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Are buying cases online worth it?

X

Xpred

Senior member
What I mean is the comparison of price vs reliability vs speed. I noticed the cases online are much cheaper than stores like CompUSA, Fry's, etc. But including the shipping, it's about the same price as offline store retailers, maybe just a little bit less. But is the price worth it for perhaps extra hassles?

I've read lots of reviews on neweggs, and from other sites that most of the time cases bought online come in a crappy condition which is not the fault of the casing, but rather the shipper like Fedex or UPS. How true is this? -- because on a lot of the reviews, and other sites, the cases arrive in some bent or some part busted. Then RMAing would be a pain and a hassle because of the shipping costs that it would take to send it back if there is ANYTHING wrong with it, eh?

So if you factor in price vs the reliability vs the speed of the shipping... is it really worth it to buy cases online? I've bought lots of hardware online and offline. Usually when building a new system, I tend to only buy cases and HDs offline (because of the awesome deals usually at Fry's or elsewhere). Pretty much newegg/zzf and a few other online sites for all my other parts. It just seems to me it's much easier to deal with the case if there are any problems... but then again, the price makes up for online buying too. So... what do you guys usually do?
 
I bought my most recent case online.

Most Online stores I find offer a much wider selection of items at better prices. Shipping is usually cheap enough and decently fast (1-3 days for £3-4 usually).

Id wait 1-3 days for my stuff rather than pay for public transport or get my dad to drive me around stores, trying to find exactly what I want.
 
I buy the vast majority of them online, just for the ease of selection alone. Most places around here have maybe 10-12 case designs at most, and places like Newegg have 100+. I bought the last two cases on ebay. I got the case for my present desktop PC, an XSuperalien, for 50 bucks less than anywhere I could find it. It was brand new, in the unopened box. I got a very similar case for a friend's PC, for 30 bucks cheaper then I could get it anywhere else. It was new and unopened too. BTW, that included the insane Ebay shipping charges!
 
I also purchase all of my cases online. Find the one you want at your favorite store.
Then google it. You usually can find one either cheaper or reduced shipping.
If you're worried about Fedex or UPS, remember, how do you think they came from
the manufacturer to the retail store??? They were shipped.......
 
Originally posted by: GregMal
I also purchase all of my cases online. Find the one you want at your favorite store.
Then google it. You usually can find one either cheaper or reduced shipping.
If you're worried about Fedex or UPS, remember, how do you think they came from
the manufacturer to the retail store??? They were shipped.......
Click to expand...


only difference is they were shipped on a pallet, with other stuff protecting them, as opposed to a single case by itself.
i've done both when i found a deal instore, much safer, i find that my online cases ussualy came at least a little dented, never had one bad enough to return. someplaces double box.

 
I buy very little online I can normaly find what I want locally. Even managed to find my P180 locally.😀
 
I buy everything online (except for rare occassions that Fry's has a huge sale) and cases are worth it if you can get it on a place such as Newegg which only usually charges about $16.00 for 3 day shipping . . . also remember that you have to pay sales tax at Fry's . . . 😉
 
Originally posted by: Xpred
What I mean is the comparison of price vs reliability vs speed. I noticed the cases online are much cheaper than stores like CompUSA, Fry's, etc. But including the shipping, it's about the same price as offline store retailers, maybe just a little bit less. But is the price worth it for perhaps extra hassles?

I've read lots of reviews on neweggs, and from other sites that most of the time cases bought online come in a crappy condition which is not the fault of the casing, but rather the shipper like Fedex or UPS. How true is this? -- because on a lot of the reviews, and other sites, the cases arrive in some bent or some part busted. Then RMAing would be a pain and a hassle because of the shipping costs that it would take to send it back if there is ANYTHING wrong with it, eh?

So if you factor in price vs the reliability vs the speed of the shipping... is it really worth it to buy cases online? I've bought lots of hardware online and offline. Usually when building a new system, I tend to only buy cases and HDs offline (because of the awesome deals usually at Fry's or elsewhere). Pretty much newegg/zzf and a few other online sites for all my other parts. It just seems to me it's much easier to deal with the case if there are any problems... but then again, the price makes up for online buying too. So... what do you guys usually do?
Click to expand...


We may just be very lucky, but we've never had a case get damaged during shipping. We've moved a good number of them (The P180's especially) and we've had no problems at all. The thing is, it really depends on how your UPS/FedEx/DHL driver is and how careful there are, as well as the treatment your packages recieve at the hubs and whatnot.

Cases are generally packaged pretty well, so the only reason they'd get damanged much is by massive mis-treatment by the shipping company... and unfortunately, this does happen sometimes. So it really just depends. I wouldn't make the blanket statement though that cases bought online are damaged during shipment frequently. Just keep in mind that the majority of posts you read dealing with cases and shipping are usually complains about damage. Not many people write a post entitled:

"UPS just delivered my computer case and it was damange free!"

That's just not very exciting reading 🙂
 
I got my P160 at CompUSA only because it was rediculously cheap (like $75 with no rebates), but all my other cases have been bought online.
 
i think if you are buying something by say... antec you can probably do better just going to best buy.


but for something obscure (i.e. my 2 btx cases, strange htpcs etc) probably online better. some places will have free shipping once in a while, so then its better.
 
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