Play.com (Play.com)

Member Name: emmakate06

Product:	Play.com
Date:	12/07/09 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use website, price see is the price you pay

Disadvantages: Each item sent individually wasting packaging

I first started using Play.com last year just before Christmas. I had a lot of friends and family wanting certain cd's or dvd's as presents and when shopping around for the best deals this site kept cropping up. I had a quick glance through the home page and the first thing I noticed was that all the prices quoted were inclusive of the delivery charge. This immediately caught my interest as being a good deal and so I decided to have a more in depth look into the site to see what I could find.

Firstly I realised that I was wrong in assuming that Play.com only sold home entertainment and video games, and soon found out that they actually sell a wide array of products from clothing to electrical goods, they even sell toys. All the products are competitively priced and the fact that this includes the delivery charge is a big bonus for me.

Having originally set out to buy a couple of dvd's, I actually ended up purchasing quite a bit more and was impressed by how easy to use the website was. The menu is clearly displayed both along the left hand side and also along the top, this allows you to browse through the categories and have a good look around the online store. If you know exactly what you are after then the large seach bar function at the top of the page is there for your ease of use. All products are displayed clearly and if you click on a product which interests you this will provide you with an array of further information on the product along with customer reviews which I always find helpful.

I personally find the site very easy to navigate and easy to complete my purchase. Your shopping bag is located at the top right hand corner of the page and this will keep you updated with the number of items you have in your basket and what your spend is. So always good to keep an eye on this if your on a budget.

The first time you check out, you will need to register. This only takes a few moments and allows for much more speedier service in the future. This saves you from having to complete all your details every time you purchase something which I find to be of great benefit. You can pay using all popular cards such as Switch, Maestro, Visa and Mastercard and more recently Play.com have recently launched their own credit card which offers its own reward scheme when you use your card to purchase on their store.

As I mentioned previously, I first started using this site just before Christmas and I think that for this reason, I experienced quite a slow delivery time. Friends of mine have said that they tend to recieve their purchases in around three days time, however the majority of mine took around a week to arrive. Fortunately I was buying in plenty of time, but for that last minute purchase we all sometimes need to make, this site would not prove useful as their are no alternative delivery services offered, even if you were willing to pay the extra.

The other thing that I do not like about this site is the extreme amount of packaging that they waste. Every product ordered comes delivered individually and large orders are not bulked together. Every item I ordered came wrapped in a large amount of cardboard and I felt that there should be some way to just stick all the items I ordered into one big box for one single delivery as opposed to about ten. In some instances I was recieving Cd's in boxes ten times the size of the item, which is a complete uneccessary waste.

Overall, they do offer a nice user friendly service, but they really need to reduce their packaging and look at delivery items together in the future.

Summary: User friendly site with good deals