Good Prices, Long Waits (hmv.co.uk)

Member Name: Midrange

Product:	hmv.co.uk
Date:	05/04/09 (60 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very competitive online prices, good sales, free delivery but..

Disadvantages: Very long delivery times. Very off-putting.

As a music fan, I'm always on the look out for a good deal. HMV.co.uk offers extremely competitive prices on chart CDs along with free delivery. For this reason, it's probably easiest to compare the site with Play.com - whose prices are comparable and also offer no charges for standard postage.

HMV.co.uk typically sells chart CDs for £2 - 3 less than the "physical store" (is "physical store" a real phrase? I hope you know what I'm referring too!) So if you don't mind online shopping - and I find no reason to distrust a reputable retailer like HMV - then shopping on the website will work out cheaper than real life shopping. But, as any shopper knows, the price is not the only factor we have to consider.

HMV.co.uk categorises music by genre - the list is quite extensive. You can narrow your selection down through a number of routes, sorting by price, release date, artist, album or sub-genre. The search feature is good - better than Amazon's in my opinion - though Amazon does have a much wider product range, so pheraps it's no wonder it's quicker to find things at HMV.co.uk. If you're looking for obscure CDs, HMV may not always be the place. For instance, I was trying to track down an album by Arena a while back and had to turn to Amazon. HMV.co.uk does offer the facility to order CDs from elsewhere... but I always think "well, why not just order them directly..."

So the search mechanism is good. There's clearly no "walking up and down the aisles" but there is a handy scroll button to take you through the lists of CDs, organised plainly and simply onto pages, which in turn you have to click through. Just like Play or Amazon really. The payment process is, unsurprisingly, similar - allowing customers to pay with the commonly accepted methods (VISA, Maestro etc.) and select an invoice and delivery address. I'm gradually moving on to my one major problem with the site. As we've established, the online prices are very competitive but it is the delivery time that seriously let's this site down.

The first time I ordered from HMV.co.uk I thought I'd found myself a bargain. I must say I was most disappointed when my CD still hadn't arrived 3 WEEKS later. I was eginning to doubt whether I'd actually completed the order process - do you ever get that? I was wondering if there was some other button I should've clicked. But I had the confirmation email in my inbox. So it was just a case of waiting. After about 20 days I was considering emailing HMV, then, the next morning the CD eventually arrived - in perfect condition I must add, no quarrels there. A few weeks later I thought I'd give them another try. I experienced the same delay once again. It wasn't quite clear to me from their website whether these delivery periods were to be expected. No matter, I decided that from then on I'd stick to Play or Amazon.

I still receive emails from HMV from time to time - giving details of their sales and so on. It's fun to have a look at all the yester-year chart hits selling at £4.99, but the memory of those long waiting times just puts me right off. Perhaps I am the epitomy of the modern consumer - when I want something, I want it NOW. But then, maybe I'm spoilt by Amazon and Play who, as yet, have always delivered within a week of ordering. Try HMV and let me know if you do any better!

Summary: Good range, can get hold of obscure CDs but delivery period is very disappointing