INTERNET SHOPPING - A VIEW OF ONE OF THE BEST
(Part 2 of 2)
By Ron Hirsch - Boca Raton Computer Society

This is the second and final part of this article on Newegg. In part 1, I listed all the niceties that Newegg offers when you are looking for a product. In part 2 I will cover the numerous great things that occur after you place your order

COMMUNICATION DURING THE ORDER - I personally feel that poor communication is one of the very serious problems in this world today, at all levels of society. But Newegg’s communications are superb. Here are the emails you will receive after placing an order.

Immediately after you place your order, you will receive an email confirming your order placement.

1.	Shortly after that, a second email will arrive, confirming that your credit card has been successfully charged.

2.	Within the next 48 hours or so, a third email will arrive, stating that your order has shipped, and a tracking number is shown below in a hot link. Click on this link, and window will open on the shipper’s site, giving details of your delivery status. You do not have to copy the tracking number, and then go to the UPS, or FEDEX site, and paste in there. Newegg takes care of all of that automatically.

3.	The final email that comes is a copy of your invoice, which you can print out, if you have not already done so.

HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH NEWEGG

There are three excellent and practical ways to communicate with Newegg.

The first is via email. They will generally reply very quickly, usually within 24 hours.

The second is to call them on their 800 number, where you will get a capable person to talk with, generally with a minimum of “hold” time.

The third way is to enter into a live chat. This is essentially texting to them. You enter your message to them via the keyboard, and they respond. Often they will text you that they must look up info, and to please be patient.

I have made it a practice to compose my initial message to them prior to starting this process. 
My typing skills are poor, and if I have a lot to say in my inquiry, I want to prepare it prior to getting someone on my case, and then having them wait for minutes until I get my message keyed in. So I just type the message into a blank document in a text editor such as Notepad, MS Word, WordPerfect, or whatever. After I have it all typed out, I then select it all, and copy it to the clipboard, and then paste it into the message box on the live chat screen.

IF THERE IS A PROBLEM AFTER YOU RECEIVE YOUR ORDER

Here is another area where Newegg really stands head and shoulders above most other suppliers. And I got very extensive experience in this area during my latest computer build.

I had purchased almost two dozen items for my new computer, and its peripheral items. Unfortunately, several of the manufacturers must have been having a bad run of quality control, and a number of these items were nonfunctional right out of the box – not Newegg’s fault of course. Here is where Newegg shines brightly.

I contacted them about the problem, and shortly after, they replied to me via email with an RMA number, and a link to their site where I could download and print out a prepaid UPS label. Then I was instructed to repackage the item with all its accessories in the original packaging, paste on the UPS label, and drop it off at the nearest UPS location. When they receive the item, they will then send out a replacement ASAP

Alternatively, a second option is offered. If I wanted the replacement faster, or I did not have the original packaging material anymore. I could do the following – place a new order for the same item, and have it charged to my credit card. Then when I received the new order, I could use that packing material along with the prepaid UPS label to them to return the defective item to them. When they received it, they would then credit my credit card for the second purchase.

SUMMARY - AND MY OVERALL VIEW OF NEWEGG

Dealing with Newegg these past months has been such a pleasant and rewarding experience, that I have established a new personal policy for all my future purchases when Newegg is a potential supplier.

If they do indeed offer the product I seek, and even if their pricing is slightly higher than the competition, I will buy from them.

Too often, people lose sight of the fact that a very important part of any purchase of any type, anywhere, is the service one will receive, not only during the purchase, but also after the product is received.

While I have found companies who may be good in some of these areas, I have never found a company who is as good as Newegg in all these areas. And no, I am not writing this because I will get anything special from the company. I just wanted to share my experiences with all of you, and do all I can to keep this company prospering, as I hope to continue dealing with them for many years.

One further comment – they have a daily mailing which offers special bargains, often with free shipping, and very special pricing for limited periods. If you’d like to receive their emails, go to their site, and sign up for these daily emails.

If more companies took a lesson from Newegg, online shopping could become a very pleasant experience every time. I know that when I shop with Newegg, my hassles are over. If you’ve never shopped with them, consider them in the future, and I’m sure you will agree with my views.

HAPPY SHOPPING

If you find this material useful, you may want to download this article in PDF format, from our web site http://www.brcs.org/hirsch.php. This allows readers to keep the material either as a PDF file, and/or print it out, and place it in a looseleaf notebook for future reference. Remember, the PDF version offers full color, wherever color elements might be involved, and often images which could not be used in the Boca Bits hard copy. So, if there are color elements in the original, the PDF copy will display them that way.