I’m sure this is old hat to many of you, but if you just can’t wait anymore and want to run out and buy a processor Real Soon Now, you might want to check to see how reputable the dealer is.
I never buy anything from anyone until I’ve first checked them out at Reseller Ratings. This website is a compilation of comments people have made about various resellers.
The way you should use the site is to go to the reseller you are interested in buying from. The rating scale is from 1 to 7. If the reseller has a rating like 2, then there are a lot of unhappy campers out there, and you probably shouldn’t even look any further. If the ratings is 5 or better, then it’s probably OK, but before buying, you should read all the comments made about the place to see if there is a pattern of what the company does well or badly.
Don’t let a single negative comment turn you off, but if you see a number of people complaining about or praising the same thing, odds are that’s pretty common. Sometimes, you’ll find that a company doesn’t do a certain thing very well, but if it’s not applicable to you, then it’s not something you should be concerned about.
I bring this up because a lot of people use search engines like Pricewatch to find the cheapest price for something, and often (not always), the lowest prices come from those resellers with pretty awful ratings. Often, those will the lowest prices have the highest shipping costs. You should never buy a product until you find out the shipping cost ahead of time.
Sure, it takes some extra time, and can be frustrating when the first five or ten places you look at have terrible ratings. But what takes more time and money: checking places out and paying a few more dollars to a reputable place, or fighting for a month to get what you ordered? Take the time now, and reduce the hassle later. Reward the good companies with your patronage, not the scam artists.
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