Maximum PC

I'm never going to forgive Buy.com for handing their customers over to crooks like Vertrue, WebLoyalty, and Affinion. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10293633-93.html?tag=mncol

I head good things about NewEgg, but the prices are almost never lowest. Still, the biggest problem for me is that I have to pay California sales tax.

I live in Pacifica, CA, about 45 min drive from *Sunnyvale* (The best place in California to buy tech products)

So I end up going to Fry's, MicroCenter or Central Computer. At least then I can inspect the item beforehand, and if there is a problem, I can exchange it in a day.

But it does take a whole morning or afternoon, and all that gas.

Who's your favorite retailer, and why?

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Newegg is the best...but you're right about the prices. For me its the best, no tax, and lots of free shipping...

I've also bought from buy.com....and haven't had any issues.

Typically I google|shopping what I'm interested in and look for lowest price. If the vendor looks on the up/up I go for it...

You get what you pay for .. and with newegg, you pay for customer service. Given the price tags on our builds, I'm happy to fork over a bit more for peace of mind.

Newegg.ca and NCIX are my favourite (Canadian) retailers. I prefer to shop at NCIX since I can pick up the parts locally and they accept pricematching from any Canadian website.

I go to the Fry's in Fremont every weekend, looking at stuff i wish i could afford. i like newegg, for the service, but if i need a quick motherboard and feel lucky that day, Fry's is where i go first to compare price, and look at the PC part i am ordering through newegg, 'cause sometimes the pictures are rough in some spots.

so far i have been fortunate going through fry's, but i am a tall person, so i always pick off the very, very top shelf, where all the nice newish ones are, above the regular displays.

Over in MO, newegg is the cheapest place in general. Shipping is cheap because they have a main warehouse over in Tenesse and another in Minnesota, so I always get my stuff overnight even with the cheap $4 shipping. And the only B&M alternatives are Best Buy (blech) and Micro Center, which has fantastic prices on CPUs and cases, but otherwise is more expensive.

for california you can try tigerdirect.. no tax and free shipping on a lot of stuff!
just ordered from them for the first time so i'll see how that goes

For me, it's been TigerDirect and sometimes Best Buy.

And I didn't expect Buy.com to be so sneaky. I figured next time I buy something from there, I would wait until the transaction between me and Buy.com goes through, and then immediately freeze my bank account for a month, that way NO "third party" company behind Buy.com will try to break in and rob me.

You WILL NOT catch me buying anything from Buy.com ever again with the way they've positioned themselves.

I use multiple places, but Newegg gets 90% of my business.

Newegg.com - I pay no taxes and the prices for me are either a match to other places online or, maybe $5 more. To me, I'll pay $10 more on a component because as Jip mentioned, you get industry leading customer service. And to me, that's worth something more than just my loyalty. Newegg is possibly going to go public. This worries me because then, they will be at the mercy of their investors instead of running themselves. This could, and most likely WILL, mean a less tolerant return policy, tighter control on prices, customer service will likely suffer and my overall confidence in NewEgg is going to be tentative at best until their new structure has shown their colors.

Microcenter.com - I don't pay taxes here either. Sometimes, their prices are wildly more expensive than Newegg, other times, greatly lower. Most of the time, within a couple dollars. They ship fast and have a good return policy, but they aren't as liberal with their returns as Newegg. But I have no qualms over buying from here.

Tigerdirect.com - Pretty fast shipping, prices are OK, but customer service could use some work. Returns are hit or miss, mostly hit though. Tiger moves pretty slow with returns though. As with Microcenter, if Tiger has something significantly lower in price like fans, heatsinks, HDD, Optical drives, cases or PSU's, I'll buy from them instead of Newegg. When it comes to things like motherboards, videocards, fan controllers, things that typically go bad right off the bat, I buy those from Newegg.

Frys.com - These guys have pretty good customer service, decent prices and OK shipping times. Returns can be a bitch with them though. But still, if I have too many issues, I can drive an hour and a half and be standing in one of their stores.

Directron.com - I've used these guys in the past without any issues. They are slower by far than Newegg to get things shipped out and their return process is slow and often, unforgiving.

newegg 90% of my business

Microcenter 5%, they dont have basically anything i ever need, tho if im in need of some quick wires, or case fans, its better then waiting for newegg to ship

bestbuy 5%, they have a crap selection but i get a ton of Rewardzone gift cards so i pick up harddrives from them for good deals

Newegg gets a lot of my business these days (probably around 65%) but I always shop around and look for deals. I like to share the love and have always hated on Newegg for no good reason. Maybe because others seem to like it so much.

APO/USPS shipping is my biggest concern. Some sites don't offer it and some charge too much!

www.mwave.com - Only when they have a good deal. The only site that lets us choose standard or priority shipping.
www.tigerdirect.com - Great prices and always fast APO/USPS Priority Mail. They've had free priority shipping for a couple months now! They sent me a free case by mistake too.
www.newegg.com - Good prices and selection but hit or miss shipping. I've waited around 4 weeks on more than one occasion. They only do standard shipping and sometimes it cost more than TigerDirect's Priority Mail. They've given me several $25 discounts for complaining so much. They don't give APO folks free shipping offers or let them participate in most of their contest, which is BS considering APO is all military, DoD employees, contractors working for the DoD, or their family members.


I buy from sites like these too:
www.jr.com
www.amazon.com
www.frozencpu.com
www.coolerguys.com
www.heatsinkfactory.com
www.aerocooler.com

and I always use www.pricegrabber.com


There's only one local store that I buy from. It's about 10mins from my place and accepts VAT forms (19% off).
http://www.arlt.com/

Being from Connecticut - there are no Fry's, or Microcenter's. So I've been a Newegg and Tigerdirect buyer primarily. I order a set of Logitech x-230's from http://www.inandoutcomputers.com/ with no issue, and I'm in the process of buying a cable from monoprice.com. I'll let others know how that works out.

AJ

My favorite computer (and related) retailers...

Online stores I have purchased a lot of stuff from:

New Egg
Performance PCs
Frozen CPU
Silicon Valley Compucycle
Quiet PC USA


Online stores I have patronized on occasion:

Danger Den
Sidewinder Computer Systems
Petra's Tech Shop
MWave


Brick-and-mortar stores:

Fry's

I normally price-compare through a variety of different stores.

Newegg: Shop here the most.
Tigerdirect: Only shop here if I need the item quickly and don't want to sell one of my kidneys to get it.
MonoPrice: I shop here for pretty much everything, mostly cables. My network adapters, networking stuff, hard drive dock and most of my other quality cables and stuff was purchased here.
Amazon: I shop here if the price is right because they have free shipping on orders $25 or more. Not to mention their delivery is relatively fast.
ZipZoomFly: Love this store, hate their customer service. Shipping is fast and free though.

I'm in Alberta, Canada. I am a bit hesitant to buy stuff online but judging by the responses I'm seeing here, I might have to change that up- especially with folding!

As for my favourite- Memory Express is the absolute only place to go in my area for good prices and knowledgeable staff. There are locations in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg.


Eno

Buying online is the best way to get the best prices on hardware.

Both NCIX and newegg.ca are very reputable and are located in Canada. Since you're in AB, neither will charge you PST either.

I second NCIX.com there great only place i shop at

Depends on what I am shopping for. Fry's sometimes will throw out a good cpu/mobo combo of decent quality that is hard to beat i.e. an Intel e3200/MSI g31 I just picked up for $39 with a $10 rebate. Wife has an Intel 4600 dual with a POS 7050 mobo that sound sucks, hangs etc and is single channel ram etc. I can upgrade her with the MSI g31 and other leftovers to 4 gb ram dual..... reload system, drop her down to an earthwatts 380 (new green model they had on sale Fry's($29) from a 550 watt good, now backup power unit, .....psu....etc......So many times Fry's is good....they certainly warrant a look whenever they run an ad. Never buy refurb HDD there. This is not a Fry issue, It is HDD maker, but you will hold the bag, no return, no warranty,,,,etc....buy new HDD only. Repeat, buy only new HDD's at Fry's. I bought one refurb and it really sucked...They did warn me so I can not fault them.....Buy only new HDD at Fry's

Fry's has been good on all 3 returns that I made within their specs via money or store credit, so I have no issues with them in that department, despite the ton of negative feedback I have seen about these folks.

Newegg is definitely unbeatable. Amazon has the same variety as Newegg and perhaps faster shipping and delivery (if you have Prime) but I find Newegg to be more organized and I like that. Often time I find myself browsing Newegg and then end up buying from Amazon if the price is not much higher. Unfortunately none of them ships overseas and because I spent a few months of the year in Cyprus for business when I'm there I buy from iPelagos.com. They have the same stuff from IT products but they are more expensive on shipping.

I use Newegg, Directron, and Fry's. Directron (Close to where I work) and Fry's (On my way home) are local.

you never used Amazon? Free 2nd day delivery if you get the Prime membership.