Low Prices and Free Shipping: I will be Back!
Written: Apr 14 '04
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Buy.com is an on- line superstore with a wide variety of products available for on- line purchase. This web service, based in Aliso Viejo, California, has an inventory that includes more than 1.5 million products, making Buy.com one of the largest retailers in cyberspace.
Features of This Service:
Buy.com offers products for sale in the following main categories:
Books
Magazines
Toys
Music
Music Downloads
DVDs
Games
Sports
Bags
Computers
Software
Home Networking
Digital Cameras
Electronics
Cellular
Besides these main areas, Buy.com also offers items for sale in a clearance category, with items that are often deeply discounted. It also has a section called “Other Stores”, which is a list of affiliate sites with links into each.
Methods of Payment:
Buy.com accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Diners Club, and government credit cards. Checks and money orders are also valid on most orders (except for cellular purchases) but bear in mind that your order will not begin to be processed until the check or money order is mailed and in a customer service representative’s hands. Wire transfers are also accepted, but they carry a service fee of $25, making this method impractical for small orders.
Shipping Charges:
Buy.com offers four different levels of shipping: Budget, Standard, Two- Day, and One- Day. Each shipping level carries with it a flat charge (varies from item to item, depending on the category) plus an amount per item. With Budget shipping, your merchandise is scheduled to arrive between 7 and 9 business days after placing an order and the flat rate is $1.45 to $1.95, plus 45 cents per item. With Standard shipping, your merchandise should arrive between 3 and 5 business days with a flat rate that varies between $1.95 and $4.99 with a variable charge between 69 cents and $1.95. Two- day shipping takes two business days with a flat charge that ranges between $4.95 and $9.99 and a variable charge between 95 cents and $4.95 per item/unit. And finally, One- day shipping (not valid for bags) should arrive in one business day with a standard charge between $8.95 and $14.99 and a variable charge between $1.95 and $2.99 per item/unit.
Some items include free shipping. These are designated by a yellow or orange colored truck next to the product. A yellow truck signifies that the item is eligible for free budget shipping. An orange truck means that the item can possibly include free shipping if you purchase a certain dollar- level of the products (like with books, a $25 purchase makes the budget shipping free of charge). This can help to make your Buy.com experience a little more economical than it might otherwise be.
Remember that these rates are only meant as a general guideline to follow. Don’t forget to check with the site before you make any assumptions about the cost of shipping- it can change at any time.
Customer Service:
Issues about your individual account can be checked and tracked by logging in at any time after you place an order. You can track your package and check your order status at any time. You can also create a wish list for your account, showing what items you would like to buy in the future.
If you need to contact Buy.com directly, you can do so either by calling or by sending an e-mail message. There is a help section that can answer lots of basic questions. But if your question is more complex, you will need to send an e-mail. This is done directly through a link in the site (there is no e-mail address given, to send messages to). The phone number to call with questions is 877-780-2464, which is available M-F from 9am to 9pm, Sat. from 10am to 2pm, EST. The phones are not answered on Sundays.
Final Thoughts:
Buy.com is a popular place for making on- line purchases of many different types of products. I have used this site a couple of times, to purchase books. There are not as many books available in this site as with others, like Amazon.com. But there are enough to keep my interest in the site.
Buy.com has an interesting mix of products for sale. As you can see from the listing of categories up above, this site is mostly a place to purchase electronics. But there are other categories, too, like toys, books, and magazines. Probably the most unusual selection is the “Bags” category. Here, you can find all sorts of bags- backpacks, camera bags, duffel bags, camcorder cases, luggage, briefcases, and others. I’m not sure why the site sticks with these types of categories. Most of them are related, but others are not. Perhaps they will expand this in the future and turn the site into a full- service department store, like Amazon.com has become.
The main thing that keeps me coming back to Buy.com is the prices. With books, the best- selling lists often include prices that are a few dollars less than the competition. Because I have used Amazon.com so much, it is my usual point of reference. And I must admit that Buy.com can often match or beat Amazon.com’s prices on many of the best- selling books of the day. With older books, the prices are just about even. But with newer books, I can often get a better deal using Buy.com. And since Buy.com doesn’t charge any shipping on book orders over $25 (the same deal you get at Amazon.com), the overall cost is pretty good.
As far as other items go, it seems to be a hit and miss game with Buy.com. But from my experience, I have come up with more hits than misses with this service. CD’s are often a little less expensive here, and so is software and sporting goods. Computers are another story- I have been able to find better prices in other on- line stores. But overall, the prices at Buy.com are lower and if you can manage to stick with items that carry no shipping charges (or buy enough of one item to qualify for free shipping), you can easily come out ahead with this service.
Every site has its share of negative aspects, and Buy.com is no exception. One thing I don’t like is the searching function for certain items, like books. Unlike other sites that provide all sorts of ways to search and browse for books, Buy.com offers only a few ways to shop around. You can quickly glance at the “Hot Buys” in a particular category, but all you get to see are the most popular titles in that group (maybe 10 books). With some specific categories, the Buy.com system will show you more books and allow you to sort them (by price, availability, author, etc.), but this is inconsistent from one topic to another.
Another minor complaint that I have with this on- line store is the time it takes to get an order. Remember the shipping times that I talked about above? Well, the number of days listed is not the number of days you can expect your order to arrive after you place it. Rather, this is the number of business days you can expect your order to arrive after it has been shipped. Since I was in no hurry to get my books, I used the budget shipping method, to minimize my cost. I was expecting to get my order in 1.5 to 2 weeks. But it took almost three weeks (15 business days) for my package to arrive in the mail. The reason, I was told, is because availability was low and they did not ship my order until about 5 days after it was placed. Like I said, I wasn’t in a hurry to get my order (I have plenty of books lying around, waiting to be read). But it still bothered me that it took this long to arrive.
You must establish an account with Buy.com before you can make a purchase. It’s easy to do, and only takes about 10 minutes to complete. As you shop, it is possible to add items to your shopping cart and utilize the other features of the site without an account. But once it comes time to complete your purchase, you must setup an account to continue. You must enter your e-mail address, create a password, and enter your billing and shipping information.
Taken as a whole, I would have to say that Buy.com is a pretty good place to conduct shopping. It’s not impeccable, and it does have a few areas that could stand to be improved. But the bottom line for me and many others is PRICE, and if Buy.com can continue to offer better deals than its competitors and continue to offer free shipping on some orders, then I will continue to visit this web service. It might have a boring name, but its prices beat those of the other on- line stores, hands down.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Books
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