Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Fast delivery, cheap, good service |
| Disadvantages: |
None |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Well, I’m back after a very long Ciao holiday! Did anyone miss me?? No? Damn! I have tried to pop in occasionally and rate and comment on the odd op, but I’ve got a new job which is very demanding with very long hours and funny shifts, so it’s been more than I can manage to sit down and write any Ciao ops. Still, I got my first salary payment a few days ago so I decided I’d splash out and treat myself to something nice and new. Being a bloke, that of course means something
electronic!
I looked round and decided that I’d been struggling on with my old TV and VCR long enough. The VCR was actually relatively new, only about two years old. I bought it in a sale and it seemed a real bargain, but the stupid thing went faulty just outside its guarantee period and on the majority of my pre-recorded tapes, which I watch a lot, the picture jumped about until I switched off the automatic tracking and did it manually- and that only partially worked, staying a bit fuzzy and sometimes requiring me to jump up again and again to adjust it- and on a few tapes, it wouldn’t play them properly no matter what I did. There seemed no relation to the age of the tapes, it liked some old ones and rejected some brand-new ones, so I knew the stupid thing was faulty. VCR prices seemed so cheap nowadays with DVD taking over that I felt it wasn’t worth having it repaired and I was never that impressed with it anyway, so I decided a nice new one was in order- and NOT a Mitsubishi one this time, thanks!
Anyway, the thought of a new shiny VCR sitting next to my faithful but ancient Matsui portable wasn’t very encouraging, so I decided to put that out to grass too (it’s going to a quieter life with my mother, the VCR is going in the bin) and get something a little larger with Nicam and teletext.
Anyway, I had a look in the regular stores so I could have a look and things in the plastic, as it were, and chose which models I wanted- reviews of those will follow, but I decided a Sony KV-21LS30 television with a matching Sony SLV-SE720 VCR would do the trick.
There really is very little competition on the high street when it comes to this type of product. Basically you have the ever-present Dixons and Currys, which are part of the same group and so have the same pricing, and Comet, who occasionally compete on price- but ultimately the two groups seem very happy with their cosy duopoly and their prices remain remarkably similar on most items.
Having checked both groups, they had near-identical prices save a handful of change on both items- around £330 on the TV and £150 on the VCR.
So I decided to shop on-line, and used the Pricerunner website. Both items are quite popular and widely-available so it popped up with about 15 websites selling what I wanted, which is certainly a good contrast to the 2 choices I had on the high street!
The prices varied massively, but on both items it seemed to be Empire Direct and dabs, which I’d heard of, and Electrical Discount UK, which I hadn’t, which gave me the cheapest deals, all within a few pounds of each other. I wasn’t keen on dabs because I’d had experience of their poor customer service is the goods turn out to the faulty and I found their website confusing and very lacking in information on the products. Empire Direct seemed better but I’d heard very conflicting stories about the company. In both cases, pricerunner has its own mini-reviews posted by consumers, similar to Ciao but less detailed, and they were either full of praise for the companies or told you not to touch them with a bargepole- and the two sides seemed split fairly evenly, so the odds of getting hassle seemed about 50-50, which was too risky for my fragile heart!
The third company I hadn’t heard of but it seemed to have a lot of reviews on the site, and out of about 35 reviews, only 1 or 2 were negative, and even then not the absolute stay-away ones which Empire Direct and dabs seemed to have- in one case the company had even replied to the customers complaint right there on the website- an option which the other companies weren’t brave enough to use. Anyway, the other 33 reviews were pretty much all glowing with praise, so I checked out the website at
http://www.electricaldiscountuk.co.uk to find out more.
It was a fairly basic-looking site but that meant it loaded quickly and was clear and easy to understand. There wasn’t loads of information on my chosen products but it was adequate, and on these items delivery was free. I was reassured to see that they were members of the Which? Webtrader Scheme and had a THAWTE Authenticity Seal to certify that their secure server was really secure, and had a freephone helpline number to call if you needed to. That and the positive reviews made me feel able to trust a company I hadn’t heard of before with my hard-earned cash.
Anyway, I went ahead and ordered, which was nice and easy- the form to fill out was short and to the point, no unnecessary questions or market research nonsense, and there was even a space to put special instructions to the delivery person- I asked him or her to ring the bell a couple of times and then wait a reasonable time before deciding I wasn’t home, as they never seem to give me time to get to the door before clearing off!
The real clincher was the price- the VCR was £128.99, saving me £21 on the high street price, and the TV £281.99, saving me £48 on the high street price. Both prices included VAT (our wonderful Value Added Tax, a sales tax at 17.5% for my non-British readers!) and delivery was free, so there were no hidden charges.
I ordered late Saturday night and on Sunday I got a phone call from them to tell me the VCR was in stock and would be despatched on Monday, and the TV was currently out of stock but was expected by Friday. Sure enough, the VCR arrived promptly and well-packaged, in perfect condition, from Federal Express, on Tuesday morning. They called me again on Wednesday to say the TV was now in stock and would be despatched the next day, and that too arrived on Friday in perfect condition. I was very impressed with them keeping in touch via phone to let me know the progress of my order, and they were very polite and professional. In total I saved £69 on the high street price with free delivery to my door instead of having to lug it home from a superstore.
From looking at their site, it seems that they have free delivery on items under 25kg, which would be most electronic items, but a £9.95 charge on heavier items.
They sell electronic goods such as TV, VCR, DVD and hi-fis, and “white goods” such as washing-machines and dishwashers, fridges and cookers, and smaller things like vacuum-cleaners.
All prices seem cheaper than the high street, though not always by much, but with the professional service if you can get it cheaper there, why not? They also have a special offers page with bigger discounts on selected items. They have a good range of the top brands and you can search by brand and/or price if you like.
I’ve had no “spam” from them since, and overall I’m very impressed with their service- I’ll definitely use them again.
