Ebuyer

When I first heard about eBuyer.com, I thought the friend who was telling me about it was saying eBay, so I got quite confused about it, but he quickly corrected me and introduced me to this neatly functional little site which is all about buying computer goodies of all kinds, hardware, software, peripherals and the like.

The website's chief attraction is its very reasonable prices, although I have to say that I do remain a little to be convinced on these grounds, as when I checked out some products it wasn't absolutely clear to me where the better deal was on offer. However, some of the serial numbers for the products I was looking at were a bit confusing, so I might be doing eBuyer.com an injustice - certainly most everyone else raves about its great pricing policies, much of which is going to be down to the standard Internet business advantages of having to have few office premises or such nasty on costs. Certainly, what I can say without any doubt is that the price I paid when I recently ordered was extremely satisfactory and didn't bother me one little bit.

On the down side, however, many, many reviews of eBuyer.com have pointed out that there are issues when you want to get in touch with the people behind the site or even return goods. Then, apparently, things are very iffy indeed. However, I have to say I have no experience of sending things back and so can't really comment one way or the other. Of course, you hope you're not going to have to return goods anyway, so hopefully such issues will not be too problematic, but don't say you haven't been warned.

Anyway, the website itself, which you can find (quite logically) at http://www.ebuyer.com, is quite neatly laid out and cleanly designed. It's not flashy or gimmicky, but is simply functional and effective with some quite logical means of searching out the products you want, either by going in via the categories drop down menus or via search facility. It's really simplicity itself to find the link to the appropriate goodies as long as you've got an even semi logical mind. You have to be a member to buy products off the site but it's all extremely quick and simple to sign up.

Let's talk you through it...

At 4.0 one Tuesday afternoon I was after a wireless ADSL Firewall router to set up a home network. In the past I've been satisfied with a wire and Ethernet connection between two PC's to do the job, but I wanted to add in a laptop and do the whole thing via wireless, including setting all three machines up to use the same broadband internet connection. My resident IT expert told me to check it out on eBuyer.com and told me which one to buy. At 4.03 I had located the relevant category for wireless networking solutions and spied the item in question, a Netgear DG834G 54 Mbps ADSL Firewall Router, and was delighted to find that eBuyer.com had 187 of the beauties in stock.

By 4.05, I was a fully fledged member, with the only hold up being the choice of username. My standard online ID had already been taken, so I had to choose an alternative, and there I was, all signed up. By 4.07, I had added my item to my shopping basket, and was being asked whether I wanted the priority delivery option for delivery on the Thursday, 36 hours hence. Opting for YES because I'm a big, eager old Hector, I was then told that my order would cost me the following - basic cost £99.78 plus £6.99 priority shipping plus £18.70, say how do you want to pay? Do you take VISA? Indeed I do. By 4.08 my payment was accepted, my goodies were on their way and I'd received my e-mails telling me about my account and order details.

Sit back now and wait for delivery - I got a bit perturbed when the stuff hadn't come in the morning post on the Thursday, but then delighted when it was issued via courier at around 2.0 that afternoon, exactly as promised. It was also exactly what I had ordered, was securely packed, with all things included and everything I could want, just ready for Mr IT Support Man to come round and install. He had a free day on the Sunday following, so it was essential that the goodies arrived as expected, and they did, exactly when they'd been promised. Now that is what I call decent service. You don't mind paying for early delivery as long as they come up with the goods and don't overpromise or underdeliver. Admittedly, things may not always be quite as smooth as this particular order, and there is that dreadful concern about whether you will be able to return stuff if it doesn't work out, but that's for the future, okay? In my case, the 100% satisfaction would have been impossible to better. Coupled with the convenience, the range of products and the extremely competitive prices, eBuyer.com have got a pretty decent act together.

The website, as I've said, is reasonably well done, although I don't really like the pastel orange trim. There are acceptable descriptions and write ups of the products on display and little fault I can really find with the whole thing. As a sales website eBuyer.com offers everything you can possibly want, assuming of course that it's fully secure. Well, it certainly seems to be and to date I have few complaints. The only issue might be that it's a bit too easy to run up enormous bills because of all those goodies on display. Big Boys and Big Toys, the two are separated at birth and should not remain so for ever.