I've bought from Carol Wright, Home Trend, Dr Leonards, WalMart ,and some others they should all have the little security icon on their site. Your better known Electronic stores should be ok I'd hesitate paying tht much from a place I wasn't familiar with JMHO

Thank you for starting this thread cause I too have to buy online my first laptop site unseen etc.

The one I am interested in and want, is sold only by BestBuy.
I applied and received their credit card to use on it when.
My question is:How are they to buy from and is using their credit card a safe way to go? Do I have anything to worry about?
Thanks much for the valued replies.
Urlee

I have been shopping on-line for years, not just gifts but household items too.

First, regardless of where you purchase something from you must be sure the checkout is secure when posting personal and financial information. Do not be surprised when the pages are not secure while shopping.

In the checkout look up in the URL address bar. The information MUST begin with https://. The "s" reports the site is using SSL and is secure. Please do not totally rely on the picture of the lock appearing on the Taskbar. There has been reports of malicious sites falsely showing the "closed" lock meaning secure.

As far as shopping itself the most comfortable are those from brick and mortar stores; i.e Sears, Best Buy. Myself when I am using a site that isn't a brick and mortar for the first time I do the following:

1. Type the business name into Google adding the word complaint to the Search Bar.

2. Go to the BBB site and using the business location determine if any complaints have been previously filed locally.

3. And this is the protocol that makes me most comfortable when using a site for the first time. If the site has a telephone number I place my initial order over the telephone. After a successful purchase experience I then use the Internet.

Finally, when in doubt don't. Gut feelings make a lot of sense when protecting yourself.

DA

Thanks DA That is good info I didn't know about the S in the URL

I too have shopped online for years with no bad consequences. Shops I use regularly are buy.com, newegg.com, walmart.com, ecost.com, amazon.com, roamans, womanwithin, brylanehome, proflowers, heck I can not remember all of them. It is easy to check on a site there are ratings available at many online comparison shopping sites and I also like epinions.com.
Comparison shop, read reviews, find savings, at ResellerRatings.com.
www.bizrate.com
StoreRatings.org
you can find more on google.

Always be sure you have the https and the lock when entering your info and when finishing the order read very carefully and watch what you click, some sites have things pre checked that you will want to uncheck so you you do not get a ton of email and ads from them also on some watch carefully on the checkout and do not let it re-direct you to some other site or any type of rewards junk you do not want to do that, many of those so called rewards will charge your credit card monthly and you may not even realize it. Just look carefully and only choose the continue to check out buttons.

Hey, down to $299 already in some places. If you prefer to shop at a different location where the price is higher request a price match and include a location where the lowest price is seen.

You are $50 better off already :~)

Here is a link that might be useful: Comparison pricing

one thing to check when purchasing a computer from any site is if they have a refund policy many only have a replace policy. I prefer to deal with those that will do a full refund.

For electronics I tend to go to tigerdirect, newegg or amazon.

I also check out woot.com on a daily basis. They sell one item a day (usually) and if it's not something you need/want, it won't help.

Hi,

One quick word about buy.com. I recently purchased a monitor from them and in the shipping information I filled in my complete address. That is, I included street address followed by post office box.

The following day I was notified by email that my order was cancelled ! So, I called customer service and found that it was cancelled because of the post office box ! They said they don't deliver to any. Well, I told them that I had included my street address, and even put it before the post office box ! They said that any indication of a post office box in the shipping info (even after the street address) will cause their computer system to reject and cancel the order. Grrrrr....

Well, I did get things straightened out and even got my monitor before Thanksgiving ! But just so everyone knows: it'll cause much fewer problems if you exclude any post office box with buy.com.

Scott

Thanks- all good things for us to know when buying an expensive item.
It is now ;Cyber Monday'= and I don't see any prices that are different from the last several weeks...maybe Cyber Monday is just a gimmick?
I had a horrid experience with buying from Best Buy- in person....first, the salesperson walked away while I was actually asking questions about the computers- I floowed him through several isles to drag him back. He then said 'I'll be back in 3 minutes'....10 minutes later I found him standing up front talking with coworkers. I again ragged him back to the computer area. I bought the HP Mini. I did complain to the mgr, who gave me a $40 off the computor. 4 days later, when I returned the computer because it didn't work, the mgr only refunded $359, not $399...I guess all the crap I went through/got a sales price renigged because the product didn't work, and it was then ok to have such bad salespeople.
I won't ever be buying from Best Buy.

Now....where are the Cyber Day Sales????? owbist- I think it was you that said I was already ahead $40 online.....where, please?

Yes it was me. Click the link I provided in that post. Now only 3 have it at $299. Tigerdirect was one of those still at that price.

I heard a "professional" shopper on the radio while driving to work this morning. For what it is worth he claims Cyber Monday is a thing of the past. The forcasted new dates for real cyber-saving will be Decemeber 18 and 19.

He also avers, "If there is no free shipping, buy it somewhere else."

This is all his words not mine.

DA

I like newegg for electronics but will not buy a pc there since they do not have a refund policy only return and replace with computers that steered me away when I got one of my computers.

I have had very good luck with buy.com and delivery was with in 2 days even with the free shipping but I think it was because of where I lived and being near one of their shipping warehouses.
I do caution people with buy.com to be very alert in the check out process not to get sidetrakced to one of the reward pages you do NOT want to do that, just continue on to check out.

Amazon has always been great and I have had very quick shipping never had an issue.

I have not been seeing the deals I have seen in the past on cyber Monday, I am not really shopping but I do like to look just in case.

Tigerdirect has been fine for me but I have had friends that had some issues with them. Always read the fine print and make sure you are not buying a refurbished item when you are shopping for New.

I purchase stuff online all the time with no problems with the products/financial information at more websites than I can list.

Some make you pay to return, some offer free shipping on returns, that can be important.

Some sell your name to others and are responsible for mass amounts of junk mail and spam. Roaman's did this to me despite checking the box not to share my information with their preferred partners. It has taken a year to stop all the catalogs and spam and just when I thought it was over I got a catalog from Sports Authority the other day.

Some just send their own catalogs. I buy online to avoid having catalogs all over my house!

Make sure you use a credit card to pay, a debit card generally does not have the same consumer protections even if it has the Visa or Mastercard logo on it.

Make sure you always check your statements and dispute any incorrect charges right away. I've never had any but it can happen.

I tend to think that prices get lower as we approach Dec. 25. Like DA, I avoid buying if I have to pay shipping charges. However, if the price is low enough, it might be worth it. I have had great luck with Amazon.com and their affiliates as well as New Egg and Tiger Direct. And, I've used Buy.com for several items. Last year I got a great deal on a Sony 40" HD TV by buying online from Circuit City (sob!). Saved $100 over the store price and got free delivery and setup. I haven't bought anything from the online CC. I always preferred CC to BB.

By coincidence the below article was in the paper today. Maybe it will help those who are new to on-line shopping.

DA

Here is a link that might be useful: Detroit Free Press

I bought a custom built desktop from Magic Micro Computers and am very pleased with the system and tech support.

OK- you guys have confirmed what I thought- no great bargins out there online. As you say, maybe as Christmas gets closer. I might as well wait until I have to go to Billings next time. I have Wal-Mart, Target, Office Max (and a couple other office stores I think). No CC- but I thought Circuit City was history....that's what happens when you live in BFE- you don't know what is going on !
Thanks!

CC is no more as a bricks and mortar store, but someone has bought the name and runs an online store using the name. Since I was on their original mailing list, I continue to get ads from them via e-mail. Don't know how the online outfit would be to deal with. Certainly not like the real store was.