Online merchants

[JP- 0]

I cant understand your problem with the euro, we should most definatly take it. Yes they do look like monopoly money but that matters....why exactly?

 

We really shouldnt get into an argument over this cos it will just go on and on and on but this is just my personal opinion.

[Atreyu 0]

There's also the issue of sovereignty, which I'm sure plays a role. Also, I can see how a country would be skeptical of such a system considering they are not totally in control of their money (like you said). It almost seems as though it would turn Europe into another "United States", where there are many countries all with their own sovereignty but yet part of a bigger power. That would be such a HUGE change since your history is thousands of years older than ours is, so I can imagine the controversy this has created.

 

I just imagine myself being forced to begin using Canadian money all the time. It would just feel wierd.. as if I was no longer in the U.S. Oh well.

 

Topic seems to have gone astray here so I'll try to bring it back on track. More MicroPro bashing time.... I got this from http://www.nextag.com/serv/moviedepot/buyer/MerchantDesc.jsp?

 

 

Date: Jan 26, 2002, Rated by: PatrickCampbell

"I sent my Micro Pro computer in for warranty repair in June of 2001. They didn't fix it and when I called to complain, Mike the service manager said the repair person only spoke Russian and they couldn't ask him what he did. I sent it back in August and again they didn't fix it. This time they didn't bother to put packing material around the case and it was damaged in shipping. I managed to fix all the damage except for the CD-ROM drive. Mike refused to even consider a fix until they were paid by FedEx for the damage, even though it was their fault. Mike said FedEx would contact me to inspect the damage. They never did. Mike ignored numerous messages to call back. When I finally did reach him, he refused to give me the name of his boss and was very rude. I finally just sent the CD-ROM drive back for repair. They still have it and refuse to do anything until they get money from FedEx. They are still ignoring messages. It is now January 2001."

 

Date: Jan 23, 2002, Rated by: davidemartin

"I ordered a system on Wed, they showed the credit card as approved and emailed me they were shipping on Thursday. Their order status system wouldn't work so I called Friday morning to verify the order. It hadn't been processed because of a problem with the bill to address not matching the ship to address. They didn't contact me, just dropped it without contacting me. I spent 6 hours on the phone with them Friday before they told me accounting was closed, I would have to take it up with them on Monday. I could have given them another card which would have worked at any time, but they were more interested in wasting time. I cancelled the order"

 

Date: Dec 28, 2001, Rated by: lgkj

"They do NOT deliver as promised. Their icons showing an item as being in stock are not updated in real-time. They do not bother to call and tell you the item isn't in stock. I called 3 different days and got 3 different stories. A salesman told me the item was back- ordered, yet it still appeared as being in stock on the web site! If you like liers, give them a call."

 

--------------The problems discussed here are exactly the same problems I'm having.

[Xiven 0]

Quote:

Originally posted by Dirty Harry
Lets do just a little bit of trolling here...among friends

With pleasure

Quote:

Sensible option like sticking to those very practical measurements like fathoms and furlongs per fortnight....

As far as I know, fathoms are still used in the USA as well as the UK as a measure of depth. Correct me if I'm wrong on that. Furlongs are rarely used except in horse racing (for some unknown reason). Aside from that we have a bizarre mix of metric and imperial measurements with schools teaching everything in metric but road signs still saying everything in miles/mph ;(

Quote:

Sensible option like not having any central fuses in the house but having the fuse on the cord for every appliance...

The fuse is in the plug (and by the way our plugs are far sturdier than the US feeble ones) and is easily replacable, but this is just for extra safety, there is still a centralised fuse box (or circuit breakers if we're going to be in this millenium) in the house. It's very rare for the fuse in the plug to go but if it did I'd still be glad that it's a damn sight safer than the standards used by certain other countries.

Quote:

Sensible option like driving on the wrong side of the road...

The only reason your country doesn't drive on the left is that your ancestors really didn't want to copy us. I seem to recall being told there was some logical reason for driving on the left but I really can't remember what it was and I'm sure it's not relevant now. Trouble is changing over is just too much hassle - think of the problems it would cause (think stupid people).

Quote:

Sensible option like having all-floor carpets in the bathroom...

Ermmm.. I don't, and I don't know many people who do have either. But it does seem really stupid

Quote:

With money you guys already gave in once when you stopped counting 8 Shillings on every Pound and 3,5 Pounds on everey Guinea or however it was done when you had the Real Brittish Currency. BTW, when was that changed, in the 70' s ? Anybody know how that system worked ?

Info is: http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/units/money.htm

It was an extremely illogical system and I'm very glad we don't use it any more.

As for adopting the Euro, well the reason our government doesn't like the idea too much is that they'd lose all control over interest rates etc., and we still remember the disaster that was the ERM (Exchange Rate Mechanism): http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/europe/euro-glossary/newsid_1216000/1216833.stm

Anyway, enough of this let's get back to the topic

I've always been happy with www.dabs.com
Had bad experiences with www.overclockers.co.uk
www.scan.co.uk are ok
Some friends seem to like www.ebuyer.com


PS. you forgot to mention the really stupid one - the TV license.

[clutch 1]

Umm, well, as a US citizen I feel it is my duty to defend our nation against these false accusations that have been made :

 

1. I SCUBA dive, and my mom and stepfather were in the Navy, and I can't recall hearing the term "fathom" much. I wouldn't say that it's *completely* out of use (some fossil has to be using it, right?), but general measurments have been either feet or meters for depth, and knots for speed.

 

2. I don't know about UK plugs, but ours seem pretty tough. Then again, I haven't broken one nor have I had a need to break one. Also, every building that I can remember has had at *least* a central fuse box (buildings [censored] back to the late 1800's that were wired by Edison personally ), but usually have breakers.

 

3. I'm not sure either way on the driving thing, but I am sure that we (the US) could have found better things to be different on just for the sake of being different. However, I am interested in hearing what the logical reason for being on the left-hand side of the road would be. For some reason, I thought I had heard that as well once.

 

Some of the others were just so wacky that I didn't know what to make of them (like wall-to-wall carpet in the bathroom ). But I do have one question; what do you mean by a "TV license"? As in a license to own and operate one?

[Atreyu 0]

The reason British people drive on the left side of the road, if I have been educated correctly, is that years ago when Jousting was popular, riders rode on the left thereby enabling himself to strike his opponent holding the Joust in his right hand. Driving on the left side became a descendent of that tradition.

[clutch 1]

Here ya go, here's a guy with too much time on his hands (like some of us):

 

http://www.travel-library.com/general/driving/drive_which_side.html

[AndyFair 0]

Wow, who would have thought that NTCompatible would be so educational??!

 

Quote:

Umm, well, as a US citizen I feel it is my duty to defend our nation against these false accusations that have been made :

 

1. I SCUBA dive, and my mom and stepfather were in the Navy, and I can't recall hearing the term "fathom" much. I wouldn't say that it's *completely* out of use (some fossil has to be using it, right?), but general measurments have been either feet or meters for depth, and knots for speed.

Can't comment about that one, but don't you find it strange that using knots (nautical mile) as opposed to land miles is a little archaic (and why are knots a different length to land miles)? A question for everybody!

 

 

Quote:

2. I don't know about UK plugs, but ours seem pretty tough. Then again, I haven't broken one nor have I had a need to break one. Also, every building that I can remember has had at *least* a central fuse box (buildings [censored] back to the late 1800's that were wired by Edison personally ), but usually have breakers.

As stated before, all UK houses have a central fuse box as well as fuses in the plugs. It's an extra level of safety in that if an appliance does blow the fuse in the plug, it's unlikely to blow/trip the fuse/switch in the fuse box as well. The downside, though, is that fuses in plugs do wear out (anyone want to tell us why?), and the number of hours wasted trying to find out what is wrong with an appliance, only to find out that the problem was the fuse is annoying to say the least!!

 

Quote:

3. I'm not sure either way on the driving thing, but I am sure that we (the US) could have found better things to be different on just for the sake of being different. However, I am interested in hearing what the logical reason for being on the left-hand side of the road would be. For some reason, I thought I had heard that as well once.

I've seen the other post you made with the link - was it that Friday afternoon feeling?

 

Quote:

Some of the others were just so wacky that I didn't know what to make of them (like wall-to-wall carpet in the bathroom ). But I do have one question; what do you mean by a "TV license"? As in a license to own and operate one?

I've never personally understood carpets in the bathroom - all they do is get damp! I find it even more questionable in the toilet... 8)

As for the TV license, well, yes, we have to pay the BBC a £100 license fee each year to be able to watch TV. It's this money that enables the BBC to exist. Some people in the UK question the justification of the license fee, but you can guarantee that there would be hell to pay if the beeb stopped broadcasting. Lots of people do not know that the BBC also undertakes a lot of research, and are pioneers in things like digital TV, HDTV etc. And the beeb does still make some decent programs, although an awful lot of them do seem to be made in partnership with the Discovery Channel ot WGBH Boston...

 

Ah, well, time for the education to continue...

 

AndyF

[tsonta101 0]

Personally, i don't find driving on the wrong side difficult - keep in mind that i am Greek, so I drive on the right (pun!) side. Interestingly, there is one advantage with having the weel on the right side of the car: after you park, you switch the engine off with your right hand and pull the handbrake with your left one, something that you can't do with the weel on the left. This also applies when getting into the car, translating to about 2 seconds faster starting and stopping time.....

 

Apart from that, i would say that having the wheel on the left side, makes you use your better arm (the right one) for gear changes (and not the useless left one). It's easier (for most people) to use their right arms than their left arms, right?

 

Finally consider this. We are taught that when a strange situation comes and there are no signs, the car that comes to us from the right has priority, right? Driving on a left hand drive car protects you from the impact if you are stupid enough to make the mistake. Driving on a right hand car makes you pay instantly for your fatal mistake......

 

Just playing with words here, but isn't it an oxymoron to say 'The wheel is on the right side. That's wrong!'

 

let's keep this rolling....

[clutch 1]

Many of the newer water craft do use both forms of speed measurement, and I never understood the reason to keep around such an old method like that either. However, since aircraft services have been using it as well it's jut another hurdle to overcome.

 

We do have fuses in many things here as well, but they are usually inside the device rather than in a plug (seems like the plug would get fragile rather quickly like that on some devices).

 

Oh well, it looks like we have spun off topic pretty badly. Onward to the point again...

 

[AndyFair 0]

Quote:

Originally posted by clutch
Oh well, it looks like we have spun off topic pretty badly. Onward to the point again...

Isn't that what moderators are for??

AndyF

[pimpin_228 0]

well i think it would be easy for anyone to drive on either side. all it would take is a litttle getting used to. but the paying for a tv license, does that mean you have to pay so much a month also? but owell i guess there is a reason for everything

[Dirty Harry 0]

Trolling is a fine art, isn't it...I apologize to all who wanted to read about the topic.

 

Before we go back to the topic of online merchants, just a few comments on the issues:

 

Clutch, great to have a fellow diver around, have you found a dive computer that would run XP ? Mine (Aladdin) doesn't, it has some silly legacy OS. You can upload data to NT though.

 

Driving (riding) on the left was logical when people carrtied swords, if you fight with your right hand.

 

The earth is divided into 360 degrees, each degree into 60 (arc)minutes. Thats were the nautical mile comes from, and one knot is simply one nautical mile per hour (roughly 1852 meters/hour). Now everybody in the world agrees on the lenght of a nautical mile, **but** (you guessed) the Brittish. Their nautical mile is slightly longer or shorter (I've forgotten which). How's that for a sensible option ???

 

A fathom (6 feet) is still used on Brittish Admirality Sea Charts as a measurement of depth, but for reasons unexplained heights (like a mountain top, or a lighthouse) are given in feet. Baffling, isn't it?

 

Now back to the topic (you heard the moderator) of online merchants on which topic I have little or nothing of value to add, sorry. One question I do have, does anyone know why German online shops so often refuse to ship to other EU countries ?

 

H.

[Atreyu 0]

Sunday, March 24... 5 days after my order cancellation... still no credit to my card. I've informed the credit card company and soon the BBB. This whole ordeal is really hard for me to believe. I've NEVER had problems like this before.

[FrogMaster 0]

Some comments:

- as Dirty Harry pointed out, nautical mile makes sense as it relates directly to angle measurements which is the basis for any navigation activity (boat, plane, rally, etc). It corresponds to the minute of arc since Galilee, Copernic and many others decided the earth is a sphere:

1852 metres x 60 x 360 = 40,000,000 metres which is the circumference of our planet at the equator.

The metre was originally defined at the end of the 18th century as being the millionth part of a quarter of the earth's meridian:

1 metre x 10^6 x 4 = 40,000,000 metres

One can say that both the nautical mile and the metre are based on the same rationales. This is universally accepted.

- wheel on the left side ... well, most people are right-handed, so if it is your case, how could you take care efficiently of the Lady in the passenger's seat whith your left hand?

- we too pay the state TV an annual tax of around 100 euros whether we watch or not. This really p*sses me off when there are tens free channels available and hundreds cheap pay-tv channels to freely choose from

- I can recommend two on-line retailers here, they offer good service and stocks are updated real-time:

www.eurisko.fr

www.grosbill.com

GrosBill has very good prices.

Eurisko is more high-end oriented.

I am not sure whether they ship out of the country though...

[Marktait 0]

while we are on the subject of bad online suppliers can i just say that ebuyer are superb, i ordered a lot of stuff from them and it was here in 2days and also got my Epson C80 which they didnt have in stock and it said on there site 10days waiting and i recieved it in 8days, absolutely superb from ebuyer also my cousin ordered from them and recieved his stuff in 2days, Also there stuff is very cheap. have had no problems with them and will buy from them in the future.

[Atreyu 0]

Thanks Marktait...

 

And just to let everybody know.. after some rather forceful emails (including screenshots of how my credit card was charged) written by me, I have finally received my $167 refund.

 

So in the end, I was the victor. I'm sure we all saw that coming anyway :-).

 

Cheerio!

[sapiens74 0]

Buy.com is pretty good too, for retail software needs.

 

If you live in the US tho, Mwave.com is the best me thinks. They always have top notch products and don't screw you on shipping

[Atreyu 0]

Greetings:

 

I just thought I'd stop back here and recommend

http://www.beatprice.com.

 

Their web site isn't very nice looking, but they have been a very reliable vendor for me. Whenever you order something, a representative (with a name) is assigned to your order and they are held responsible for its successful completion and shipment. Below is the email you get from BeatPrice once your order has been processed:

 

------------------------------------

Dear (me),

 

Thank you for shopping with www.BeatPrice.com

 

My name is Linda Chen, I am the Sales Representative responsible for handling your order. I will do my best to ensure your order is shipped out properly.

 

After your order is shipped, the tracking number will be attached to your order at www.beatprice.com. You can login to your account and track the package from there.

 

If there is anything I can do, please let me know! I hope you excellent shopping experience with beatprice.com

 

This E-mail confirms we receive your order only. The order will be proceeded within 1 - 2 business days.

 

After the order is shipped, the UPS tracking number will be posted under your account.

 

*** For order status request, Please send us an e-mail. ***

 

Thank you!

 

 

Linda Chen

lc@beatprice.com

(408)720-7714

 

----------------------------------------------

 

Notice that you are given your rep's personal (work) email as well has his or her phone number. This direct contact is a very welcomed change, although I've never had to contact them, as my orders have always been processed and shipped in very timely manners. Give them a shot!

[Alien 1]

Hi guys - just thought I'd add my experiences & thoughts on the issue into the mix.

 

www.dabs.com

Have ordered from them quite a few times & have no complaints about them. On 1 occasion the company who does their deliveries [Parcelforce] managed to lose something, so they had to dispatch another, but aside from that they've been great. As long as you don't want guaranteed next day delivery then delivery is free & is listed as 1-3 days, but if you order it in the morning Monday to Thursday & they have it in stock I've found you usually get it the next day. Prices are usually good too [though if your order comes to less than £75 ex. vat then you get charged a "small order charge" of £2.95 ex. vat]

 

BTW - about 8 months after I'd bought a HDD & a cheapo Cooler Master HSF [for my K6-2/500] the fan started to sound a bit rattly so phoned them up & them sent me a replacement - without me having to send the old 1 back! Funny thing is that the occasional rattling noise it was making [& yes I did check to make sure there were no wires getting in the way ] stopped of its own accord by the time the replacement fan arrived [i think that was the thing that Parcelforce managed to lose], so now I have a spare HSF sitting around.

 

www.overclockers.co.uk

Only ordered from them once, but no probs - prices aren't too bad & they do some of the less boring stuff like rounded IDE cables, fan grills, Arctic Silver, etc.

 

www.eclipse-computers.com

Have ordered from these guys several times, initially because they had some amazingly good prices, & the service [delivery, etc] seemed ok, but that was until I tried buying a Radeon from them. I ordered an OEM Radeon 64MB DDR ViVo & stick of 128MB PC133 RAM from them.

 

What happened was that I phoned them to make sure that they definitely still had some in stock & was told that they did so filled out the online order form & submitted it immediately - big mistake. What I should have done is ordered it over the phone - ok, so I would have had to pay an extra £2 surcharge for a phone order, but considering the prices they were offerering it would still have been cheaper than all the competition including the delivery charge! The problem is [as was eventually explained to me] that the website & it's commercial/order-handling bits is kept on 1 server, but that they actually process the orders & manage them with a system run from another server. If the 2 were constantly sync'd then it wouldn't be an issue, but IIRC that is only done about once a day or so, so by the time my order filtered through to the other server they had sold out!

 

But that wasn't the worst of it - It took until 10 days after placing the order for them to admit that they couldn't get any more due to them being discontinued & that they probably wouldn't get any retail versions of the card in either [plus I didn't have the extra £40 for the retail 1 @ the time anyway], so they agreed to send me the RAM & refund the rest. It then took them another 10 days for them to get the money back into my account! Eventually, after a lot of phoning around I managed to find a PC World that had a few of the retail versions in stock, so I went & got 1....which I had to take back the next day cos when I got it home I discoverd that 1 of the fan blades was missing!!!!!

 

Oh, & just thought I'd mention - I just checked Eclipse's price for a retail version [including HSF] of an XP1900+ against Dabs' :-

Eclipse - £211.44 [VAT included, but delivery is extra]

Dabs - £162.14 [VAT included & delivery is free]

 

I guess their prices aren't what they used to be.

[Marktait 0]

I have one thing against dabs which isn't really a fault but its there website, its so complicated and really bad to use. There site is very confusing and is ver crowded, Especially when you compare it to ebuyer. Dabs do have excellent customer service, when my Motherboard went dead all of a sudden i sent it back to them and got a refund the next day . I will be ordering my new CPU, UPS, etc from ebuyer tomorrow as they are really good.

[Alien 1]

I'll agree with you about the layout of Dabs' site - but then I could say the same about a lot of sites - webmasters still design their sites as if everyone was still using 15" monitors @ 800x600 - I wish the lot of them would learn to start using variable sized fonts & set the sizes of frames & tables to adjust according to the size of the window.

[Atreyu 0]

Not sure if this one has been posted yet but...

 

http://www.nxgenstore.com/nxgen/index.asp is excellent.

 

I got a set of Altec Lansing 641's for $160 TOTAL (including shipping). I submitted the order LATE Friday night, and it was shipped today (Monday). I should have the schtuff by the end of the week.

 

Finally... I've only been trying to get these suckers for 3 weeks now.

[Marktait 0]

Its not really dabs look of their site, its that their actually way that there site works is extremely confusing.

[Alien 1]

Quote:

Its not really dabs look of their site, its that their actually way that there site works is extremely confusing.

Really? How so? Ok, so maybe it took me a bit of getting used to when I 1st used it - but then I'd never done any online buying before so maybe that had something to do with it. Once you get to know it it's not too bad. As I said before, my only real beef with it is that it's designed for ppl whose screen resolution is 800x600...actually I just checked - it isn't - it's designed for 640x480!!!!!!!!! seriously! If you load up their site it fills just over 1/2 the window width, if you change your screen res to 800x600 it still doesn't fill the window - to make it fill the window you have to switch to 640x480. How daft is that?!?

[Marktait 0]

Just look at the way dabs display stuff when you look at categories.One thing with dabs is when you go on there homepage you dont know what to click as theres so many stuff, then look through ebuyer, ebuyer give you there best deals and they give you better descriptions of how the product works,etc and its so much simpler.

 

Ordered a lot of stuff off ebuyer yesterday at about 11:30am and have recieved this morning(next day) at 10:30am and i didnt even pay for next day delivery .