An overview of the site, features and the company (Ebuyer.com)

Member Name: deathy

Product:	Ebuyer.com
Date:	31/07/05 (305 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Site, Very Informative, Reliable, Good Range of Products, Competitive Price

Disadvantages: More information about each product would help, Site sometimes slow

** About Ebuyer

Ebuyer is a UK online electical goods store. They started off as a computer retailer selling anything and everything from mousemats through to computer systems, hard disks through to software. They have also more recently moved into supplying household white goods, car equipment (in-car audio, sat nav) and even some golfing equipment, and health and fitness gear.

** How I found them

I discovered Ebuyer quite by chance. I was looking to by a new SATA drive for my home PC and found them as a link in Google.

** About the Site : www.ebuyer.com

I feel that there website is one of the most professional and well designed ecommerce sites I have ever seen. They recently changed the design, including the colour scheme and whilst I like it I know that not everyone does. However, in a fantastic piece of customer service, you simply click on the link called "Menu: [off|on]" in the top right corner of the screen and you can toggle the navigation method back to the old system - veyr clever idea.

I think the site is very distinctive in its design, very easy to navigate and very easy to read. Products and pricing are very clearly stated, although one annoying feature is that the big bold price next to eac product is EX VAT, and the smaller lighter price is INC VAT. I would prefer it the other way around, or perhaps an option to state whether you are a retail or trade customer and so the system automatically swaps the emphasis.

On the whole the speed of the site is very good given its design, although at Christmas 2004 I did experience a lot of slow down. This is something easily fixed by the company, and certainly since then I have experience no problems at all. We remain to see if Christmas 2005 will be better though.

** Product Range

I feel that Ebuyer offers a good range of products across a wide range or computer sectors. They offer PDA's, Notebooks, PC's, Laptops, Servers, Projectors, Printers, Memory, Keyboards/Mice, Webcams, Headphones, UPS, Power protection, Storage (fixed and removable), Graphics cards, Speakers, Sound Cards, Cases, CD/DVD Readers/Writers, Switches, Routers, A full range of software including office software and games, LCD TV's Digital Cameras, Camcorders, In-Car Audio (!), Mobile Phones, Sat Nav and now... they've started to offer household white goods too. So there's a big big range of products to choose from.

Price wise, I found Ebuyer to be broadly competitive across PC items. I have not used them for white goods or the newer product categories they have recently added, so cannot comment on those. As with most sites, they are more competitive on some ranges than others. But you should bear in mind that they do have good levels of stock (what use is a cheap price if there's no stock for 20 weeks). I also found their range of products to be good. I was particularly impressed by their range of Hard Drives and Motherboards

** Features

Their site has lots of nice features. In addition to the choice of menu styles mentioned earlier, they have a search tool, a clearance area (discounted prices for end of line stock) and a particular feature I liked, when you click on a product, at the bottom of the page they list suitable alternatives. Against each item they also show current stock levels, which I think is great. The number of times you go through the online ordering process on most websites only to get an email two days later saying "sorry, even though we've taken your money we don't have your items in stock... it will be approximately 7000 years before the bamboo raft arrives from taiwan and that's assuming we've remembered to place your order, that your product is on the raft and that customs don't confiscate the entire stock AND that the boat wasn't sunk and the entire crew eaten by Sharks somewhere off the coast of Northern Australia." Happens all the time.

** Customer Service

Now I know this is an area of debate. When I first used Ebuyer, I think I got in just as the company was fixing its customer service issues. If I understand correctly, they had such a huge backlog of customer queries that it was taking them up to a month to reply. My reply came in 2-5 days, which I thought was more than acceptable: Put it this way, most online stores never respond.
What I particularly like is that on the site they tell you the current forecast delay in replying to your query - how cool is that? You don't get that in most shops these days when dealing with a human. You're meant to translate a "grunt" into one of "Sorry, I'm too busy and I'm about to have lunch so get lost" / "I'll be with in a moment, please wait dear valued customer" / "grunt". So, for me, a big well done to Ebuyer on this front. Also, I have found the quality of responses to be very good.

When you send in a query, it is stored against your account - think of it like an email inbox. When Ebuyer reply, their response also appears here too. I think this is really neat and clever. Ebuyer have imaginatively called this "enotes" - what would we do without those marketing people and their clever names?

Their site also has a good FAQ/Returns Policy and so on, so there's a lot of information available. Take the time to read it.

** Returns Policy

Ebuyer has a very good returns policy and there is a most extensive document explaining it all on their site - this is amongst the best I have ever seen on ANY internet site. I won't go into the particulars of the policy as it could change and then this review would be out of date. However, I found it be be very fair, so you do not have anything to worry about there.


** Order Tracking

I loved the Order tracking system. Using a combination of graphics and text, Ebuyer very clearly shows the progression of your order. The most impressive bit is that they also give you visibility of how your order is tracking as it moves between departments BEFORE reaching the warehouse. Very impressive. They even tell you which warehouse is packing your order! I don't know of any other site that does that, but maybe I need to stay in more.

You also get a nice commentary via email too, so you don't need to keep logging in to you account area.


** Delivery

My order arrived exactly on the date they said it would. The courier was very professional and the products were very well packaged. So 10/10 for that.

** Summary

As their product range gets broader I do begin to wonder about the knowledge and expertise in their core computer business. For those of us who can build PC's it is getting harder to find reliable compenent suppliers. However, overall I like their site, I like their style and I have found them to be very helpful and reliable. A bit more information about each product would help and I wish they'd put the INC VAT price as the main price.

Give them a go, you've got nothing to lose... they've usually got everything you're looking for and they're a good site to include on your shopping list to make sure you're getting the best price.

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A good site with features that biggest companies would be proud of. Sets the standard.