A wallet-friendly PC component site. (Ebuyer.com)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Ebuyer.com
Date:	18/12/03 (531 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Huge range of stock

Disadvantages: Postage rates (although they are no different to any other site)

UPDATE: July 2007

Like any hobby, being a nerd can be an expensive business. All those lovely gadgets and computer components don't come cheap and having an all singing, all dancing computer does make my wallet wince.

Hurrah then for eBuyer.com where I can buy PC stuff at wallet friendly prices.

First impressions of the site are good. It has a clean design, with obvious navigation. Text is easy to read and any images are of a good size to see clearly and are clear.

You can surf around the site without actually signing up for an account, but if you don't, you will be missing out on some of the nifty features. The details of signing up for an account may be sketchy as it's been a while since I did so. If I recall correctly, there are two methods of registering. The first is as a home user (eBuyer@home). You are allowed one account per household, and it's a single user account. The other option is (eBuyer@work) where you can have multiple users per account to make your buying easier. However, as a home user, I can only comment on the first option. You'll need to supply your full name, email address and telephone number. The phone number must be a landline (you can supply a mobile number as an optional piece of information). Along with this, you will need to give a username and password, a secret question and answer and your address details. Don't worry about using your primary/personal email address for eBuyer as I've not noticed any spam appearing in my account since I registered with eBuyer (well over 5 years ago now) and the only thing I get from eBuyer is a weekly email which I have asked to receive. You can easily change any of these details at a later date from within your account.

In order to sign into your account, you must supply three pieces of information: your username, your email address and your password. That's a bit different to most sites where you are only required to enter two pieces of information. This is done purely for security reasons, and you can get the site to remember your details which means each time you visit, you only have to enter your password.

eBuyer has a wide variety of stuff on offer, possibly the biggest of any company I've used so far. Browsing the site is easy - you select the criteria you wish to use and you can search by category (e.g. memory, CPU, graphics cards etc.) or you can browse by manufacturer (Belkin, Intel, AMD, Creative etc.). You're presented with what appears to be a random selection of items using the relevant selection criteria with an option to see all in the list. If the item you are looking for is not on the first page, then you can browse the "All Items" list which can be sorted by price, stock levels etc. It sounds more complicated than it actually is but you'll pick it up in now time at all.

If you choose to use eBuyer's search facility, you'll find that it's quick and returns accurate and/or relevant results. The advanced search facility is also excellent offering further ways to refine your search criteria.

Going back to eBuyer's range of stock, you will find that they do almost every component you would possibly need to build a PC from scratch as well as complete PC systems, laptops and notebooks. They're even expanding out into home entertainment, too. Most items have a description to go along with them, although you will require an element of nerdness about you to be able to understand them as they haven't dumbed down the jargon for the ordinary bloke off the stree, which I think is a minor negative point. You'll probably not notice, but the stock level of the site is done in real time, so you are always 100% sure of what's in stock and what's not.

The bit I like most about eBuyer would be the prices. While a lot of the better known e-tailers are pretty much the same in terms of price, I find that eBuyer usually has the edge on most of them (this doesn't include the special offers of some sites, like Scan's "Today Only" page, for example). You might not save a lot on an individual item, but the savings do mount up over several items or purchases. An example is that on one of my last orders (made earlier this month), I saved over £20 on a monitor and another £15 on a printer/scanner, compared to similar sites which isn't bad going at all over two items.

The ordering process is simple, and if you've used any other e-commerce site before, you'll know how things work. The cost of postage is pretty much the same as anyone else in this section of the market as they all tend to use the same two or three courier firms. If you live on the mainland, you have a host of delivery options open to you. As a native of Northern Ireland, I have to pay the most postage (which isn't a huge issue), but I get the least delivery options (this is an issue).

eBuyer currently accepts Visa/Mastercard/Solo and Switch cards.
They do not accept Visa Electron/Amex or credit cards issued outside of the UK, but that shouldn't really trouble anyone living in the UK. As a security precaution, your first order can only be delivered to the address you register with eBuyer, but later orders can be delivered to an alternative address should you require such a service.

There are one or two interesting things to note about eBuyer which sets them aside from other, similar companies. The first is your "catalogue". This works in a similar way to Amazon's "Wish List" where you can keep a note of various items you are interested in, and watch their prices over time. A simple indicator on this page tells you if an item has increased or decreased in price since you added it. This is very handy if you know you are going to be buying a certain type of item at some point in the future. Your catalogue can store around 50 items for future reference.

Another is the eNotes system which used to replace all other forms of contact such as email or telephone (however, eBuyer now do offer a telephone contact point). I can see where there are advantages to such a system, but it can be rather limiting as well. On the other hand, any time I've had to use the eNotes system (for queries only), I've always had a quick, friendly response. Help is on hand on the site itself with an excellent FAQ (frequently asked questions) and several pages of excellent information regarding practically every aspect of the site and how to use it. However, if you have something that you need done now, eNotes can be restrictive (at time of writing, eBuyer are claiming a 48-72 hour queue for eNotes), but a phone call can sort problems a lot quicker.

I've been using eBuyer on and off for about 5 years now and I have to say that I've never had any difficulties in dealing with them. Ordering was a breeze, all information was clear and understandable and the order tracking service within eBuyer's own system and with the courier company was effective and accurate. Orders were processed quickly, arrived on time and 100% complete. I've never had to use their returns policy and contact with them has been quick and helpful. This, alongside their prices and range of items makes eBuyer one of my first choices when considering buying PC components and other computer-related hardware.

Recent orders:

I made an order on July 7th, midway through the afternoon. Everything went smoothly, but I discovered that, living in Northern Ireland, I had no choice in delivery options and selected the standard for my address at a cost of around £25. Having received the confirmation email, I noticed that the estimated delivery date was 12th July. This date, in Northern Ireland, is a public holiday and, given that it fell on a Thursday this year, the entire country would be shut until the following Monday. Suffice to say, I wasn't too enamoured at paying £25 for a delivery that would take 10 days to reach me, so I sent an eNote immediately asking of they could delivery by July 11th.

As of Tuesday morning, the eNote still hadn't been actioned, so I made a phone call to eBuyer. Almost immediately, the call was answered by Sarah who, after a few minutes of being convinced there aren't any deliveries on July 12th/13th in Northern Ireland, called eBuyer's courier (Citylink) and confirmed this fact. Once she had done this, Sarah changed the dispatch and delivery dates on my order, bringing them forward 24 hours. Sarah couldn't guarantee that the delivery would still get to me on time, but it had a chance to.

Most of the order did arrive on time. Less than 24 hours after my call to Sarah, I had my printer and new monitor, though the memory card I had ordered was not delivered. However, I believe this was an issue with the courier rather than eBuyer themselves.

eBuyer is a site that's had a fairly mixed reputation over the years, but my own experiences have been nothing but positive.

Summary: A good place to buy PC components