subject: Electronics: Customer Reviews and You [print this page] Electronics: Customer Reviews and You Electronics: Customer Reviews and You
There are many ideas about when and where you should buy electronics and how to get the best deals. Although big name retail stores may be the first thought, more people are trusting online sellers for their electronic needs. Buying online may afford you several benefits regarding what you buy and your overall satisfaction. Many people want to know right off how much they have to pay. In a 2006 survey, Consumer Reports asked nearly 20,000 readers where they found the best prices on electronic items. The majority stated they found the best prices on the web. Prices for online retail are often the same or cheaper than at chain stores. The kind of items range from MP3 players and digital cameras to large screen plasma TVs. There are many independent websites for shopping as well as online options for chain stores. Customers also want the best in service. If you're in a retail store, there are few things worse than customer service that doesn't actually help. Either you get a salesperson who can't help you or one who tries too hard to sell you something. The experience of shopping online is very different. Online shopping puts a huge amount of product information right at your fingertips. If you need more information, you can simply do a little more research on the web. A subset of customer satisfaction is to know the return policy for any electronics you buy. The return policy is your insurance against any unforeseen problems. With shipping and handling you have to deal with the possibility of product damage. For the best online shopping results, find out the return policy before any purchase. Although it's a well-liked site, buydig.com is an example of a site with a restricted return policy. Very few items can be returned once the packaging has been opened. However, Costco has a return policy with few restrictions. The favorable return policy is one reason why Costco received high rankings for online and in-store shopping. If you have an item you purchased from Costco's website, you can still take it to a store warehouse if you have problems. If you want a new plasma TV or another of the hottest electronics, do some thinking about where to shop. Some like the in-store interactions of a retail store while others prefer the comfort of shopping online. There are lots of worthwhile shopping options no matter how you choose to do it.
