Even in a pile of dung you can find a diamond
Written: Aug 29 '01 (Updated Aug 29 '01)
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
 |
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
 |
|
The Bottom Line
The product arrived, I'm happy with it, but it's the little lies that make you hesitant to use this company again.
|
| Full Review |
By now you've probably used the on-line electronics stores ... they're great for buying refurbished consumer electronics at reasonable prices and if the company is not located in your state, you probably like the fact that there's no sales tax.
I was recently in the market for a cheap portable MP3 player to use at the gym (perhaps review of that to follow) and somehow was brought to the Outpost.com web site because they were selling refurbished brand name models for under $100. Everything looked good, I've bought refurbished electronics before with mostly good results, but you should know that these are very risky purchases and are the staple of these on-line electronics stores in order to appear to be really inexpensive. The fact is with refurbished products, these sites are still making a bundle on the sales.
There seemed to be a broad selection of items, but again, I was brought by a co-branding with another web site that brought me directly into their web site and dropped me off at the single product they had. This can be a plus and a minus. Obviously it prevents you from being "lost" in the multitude of products offered and overwhelmed by the experience, but it also lends to some kind of false security that this company is related to the referring site which you probably have more comfort level with.
The site itself was professional and very responsive. There were unfortunately only two shipping options though. One they called second day and the other overnight. More on this ruse later though.
For California residents like myself, one frustration of the web explosion has been that since the major players like Amazon.com are located in this state, we have to pay sales tax on purchases. So, finding a company like Outpost.com which is out of state means we too can take advantage of this benefit.
In addition, the shipping and handling on this product (under two pounds) while a little pricey (approx. $8), it said that this was second day delivery so I assumed it was a premium. Well, unfortunately to Outpost.com and Airborne Express (their delivery company) second day delivery means fourth day delivery in my case. When I questioned Outpost.com how second day delivery becomes fourth day delivery they feigned ignorance, blabbered something about the web page having a mistake, and off-handedly claiming that my order was downgraded to overland delivery. Did they offer any kind of rebate on the delivery ... of course not.
The product arrived, I'm happy with it, but it's the little lies that make you hesitant to use this company again.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
About the Author
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 0 members
|
