Where to find out if a Vendor is Reputable

[ElvishArcher]

Click There ---> Reseller Ratings (http://www.resellerratings.com/) Go there, so no more questions about what vendor is good and such

[William]

*Stuck*

[ElvishArcher]

OMG, I'm so overcome with emotion, brb I have to cry

[GoldenTiger]

There there now... (hands a tissue)

[klosters64a]

It's my sad duty to report that ResellerRatings is no more. If you have a list of etailers that treat you well, but it's only in your head, so to speak, it'd be a good idea to write them down now. Before memory fades.

[Challenger]

Ressellerratings.com is back

[muddocktor]

Also, anandtech has started a ratings guide too, but it doesn't have a whole bunch of entries in it yet, around 1200 entries on 221 vendors.

[Army_Of_1]

resellerratings.com owns, I bought a radeon 8500 from a no name on PW and unfortunatley got jipped :\ long story, but anywho I Just purchased an Enermax 350W PSU from bestbyte.net who had a reseller rating of 8.5X, hopefully their rating fits them right :)

[/\\/3|2o]

WOW

type newegg. Look at them ratings!

[ZeroAquaduct]

Are there anymore places that I can use to check a vendor's reputation, besides ResellerRatings.com and AnandTech?

I heard of BizRate.com before -- how reliable is that one?

[VBCWIZARD]

Simple question. What is there to stop a reseller to make fraudulent post on resellerratings.com?
Don’t get me wrong, I also use it, but it has so much potential for abuse…

[daba]

VBCWIZARD: Right here: http://www.resellerratings.com/seller4079.html

I'm going to have to add that although Resellerratings.com is good for most sellers, it has its deficiencies. Look at tigerdirect.com for example, how in god's name do they have an 8+ rating?

[Streifenkarl]

Am i allowed to post a link to a german site, which observes european resellers?

[Radical]

Am i allowed to post a link to a german site, which observes european resellers?

Sure.

[ZeroAquaduct]

eBay feedbacks is also a good source. What I sometimes do when I find a new vendor is I check if they sell on eBay as well. If yes, I look at their feedback.

Just keep in mind that *nothing* (including RR, BizRate, etc.) can 100% guarantee that a vendor is good. But it gives you sources that'll lower your chances of getting ripped. I just use eBay feedbacks as one of my extra sources.

[LostAndFound]

www.pricewatch.com has seller ratings available on the site as well. They've been around since '95 so it says at the bottom of the home page, so I'm not sure if it's a good thing for the amount of ratings that are there.

[hafa]

Also, for US retailers, don't forget the Better Business Bureau (http://search.bbb.org/).

[Caffinehog]

I've seen some other vendor rating sites, but I rely on resellerratings.

Pricewatch's thing is a joke. Find a site they think is great, then check it on resellerratings if you don't beileve me.

One caveat about resellerratings: Read back for the last year or so of reviews.
If the seller used to be good, and has kept things pretty clean... or gotten lucky for the past couple months, you could miss a really bad spell that is now more the rule than the exception. A high number just means that things overall have been good, and they haven't been too bad over the last 6 months.

That happened to me with a certain site. If I had read back that far before ordering, I would have went elsewhere. But no, I saw a high recent and overall number, so I ordered. Lo and behold, I had the same problems everyone else had, and it was a month after my order before it was resolved. To be fair, it was taken care of better than most of the resellerrating complaints claim, but I still had a hassle.

So make sure you read reviews. If the complaints are whiney little complaints, and only spread here and there, you're fine. But if you get some complaints of substance, and there's several similar ones, especially if they're grouped relatively close together, look out!