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Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

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Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#241

Post by ebg13 »

bradlys wrote: post #216
solotronics wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean technically that is stealing but I guess its pretty low on the scale of "bad stuff".

Is it? They rung me up with it - it's up to them to decide what to charge me. I'd put as "bank error in my favor." I only noticed later when I was making sure they didn't overcharge me when looking at my bank account. (They had to charge and refund about 3x)

"bank error in your favor" is not a real thing and a bank will definitely hold you accountable for that. But I honestly read your description as HD just giving you the extras as a gift for your hassle.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#242

Post by btrettel »

sambroner wrote: post #221
dan_quixote wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My nomination is McMaster-Carr (mcmaster.com) - They have a huge catalog of parts/tools yet somehow it's so intuitive to browse. I was a mechanical engineer in a previous life and McMaster's website was my bible. Step one for any new prototype design was to browse this site. Best case scenario, you could cobble together your prototype from various COTS (commercial off the shelf) McMaster parts. And if that wasn't an…

I was always shocked by McMaster-Carr's delivery speed. I felt like the parts would arrive as quickly as I could have conceivably picked them up. This was 10 years ago now, so sort of like Amazon Prime before it became ubiquitous, but for materials and tools. However McMaster was and remains much better organized and much better spec-ed.

Once, circa 2006, I ordered some rubber tubing from McMaster-Carr in the morning. It was shipped it from New Jersey to western Maryland, where I lived, by that afternoon.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#243

Post by btrettel »

jbay808 wrote: post #225
dan_quixote wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My nomination is McMaster-Carr (mcmaster.com) - They have a huge catalog of parts/tools yet somehow it's so intuitive to browse. I was a mechanical engineer in a previous life and McMaster's website was my bible. Step one for any new prototype design was to browse this site. Best case scenario, you could cobble together your prototype from various COTS (commercial off the shelf) McMaster parts. And if that wasn't an…

I like McMaster-Carr, but I often hear them being held up as a positive UX example when, in my experience, their website is endlessly frustrating. They often force you into choosing arbitrary categories too early, break tabbed browsing expectations, and have a frustrating mix of metric and imperial measurements that can't be escaped. Their pricing is also generally at quite a premium. For example, let's say I want a…

Having used McMaster-Carr for over a decade, I strongly agree about the filtering being non-ideal and also the prices being high. There's an interaction between the two as well: You can't sort by price. Often there are many items meeting the specs I want but I just want to see which ones are the cheapest. At the moment I skim everything, making notes about candidates, and them manually compare them on price.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#244

Post by mdesq »

larrik wrote: post #47

Right when this all was starting, I had finally chosen a bass guitar I wanted. I decided to try and support a non-Amazon business in GuitarCenter (the local music shops focus a lot more on school band instruments). So, I order online, and pick the "pick up at store" option, since it says they are in stock. I show up, and an hour later they figure out that they don't have it in stock, they only have the floor model (w…

Home Depot and Lowes do this same thing with certain items like dishwashers. It's obnoxious. Their website will show that they have "1 left in stock" but it's the demo model that's installed in a rack of cabinets and not for sale.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#245

Post by everybodyknows »

Diederich wrote: post #41

Help requested. My wife, who is in her 50s, is immunocompromised, and she also has a history of fast escalating and difficult to treat respiratory problems. We are and have been (for the past 32 days) treating this bug very carefully. If she catches it, she has a very good chance of not surviving it. Our son and I are at less risk, but we can easily bring this bug home. We've been having more and more trouble getting…

For produce, eggs and chicken, consider a "CSA" -- Community Supported Agriculture:

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/CSAS-THAT-DELIVER-TO-...

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#246

Post by ebg13 »

markkanof wrote: post #204
ebg13 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not aware of an option to reserve things for pickup at the store, only to purchase them and pickup at the store. Those two things you just said are the same thing.

I don't think they are. When the parent commenter said reserved for pickup, I assumed they meant some way to say "hold these at the counter for me to come purchase". What I am saying is that in my experience, you are making a purchase, someone at the store is pulling the items from the shelf and setting them in a special area, then you get an email/text that the order is ready, meaning that everything is ready to go,…

"hold these for me until I get there" is exactly the same as "don't let someone else buy them before I get there". Whether you pay before you get there or after doesn't change the fact that the item is being held for you so that no other customer will be able to purchase the items that you ordered.

We can break down your two statements and put them piecemeal side by side:

I assumed they meant... "hold these..."

What I am saying is... "pulling the items from the shelf..."

I assumed they meant... "at the counter..."

What I am saying is... "in a special area..."

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#247

Post by markkanof »

ebg13 wrote: post #246
markkanof wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they are. When the parent commenter said reserved for pickup, I assumed they meant some way to say "hold these at the counter for me to come purchase". What I am saying is that in my experience, you are making a purchase, someone at the store is pulling the items from the shelf and setting them in a special area, then you get an email/text that the order is ready, meaning that everything is ready to go,…

"hold these for me until I get there" is exactly the same as "don't let someone else buy them before I get there". Whether you pay before you get there or after doesn't change the fact that the item is being held for you so that no other customer will be able to purchase the items that you ordered. We can break down your two statements and put them piecemeal side by side: I assumed they meant... "hold these..." What…

You're completely correct. What I was trying to communicate, and what I should have emphasized, is that it's not just a send and forget kind of process. After the items have been set aside you get an email/text to confirm that things are ready to pickup and in my experience everything that I've ordered is there when I go to pick it up. So I'm saying that the things that were listed as in stock on the website are actually in stock at the store, and I get a confirmation once everything has been "secured" for me.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#248

Post by mypalmike »

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #240
beamatronic wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100 percent this. I dropped NewEgg when they added third party sellers.

I was just comparison shopping for an HDMI adapter across Amazon, NewEgg and Bestbuy. Out of the 3 I found NewEgg still to be the best even with the 3rd party sellers mixed in. Amazon the quality looked super sketchy for some of this stuff and for Bestbuy the website had loading problems, an unintuitive UI for store selection (and put me into a store in CA for some reason even though I'm nowhere near there and had no…

Monoprice is a good place to go for adapters and cables and such.

Re: Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

#250

Post by ShamelessC »

buzzert wrote: post #59

If anyone is looking for computer parts, I gotta shoutout Newegg. Been using them for more than 15 years, and they’ve been extremely great at delivering during the pandemic.

With all the social distancing going on and my general laziness towards staying active without being forced to, paired with the massive hype surrounding Half-Life: Alyx, I decided to build a VR ready computer.

Newegg was fine. I'd been using them since my first build 15 years ago. But this time I also had access to the amazing website pcpartpicker.com. Not only do they make it easy to find parts that are all compatible with each other, but you'll also be given multiple shopping options with discounts.

Most of it I got from Newegg but I was able to save about 75$ by getting the PSU and MoBo from bhphotovideo.com which was a surprisingly good experience.

BTW, HL Alyx is as amazing as they say and you really don't have to spend a fortune to play it. My entire build was only 650$ and my VR headset of choice (Samsung Odyssey) only 270$. I was worried I'd made a mistake by going with a cheap headset but it works very well.

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