Buying computer bits

[ewx]

Dabs have been claiming for the last couple of weeks that one of the items in my order was expected to come into stock in 1-2 days. So I've cancelled the order; after that long it's not uncertain lead times any more, it's just lying to customers.

So where do people buy their computer bits from currently?

(In the light of some of the comments below I should add that I don't have a corporate account, and don't buy in the kind of volume that persuades account managers to sit up and beg.)

Comments

[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

Ebuyer (http://www.ebuyer.com/)

[pm215]

My only experience with ebuyer was not a good one -- failure to deliver when they said despite my paying extra for the quick delivery option, unwillingness to deliver to non-billing-address on first order, and generally a sequence of errors and failings that wound up in my refusing delivery and getting a refund out of them. So I've avoided them since.

[new-brunette.livejournal.com]

That's a shame; I've found them very reliable (although we have a corporate account), usually delivering before the stated time. You mileage obviously varied :(

[robhu.livejournal.com]

Seconded.

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

My new stuff comes from CCL in Bradford (http://www.cclonline.com/) or Aria in Manchester (http://www.aria.co.uk) as a rule. As for legacy parts I often use ITDealers in Leeds who are friendly and incredibly good value.

There's also a firm I use for my old Mac bits called , and they offer good customer service too - and they're not so far from you by car, between Ely and Chatteris. (http://www.itdealers.co.uk) (http://www.forevermac.com)

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

My new stuff comes from CCL in Bradford (http://www.cclonline.com/) or Aria in Manchester (http://www.aria.co.uk) as a rule. As for legacy parts I often use ITDealers in Leeds (http://www.itdealers.co.uk) who are friendly and incredibly good value.

There's also a firm I use for my old Mac bits called forevermac.com (http://www.forevermac.com), and they offer good customer service too - and they're not so far from you by car, between Ely and Chatteris.

[totkat.livejournal.com]

Novatech (http://www.novatech.co.uk/)

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

/AOL

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Website no work.

[totkat.livejournal.com]

Odd. Works fine in Firefox here.

[duncanneko.livejournal.com]

Scan (http://www.scan.co.uk), whose customer service was vastly superior to most.

[rillaith.livejournal.com]

Was going to say the same.

[imc.livejournal.com]

Last time I ordered anything it came from Scan too.

I had a power supply fail not quite a year after buying it, and they sent a courier to collect it. A few days later, a new one arrived.

I've had a couple of bits from Simply in the past, but haven't tried them since they became Misco.

[robhu.livejournal.com]

ZOMG - there is a reason Scan have the nickname Scam in the industry...

[3c66b.livejournal.com]

The only time I used Scan their customer service seriously sucked. This was a few years ago, though.

I use Dabs for home stuff, Insight for work (university policy). Never had a problem. I suspect they're all probably about as bad as each other.

[kjaneway.livejournal.com]

Generally, I walk, or if I'm doing other things, drive, to Microdirect (http;//www.microdirect.co.uk/).

Alternativly, I drive over to Scan (http://www.scan.co.uk) in Bolton.

They're both box shifters and the customer service varies wildly from day to day, but I can generally get anything I need in a couple of hours from one or other of them. :-)

(Oh, except for laptops, which I tend to get from Laptops Direct (http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/) in Huddersfield.)

[pm215]

I recently had a good customer service experience with Orcalogic, but they mostly just do memory.

[robhu.livejournal.com]

For memory I only buy Crucial - same as every other employee at my company and the company itself. Their ram is very slightly more expensive that most branded RAM but I've never had any problems at all with it.

[gerald_duck]

I buy from World of Computers. For stuff they don't stock, I use… er… Dabs. (-8

They're not faultless, and it certainly helps to have a corporate account manager who can prod buttock, but nobody else is faultless either. I'm not sure it's possible to do much better, despite your current aggravation.

[mair_in_grenderich]

I don't use ebuyer because only about half the people I speak to say "no problems!", and the other half complain. I was just recommended http://www/redstore.com (and they were cheaper than ebuyer for the item I wanted), but they didn't like my switch card not having an issue number, and I don't have a confirmation email although it didn't *say* my order didn't go through (I put N/A in the "issue number" box and it shut up), so I'm reserving judgment till I see if my order arrives.

www.redstore.com

[mair_in_grenderich]

um. you can probably figure out what that url was *supposed* to be.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Aria are reasonable in my experience.

Avoid like the plague any prat that uses the ShittyLink parcel losing service though.

Often these days I find myself using Froogle to pick suppliers.

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

My Xmas computer upgrade came from Microdirect and arrived promptly and correct, though they did send us a frotzed stick of memory.