The only way to buy CDs (cdnow.com)

Member Name: neinel

Product:	cdnow.com
Date:	27/02/01 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unbeatable selection of products; brilliant value for money; very efficient delivery; extremely easy to use; indispensible for getting hold of rare items and stuff that hasn't been released in the UK

Disadvantages: None.

I have been buying CDs from CDNOW occasionally for over a year now and I can't sing their praises enough. I'll attempt to start somewhere however. Their range of products simply cannot be beaten - if it's been recorded they'll almost certainly have it. They also have 30 second clips of every song on most albums so you know exactly what you're buying. Then there's the amazing value for money. Every CD I have bought so far has ranged in price from £13 - £17 and, note this, that price includes delivery!! Okay, it's no cheaper than high street retailers like Virgin or HMV and you may have to wait a few days for delivery. In instances where your CD can be easily obtained in a few minutes by going to HMV, CDNOW offers no advantages. It is in cases where your CD is not released in the UK yet or is extremely rare and HMV or Virgin can only dream of getting it for you that CDNOW proves itself to be a godsend. I imagine it's also very useful for internet freaks that have forgotten where their front door is and wouldn't have the social skills to physically go out and buy from HMV or Virgin (but not being one of them I wouldn't know...honest).

Creating an account is child's play and ordering a product could be done by a monkey. You can pay by credit card, cheque and (I believe) postal order and your details are kept very secure. When ordering, they take your browser to a secure zone and there is practically no chance your credit card details could be intercepted by criminals. Once you have an account you can log in from the home page and order products, see stats on past and current orders including when ordered items should arrive. That brings me on to another major plus of the company - arrival times. If you opt for the standard air mail delivery option (usually costs around £3.50) your items will normally always arrive in about 7 days. You can also choose faster delivery methods such as express delivery (I chose this for o
ne CD and received it just 2 days after I placed my order!! Unbelievable considering it had to come all the way from California). They have a European shipping centre as well as the main US one for extra speed (although some items like the CD I mentioned may only be in stock in the US shipping centre).

The qualities of CDNOW I love most, aside from its many merits, have to be price and choice of products. We all know Americans get everything cheaper than Britons (doesn't everyone else in the world!) and CDNOW is no exception. Most CDs cost as little as £9 or £10 (excluding delivery of around £3.50 upwards) and this is simply unheard of over here. The delivery charge does take away the incentive to order from them instead of going to a record store over here but for any product such stores do not sell, CDNOW is the place to go. Many Cds, tapes, vinyls, DVDs and videos (all of which CDNOW sells as well as posters, merchandise and more) are released in America months before we see them and the beauty is that you can own them too for no extra than you'd pay over here in shops, thanks to CDNOW. This is one online business that is, and rightly deserves to be, a huge success. Check it out now, I guarantee you'll love it.

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