Yes, They Have the Internet in Montana
Written: Aug 24 '01 (Updated Aug 27 '01)
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The Bottom Line
Good price, good service, good site. A great experience.
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I’m a Chicagoan, and I tend to think everything I could ever need is here in the city—or a short drive to the suburbs. Imagine my surprise when I found myself buying from a Montana based company the other day.
No offense to Montanians (Montanites? Montanistas?), but I wasn’t even aware they had the Internet yet.
I Want My TiVo
Ah yes, the bare necessities. I read several rave reviews of TiVo, the fancy-schmancy digital VCR for the 21st century and beyond, in Time and Newsweek. Plus, George W. found it in his heart to send my wife and I a good-sized check, just for being taxpaying Americans! I love this country—to heck with Social Security!
I asked her (my wife) if I could please get TiVo. She didn’t explicitly say “no,” so I of course went online to buy one immediately before she could change her mind.
I went to TiVo’s website and found the usual suspects: Best Buy, 800.com, even amazon.com. All of them had the 30-hour Philips PVR (personal video recorder) for $299, with various deals on shipping on sales tax. But one site had a better price and a better overall deal: Vanns.com.
Buffalo Roam, I Eat Crow.
I’d never heard of Vanns.com before. Of course, being the worldly guy I am, I assumed therefore that it was run by a couple of teenagers out of one of their dad’s garages. I expected a couple of static HTML pages and a few cheesy banner ads.
Okay, I was wrong.
The home page is well-designed. It features various specials and featured products in the center area; a search engine and standard navigation bar along the left; more specials, plus customer service links along the right; and along the top, the usual help/about/contact us links plus a quick shortcut to leading brands (Sony, Toshiba, etc.).
Vanns.com categorizes their products into logical groups: Electronics (car audio, GPS, etc.); Home Video (camcorders, DVD players, etc,); Optics (binoculars and telescopes); Home Audio; and Computers (software and hardware). I can’t speak to the depth of products in each category, since I was shopping specifically for the Philips TiVo unit; but certainly the breadth of product offerings is impressive.
Site Navigation and Features
I had no trouble finding what I was looking for. The navigation is straightforward and consistent with today’s web standards. I have a hunch that this site is more suited to the shopper looking for a specific type of product (in my case, a TiVo PVR) than for someone looking more generally, like for a gift for dad. In other words, the amazon.com-like “shoppers who bought this also bought these…” doesn’t appear here.
Vanns.com solicits and collects customer reviews, and displays the results on product summary and detail pages. For the Philips PVR, reviewers rated the product for ease of use, value and performance.
The product specifications were detailed, although some information was not available (dimensions, for one). From the product detail screen, I was also able to see product availability, request a price match and see shipping options with prices (UPS Ground was free). In addition, Vanns.com offered quick links to related products and accessories (e.g., other Philips models and Monster Cable).
Once I placed my order, Vanns.com communicated the status of my shipment clearly and promptly. They emailed me a confirmation immediately, and when the order shipped they sent me the UPS tracking information. In addition, Vanns.com provides order tracking directly on their site to complement the carrier’s information.
Customer Support
Apparently Vann’s has been around for over 40 years, way out west. The site offers several customer service and support options, although the toll free phone number is only open during business hours, Monday through Friday. Sadly (well, not really sadly), I have had no reason to contact support, so I’m unable to rate that in this review.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Member: Todd Pierzina
Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 12 members
About Me: 31-year old Midwesterner, behind a computer by day and behind a book by night.
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