How Much and Where did you hear that! (Online Shopping Guides & Price Comparison sites in general)

Member Name: Scooobydooo

Product:	Online Shopping Guides & Price Comparison sites in general
Date:	07/03/04 (418 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: saves money

Disadvantages: spend a bit of time

I suppose I came across comparison sites quite by accident. I was a bit nosey and looking at how much things cost and found two that I mainly use which is Dooyoo and Ciao and tend to look at something on these now to find out how much something is going to cost, espcially if it is going to be a large item.

I suppose I have always been a bit of a traditionalist and have had gas with gas and electric with electric board and so on, you get what I mean.

The companies started to demerge and the internet was the perfect way to advertise and take a nosey at what people were offering on line.

I wish that this was available when we switched over to NPower who left us without hot water and electric for nearly a week which ended up with me been nearly admitted to Hospital due to kidney problems. I read the reviews on the sites what people had wrote and thought I wish I had known this before and then there would have been no way that I would have switched to them. So now I had to switch again and was confused, they all sounded great on the internet and in principal probably they were. After all they are not going to advertise how rubbish their customer service is are they otherwise no one would move to them.

So now we were at a loss to whom we should move to so I browsed through the internet and found a company called U switch. On this site it takes some details off you and then gives you all the companies whom you can choose to have your gas and electric with. We found this very easy to use and signed up on line for Powergen. We got awarded 2,000 pooints on our Tesco Clubcard from them which is worth around £20 and last week I got a mailer from them and was just about to bill it and found a cheque at the bottom of the letter for £15. After been a bit bemused by this, I read further and it was because we had signed up on line. I was well chuft. I did look at review sites and found good and bad about them but to be honest and fair we can say
that about most companies.

So that was the gas and electric sorted. Now time for the telephone and broadband and we duly signed up with NTL on line after reading about how wonderful they were and not many people seemed to have a bad word against them. Howevre since the market has opened up, they have a rather I do not give a damn attitude until you threaten to leave NTL and then they offered me reduced rates...Try it, you could save a fortune with them. We took this up and stayed for a little longer but it all come to a head and I had a massive row with them and told them in no certain terms, where they could shove their tv package and line and broadband. They had lost a customer who was paying around £400 a 1/4 for all these services. So I had to trawl through and find the best one and I have gone back to BT for my phone line as many companies do not seem to have to have their own exchanges and I looked at several reviews about Tiscali Broadband and signed up online. However I do tend to trust Dooyoo more than Ciao in my looking up for reviews as I am a member over there but it seems to me that there is such a spat going on at the moment and it is not really nice, so I find myself more and more on Dooyoo and eventually, I will come over here permantley, I think.

So by checking review sites and finding sites that do all the donkey work for you, I have become a bit of a changer as I now like to follow the best deal around and have no loyalty to any company whatsoever.

I suppose the same is said when I have to buy large items, rather then waste money, I will browse around sites and Dooyoo and Ciao always can suggest good reviews on the product and bad reviews and sometimes comes up with where you can get the cheapest deals.

One of them was a Epson C44 that i was looking for and I found it for £19 on the internet rather than paying the £60 that a certain store was trying to get out of me.

I do rely on these sites and they c
an be very helpful. No doubt soon as another saving is there to be made. I will be first in the queue.

Summary: