Amazon Isn’t the Only Shop Online

Post by intrepidhero » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 10:43 PM UTC

mauvehaus wrote: post #175

jakearmitage wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HomeDepot's ecommerce is a joke. Not only the shopping experience is poor, they treat logistics as if they were doing you a favor. And, on top of all that, you get damaged items. I made 7 purchases and all 7, in different periods of time, had to be returned or replaced. Same for Lowe's. There's a reason people shop on Amazon. Other than BestBuy, no other retailer "gets" ecommerce.

I beg to differ. Rock Auto is where it's at for auto parts. The website is ugly as hammered shit, but it's fast, shows you the options grouped by rough quality level (economy/you cheapskate, daily driver, performance, etc), shows you what part to select so it ships from the same warehouse as the parts already in your cart and saves you shipping, and returns are painless (disclaimer: I've only ever done returns for co…

Post by mathattack » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 10:54 PM UTC

ebg13 wrote: post #23

I tried ordering some things from Home Depot the other day, and they silently cancelled half of my order while still charging me the same amount for delivery from the store and while saying that some things can only be delivered from a warehouse and that some things can only be delivered from a specific store and that delivery from each store has a $45 minimum purchase before they'll even consider delivery despite th…

Post by daniel_reetz » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 10:57 PM UTC

spacemark wrote: post #219

ncheek wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

McMaster has a powerfully simple website. You can get to any item with mcmaster.com/ . They often provide 3D models of their parts. You can even paste in a list of items to quickly bulk-add to your cart. It just works. Their customer service is also second to none. I've never had the phone ring more than once before being answered by a real person. And they'll respond 24/7 to phone calls or emails. Oh, and they've ac…

I've probably put in 100 McMaster orders over the last year via work, side gig, and home projects. My take on this is that their prime customers (businesses) do not put shipping costs in their top 5 or maybe even top 10 priorities. Businesses pushing out products or engaged in rapid prototyping or meeting a deadline are much more concerned with speed, and McMaster always beats Amazon in shipping time to my workplace…

Post by pkaye » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 11:01 PM UTC

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…

Post by pkaye » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 11:04 PM UTC

impendia wrote: post #264

alleyshack wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't specify why Instacart "became less usable", though if your experience is like mine I'd guess it's a combination of delivery windows being a full week out and the results being somewhat unreliable between replacements/out of stock. What's been working for my household is to make the Instacart order knowing it won't be delivered for at least a week, and use that time to fill out the order as needed. We're not…

> a small grocer may be willing to prepick your order and have it ready for you in the parking lot without an intermediary. This is what I did. A small, upscale grocery near me started offering curbside pickup: you send in an order in the morning, get called to arrange payment in the afternoon, drive there the same day, and they drop off your groceries at your car. Worked perfectly. Yum. Indeed, prominently advertise…