My Money, My Savings THANK YOU My Simon-The Perfect Epinion Companion
Written: Aug 16 '01 (Updated Aug 16 '01)
| Site Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Search and Navigation: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
|
|
| Trustworthiness of Buyers: |
|
|
| Notification Services: |
|
|
The Bottom Line
Save money and gain peace of mind by using MySimon information and suggestions. I wouldn't make a major purchase without this perfect companion to Epinions.
|
| Full Review |
You've researched your product here at epinions. You've read every Very Helpful and Helpful review...heck, if your really thorough you've read every one down to the 2 sentence Not Helpful review. Now, before you buy take the next step and make sure you get the best price.
Get To www.mysimon.com
OK, maybe you were put off by the annoying commercial of the animated 'Simon' at the party telling everyone that they paid too much for everything. The commercial IS annoying, but has insight into the value of the service.
Please note that MySimon (a CNet company) is not an online store. They provide information to help the consumer make a purchasing decision. In their own words:
"mySimon isn't an online store. We don't sell anything. It's not a generic search engine either, so we don't simply list the names of every store on the Web. We offer an unbiased service that helps you decide what to buy and where to buy it."
-from http://www.mysimon.com/corporate/index.jhtml?pgid=aboutmysimon
My Use
I routinely use MySimon to check out what I should be paying. When I bought my DV Camera after months of research that included reading EVERY Epinion review as a non-member, I went to MySimon to get the price and find a merchant.
I entered in my chosen product and a list appeared. You can sort this list in various ways...most people will probably do this by price. I did, but I didn't buy from the lowest price. Why??? Read on my friend.
Simon Recommended Stores To Me
There is another category that MySimon provides to help you make your decision. They use a rating system provided by Gomez (www.gomez.com) that ranks from 0 to 3 stars. The criterea for these rating include:
Baseline criteria
* Reasonable access to customer support (phone or e-mail)
* Uses a shopping cart technology and totals an order
* Site failure less than 5%
* Uses secure server transaction
* Accepts multiple credit cards
* Published privacy policy
* Published return policy
* Published FAQ/Help policy
Supplemental criteria
* Merchant responds to e-mail in 24 hours
* Store offers 30 day + satisfaction guarantee
* Merchant states that it will not sell customer data
* Site performance exceeds industry average
* Site offers gift certificates that can be sold and redeemed online
* Store offers gift wrapping
As I was spending a lot of money the Gomez rating was as important to me as the price. I ended up purchasing from the lowest price of the 3-star Gomez ranked merchants.
MySimon To Go
My AT&T wireless phone allows me to access mysimon on the run, in the stores and wherever I make my purchase. I can call up my past searches and show the salesman what I found. In the case of my DV Camera, most local retailers won't match prices found on the web, but I'll still try it with other purchases.
YourSimon
You can register with mysimon to save your searches, which can be handy so that you don't have to keep reentering information everytime you want to check back on something. It's also handy for the MySimon To Go feature described above.
Registering also lets you write product reviews. Their review categories are very limited and they don't have the numbers of great writers that epinions does. I don't recommend using their reviews for your decision. You're in the right place for that! :)
Scope and Speed
Currently mysimon searches over 2,000 merchants to deliver your pricing information. Their technology is patented and they use artificial intelligence with a proprietary process called a "Virtual Learning Agent" that returns searches in a couple of seconds!
"Features" you have to pay for and advertising
On the home page they list MySimon Features and under there is a place to go for Consumer Reports information. Nice, huh? Think again my friend. This will only take you to another page where you can PAY for this information. I understand that Consumer Reports (and MySimon) need to get paid, but don't call it a feature when it's not.
The site also features alot of advertising, which wouldn't normally offend me. Like I said, they have to make money to pay for this service. I have no problem with manufacture's advertising, but when the .com merchants who are being rated have advertising, it makes me just slightly suspicious.
These slight distractions have not deterred my useage and I mention them because I noticed them and the information may affect your opinion of the site.
My most significant experience with MySimon had me comfortable enough to hit the BUY button next to my selected merchant. It was because of Epinions and MySimon that I was able to make this large transaction via the Internet.
Epinions PLUS MySimon Make For An Informed Consumer
Recommended:
Yes
Review Focus: The buying experience
|
|
|
|
About the Author
Member: Jeff Daly
Location: West Hollywood, CA, USA
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 15 members
About Me: After a month of inactivity, I'm back and catching up in my reading/rating/writing.
|
