1-800Mobiles.com: Ugly Site, Great Prices, Great Service for Me
Written: Jan 29 '09
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Being the klutz that I am, the holster for my corporate BlackBerry lasted me all of something like ten weeks before I snapped the belt clip into a couple of pieces of useless plastic. My wireless provider, Verizon, happily offered to sell me a new one at - of course - full list price (something like $25), so I took to the web. The number of offers was amazing, the navigation through some stores was bewildering, the shipping prices were astounding, and many of the stores looked just a leeetle bit "off." Until I stumbled on 1-800mobiles.com, that is.
They didn't offer my replacement holster at the lowest price, but what they did offer me was:
• A reasonably easy-to-navigate website, with reliable information and useful photographs of the merchandise
• Original manufacturer's equipment
• Secure ordering
• The lowest overall price (including shipping) I ran across
• Shipping from NYC (thus tax-free - the next best price I found was just a few miles down the road, but they'd have charged me 8% tax)
So I ordered online, paying with my Visa. The transaction was effortless and the replacement holster was in my hands in just three business days via the USPS - even though they'd estimated four to seven days for delivery.
The bottom line? I'd order from 1-800mobiles.com again, without hesitation.
The details you may want:
1-800mobiles.com sells almost nothing but cell phones (including smartphones) and their accessories. They also broker wireless service plans for Sprint PCS, Verizon, Nextel, T-Mobile, Cingular, and AT&T. Shoppers may browse the phones either by their manufacturer or by seeing what their wireless carrier offers (including "free" phones with activation). They carry a wide selection of BlueTooth devices as well, from earpieces to stereo headsets, keyboards, and other remote devices.
For some accessories, 1-800mobiles.com categorizes by device type (charger, case, battery, etc.) and subdivides by handset manufacturer; subdividing further by handset model. For others - cases, skins, chips, cables, etc. - the catalog is organized by manufacturer and then model, with all accessories displayed on one page. For my BlackBerry 8830, this meant 58 items, with similar products clustered. Sorting order seems to be more or less random. For a more popular phone, the Motorola Razr, the accessory page displays 220 items. There's no way to sort by price or type, "drill down," or otherwise reduce the clutter of the page (this seems par for the course for sites specializing in cell phone accessories - wonder why?)
Once you've found a likely candidate, you can click its listing for more details. In this case, I learned that my choice of holsters is OEM, supports the BlackBerry sleep function, and is made of "rich corinthian leather" (so long, Ricardo) - actually lambskin. The listing also displays list price and the site's price, with an estimated shipping time.
Like any site worth its salt in this day and age, 1-800mobiles.com uses a shopping cart model for secure ordering via the usual credit cards. There's no COD, nor can you pay with check or money order. Shipping rates are slightly lower than the usual $7.95 - they want $5.95 for Priority Mail and $6.95 for UPS ground. Orders over $50 ship free, unless you want expedited shipping. Shipping to Canada and Puerto Rico costs $34.95...
The return policy is typical boilerplate: 10% restocking fee unless defective; email for a return authorization, shipped back at buyer's expense, etc. Nothing new there. I did not need to use customer service, so I have no comments.
My rating:
Merchandise selection: 5/5
Merchandise quality: 4.5/5
Website navigation: 2.5/5
Security & Shipping: 5/5
Price (including shipping): 4/5
On-time delivery: 5/5
Overall rating: 4/5
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? replacement holster for BlackBerry
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