7dayshop, 8 important questions (7dayshop.com)

Member Name: hugon

Product:	7dayshop.com
Date:	02/04/02 (778 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good prices, Quick and easy to navigate site

Disadvantages: Slow to respond to emails, Quite a small product range

Who are 7dayshop?

7dayshop are an online shop based in Guernsey who specialise in a range of digital photography equipment and computer accessories - rechargeable batteries, camera film, recordable media, CDRs, memory cards, camera cases, printer cartridges etc. You can find them at http://www.7dayshop.com .

How easy is the site to navigate?

It's very simple - the site is divided up into simple sections on the left hand side of the index page. Should you click on the "recordable media" option for example, you'll be taken to a sub-menu allowing you to choose between CDRs, CDRWs, Zip discs, etc. The centre of the screen also has pictures of the items in each section to allow easy visual navigation. There is a constant menu in the top left of the screen allowing you to log into your account, check any items in your basket, go to the checkout or get in touch with customer services. The graphics are kept to a minimum, just to illustrate the product types, and this keeps loading times pretty quick. The layout is consistent between sections, so navigation is simple throughout the sections.

How much product information is displayed?

The descriptions in my case where adequate if not exceptional. When ordering a compact flash card from the site, there was no indication of whether it was of type I or type II. There item description often refers to user reviews of the particular item, but when you click on that link you are informed there are no user reviews for that item, which I found a little confusing. A minor niggle I have is that there is no individual picture for many of the items - for instance, using the Compact Flash cards as an example again, there was a generic picture displayed for each type. The card they show on the site is also different to the one I ended up receiving.

What is customer service like?

I've had two occasions to deal with customer services, once by phone, once by e
mail. The first time was on the phone, when I ordered the wrong type of battery charger and wanted to cancel my order, I was able to phone up and speak to someone who told me to go to my order history and place a note o it for it not to go through. So even though you have an order number, it is not shown up on their central computer system until sometime later. I replaced the order, but the cancelled one was not deleted from my order history for a couple of days, which caused me a few worries.

My second encounter with customer services was to enquire about the type of compact flash they sold. This was via the online form on their site. It took 2 days for them to respond to my query, which was placed on a Monday, which I found a little disappointing.

How do you go about ordering?

It's much like any other online store, place items into your basket as you browse the site, once you've finished, you can go to the checkout page, and update the quantity or remove any items from your basket, before confirming the order. The first time you order, you create an account with your delivery details, so the next time you order, you just have to enter your email address and password without having to fill in your name and address every time you order. Your credit card details are not kept on file and will have to be entered every time you shop there.

What's delivery like?

Delivery costs a standard £1.95 per order, regardless of size or weight. This is very competitive compared to other online stores like dabs.com (if you compare it to their small order surcharge) or Scan. If you order more than 100 items, or over £100, delivery is free. This is where 7dayshop gets its name - it generally takes it about a week to get the items to you. It takes them a day or two to process your order, and then another couple of days for them to arrive via Royal Mail. I have another niggle here - when I ordered my Compact Flash card, it was ou
t of stock (there was no indication of this when I ordered), I received an email to inform me of this, but the email stated my card would still be debited "to ensure delivery when it came back into stock". This isn't standard policy with other websites, who only debit your card when the item is available for dispatch. Luckily the card was only a few days coming back into stock; otherwise I would have been severely miffed.

What are the prices like?

Once of the most important parts I guess, and I've saved it to last, maybe to keep you're reading, maybe for no discernable reason. Their prices certainly are competitive, especially with the cheap delivery fee. The majority of the compact flash cards I looked at on their site where the cheapest I've seen on the net - dabs.com beat them on a 128MB card, but aside from that 7dayshop won comfortably, the price of a 64meg one being roughly £5 cheaper than dabs. I have also ordered batteries from them, as well as MMC memory, both very well prices. These are the only products I have checked out in any great depth, a scan of their site revealed mixed results - for printer cartridges I noticed good prices, but they weren't as competitive when it came to CDRs. I guess it just pays to shop around before you place your order.

Would you use them again?

Yes, definitely, I'd by any memory cards I need from there, plus I plan to buy some more rechargeable batteries in the future. If you're not in a desperate hurry for the item, you should get a good deal from this site, but if your after something in a hurry, dabs.com would be my port of call. Still, 7dayshop is definitely worth checking out.

Summary: