Building New System; Amazon vs Newegg

[Mazinger-Z]

I haven't made a 'large' purchase from Newegg in a few years, but haven't had issues with them on the little things.

I've been hearing about a degradation in service since they went public, so I was wondering... comparably to Newegg in which I'm purchasing from Newegg... versus Amazon and whoever happens to have the parts in stock. I have Prime, so I'm getting a decent amount of shipping for free and Amazon is cheaper.

I'm largely worried about who'd give me more of a customer nightmare with returns and RMAs if I went with one vendor or the other versus the money I'd save (probably 200 or so dollars, price and shipping-wise).

Suggestions?

[jmacphee9]

you might get better customer service from a smaller store maybe? although i havent heard too much bad coming from newegg buyers. 200$ is quite some savings though, i would probably go that route. amazon probably wont let the sellers be dickheads about RMAs..

[tehgather3r]

I would honestly go with Amazon if you have prime for most stuff. Newegg is amazing for searching things and reading reviews, but I often find Amazon coming up cheaper for things, especially with that free shipping. Make sure you check out who the seller is for something on Amazon though. Both Newegg and Amazon itself have great customer service from my experience, but I can't really say anything about the other sellers on Amazon.

[Loregasm]

I don't have a lot of experience with Newegg, but I just bought a new mobo, processor, RAM, and GPU for my PC. I got everything but the mobo from Newegg, which I bought through Amazon. Ordered everything on the same day, at around the same time, even. The stuff I got from Newegg arrived nearly a week earlier than the mobo from Amazon, but the mobo was ~$20 cheaper on Amazon. As far as customer service is concerned, returning things to Amazon is a pain. Unless the item is damaged or defective when you take it out of the box, they will make you pay to ship it back to them before they refund your money. Not sure about Newegg, like I said, I've only used them this once. If you know which parts you want, and that the build will work, and you don't need much support (or have a friend that can help you out), then it's probably worth it to go with Amazon and save some money. If you aren't sure if your build will work, or you want to be able to call someone for support, I'd say Newegg, or another site. I used iBuypower.com for my first build. I picked out all the shiny parts that I wanted, and paid them to put it together. Not more than 30 mins after placing my order, they called me back to tell me the PSU I picked out wasn't beefy enough, and that I'd need to use a more powerful one, recommended an upgrade, changed my order over the phone, and then told me the GPUs I wanted were out of stock, but they'd upgrade me to one that was in stock for free. All in all and excellent experience, considering I'd never built a computer successfully before.

TL;DR: If you know what you're doing and can afford to wait a bit longer, Amazon. If you're not sure, go with a site that offers actual customer support for the stuff you're buying.

[Sonatine185]

I buy from Amazon all the time and I honestly think the customer service is top notch. Basically any type of defect or error on the part of Amazon can be returned within a month for a full refund which includes shipping. You can also return the item within a month but if its an error on your part, such as you just dont want it anymore, you'll need to pay for the shipping costs. Everything is done instantly over the internet and no need to wait in phone queues. You print out the return label and ship the item back to them. Once they receive the item you get refunded.

The best thing about Amazon is that I once bought a pair of headphones for $230. The next day it dropped to $190... I chatted with an online representative and he refunded me the difference.

[demonskies]

Last computer I built I ordered everything from Amazon only because the free shipping. I live in a remote town and as soon as it gets to the checkout on Newegg after entering zipcode it tacks on 100+ in shipping lol. I might have to wait a little longer for the free shipping with Amazon but it saves me a good chunk of money. Not only the shipping but last time I ordered from amazon the pieces were about 50 bucks cheaper over all.

[muffinss]

If you are a student, you can get amazon prime for free. After your first year, you can then get your second year half off. I've had prime for the last one and half years so far because of that lol.

These days, I try to order as much as I can from Amazon. Free two day shipping, $3.99 one day shipping, and their customer service is fantastic. I have returned and cancelled a lot of orders from them and they have never given me any issues. I have also had packages get lost and they not only refunded me but also repurchased the lost product for me and reshipped it out with one day shipping for free. If a package has arrived late, even one day late, they have always refunded my shipping cost to me if I paid for faster shipping over the free two day prime shipping.

Plus, they seem to be cheaper than newegg on most of their stuff.

Overall, they are a great company to buy from. I highly recommend buying from them if you can.

Edit:

Also, doing the holiday season they usually give you two full months to return a product you purchased instead of the standard one month.

I live near two Amazon facilities. So even if I check out with the standard free two day shipping, if its shipping from one of the facilities near me, I always get it next day after I order. They do there best to get it to you as fast as they can. I usually always get my packages way before they were post to be delivered.

[Firedexx]

I use both Amazon (now I'm a Prime member) and Newegg. I find the stuff on Amazon is usually a bit cheaper and I've had zero problems with either one.