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Wise to buy Monitor online?

W

Wheeler

Member
I'm in the market for a Sony E400 19" Monitor. Staples has it for $550. www.atacom.com has it for $467. Staples will match the price, plus shipping and tax. Which only saves me about $10 or $20. But I can get an extended warranty at Staples, don't know anything about a warranty online. Yet Staples doesn't have it in stock and online does. So is it better to save money and buy online? And does anyone know of a cheaper place online. I ordered my mobo from Atacom, so I have some trust in them.

Thanks
 
I have bought all of my monitors online, excluding a special find I found yesturday for a Viewsonic E790 for $285. It will make a great second monitor for my system......eh, where was I....oh yeah, the only real problem is that if you get a bad monitor, you will have to ship it back to them and pay the charges, if you get two bad ones, you have lost all of your potential savings.
 
Local warranty means nothing unless local store will take it from you and get it fixed for you - if you have to do it yourself there's no advantage as crating and shipping it is a big and expensive headache. I got two Sony monitors online, no problems with either - but did it because a Sony factory service facility is about a 30 minute drive from me.
 
Two things I try to avoid buying online are cases and monitors. They are the most likely to get dammaged in shipping, and the most costly to ship. I took a $55 loss on a PC case once because the vendor wanted a return number from UPS. After hundreds of phone calls to UPS and months later my HD with the email was reformatted, and I finally got the number from UPS. The vendor (PC ambulance) claimed no records of the sale. They were an E-bay vendor, and I should have been pickier about the feedback. With online stores I recommend www.resellerratings.com if you go with at least 100 reviews, and at least a 6 for a score, you should be safe.
 
i have bought virtually all my computer thingies online and they have been great. buying online is usually cheaper as well since you may be able to avoid taxes and there usually are coupons lying around for you to apply. there are a few sites like onvia which has free shipping or egghead which has a flat shipping charge.
 
Like Obenton said, make sure if there is a problem with the monitor you can exchange it at a local Staples. Sony E/G 400's are notorious for having very weak skimpy packaging that doesn't not protect the monitor very well.





-Jimbo
 
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