few years, our favorite has been NewEgg (http://www.newegg.com). NewEgg offers an extraordinarily good combination of price, product selection, support, shipping, and return and replacement policies. We know of no other direct vendor that even comes close.
NewEgg’s prices aren’t always rock-bottom, but they generally match any other vendor we’re willing to deal with. NewEgg runs daily specials that are often real bargains, so if you’re willing to consider alternatives and to accumulate components over the course of a few weeks you can save a fair amount of money. NewEgg ships what they say they’re going to ship, when they say they’re going to ship it, and at the price they agreed to ship it for. If there’s a problem, they make it right. It’s hard to do better than that.
WARNING All of that said, if you buy from NewEgg and subsequently your goldfish dies and all your teeth fall out, don’t blame us. All we can say is that NewEgg has always treated us right. But things can change overnight in this industry, and though we don’t expect NewEgg to take a sudden turn for the worse, it could happen.
As to local retailers, we buy from—in no particular order—Best Buy, CompUSA, Target, Office Depot, OfficeMax, and our local computer specialty stores, depending on what we need and who happens to have advertised the best prices and rebates in the Sunday ad supplements. Wal*Mart used to sell only assembled PCs, but has recently started stocking PC components, such as ATi video adapters, so we’ll add Wal*Mart to our list as well.
If you buy from a local retailer, open the box from the bottom rather than the top. If you need to return a non-defective item, that makes it easier to repackage the product with the manufacturer’s seals intact, which can help avoid restocking fees.
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