The Best & Worst Places on the Internet to Buy DVDs, Sell Things, Get Groceries, Get Decent Weather Forecasts
By Barry Freiman
To Buy DVDs: Amazon.com (www.amazon.com) truly is the only place to buy DVDs on the internet. They usually have the best prices on the internet for all DVDs including new releases. There’s no separate sales tax charge. And if you’re willing to use standard shipping, if you spend more than $25, you get free shipping. As a registered user (free to register), you get 10 gold box offers daily – that could save you up to $3 or $4 off the already low price. The only catch is you have to purchase the item within an hour of opening your gold box specials – but if the DVD is a pre-release, you aren’t charged till the item ships anyway.
The worst place to buy DVDs has got to be the Columbia House DVD Club (www.columbiahouse.com). And shame on me for being a member. Sure you get a number of free and discounted DVDs up front, but that doesn’t make paying at least 10% to 15% more than Amazon.com’s prices any more palpable. The only way to somewhat justify my indentured servitude in the Club that won’t let me out till I buy a certain number of over-priced DVDs – and they charge sales tax and obscenely high shipping charges to boot – is to wait for a sale, though their sale rules are very inconsistent and confusing. For instance, you may buy one DVD for a special price and that special price is available to you no matter whether you just buy that DVD or buy several DVDs. Or you could buy a DVD for a sales price and that sales price is only available to you after you buy another DVD at full price. And there are DVDs with these two pricing models concurrently which puts the onus on the customer to distinguish a special price from a sales price. On top of all this, of course, there’s the Club’s Director’s Selection – one DVD offered to you that will be sent unless you either send back a post card or – more recently – reply online. Several times already, I’ve received DVDs that were director’s selections because the original offer had gotten mislaid in the mail. This Club is just too much work.
To Sell Something: A decade ago, the best place on the internet to purchase something would have been Ebay (www.ebay.com). Ebay changed the virtual landscape but like most successful, largely unchallenged juggernauts (taken a good look at America lately?), the company has swallowed itself with bad, virtually non-existent customer service and an out-of-control feedback system that empowers those who thrive on the anonymity of the internet to exude false bravado. Ebay has become the online garage sale instead of the collectors’ orgy it used to be. Many collectibles have retired from the business of being collectible because of Ebay. Comic books, action figures, and models are discount merchandise now.
The best place to sell something in Ebay’s absence is Amazon.com – noticing a trend here? Amazon’s management doesn’t get involved in a new line of business without some confidence it’ll work out. They don’t see their customers as guinea pigs for untried marketing gimmicks. Amazon is about getting the customer what they asked for quickly and quietly and their auction system satisfies. It may not have all the bells and whistles of Ebay, but sometimes less is more – it’s better to let the item sell itself.
To Order Groceries: Peapod’s the best (www.peapod.com). And the worst.
To Get the Weather: Weatherbug rocks (www.weatherbug.com). Its free version offers more than enough personalization for most users – you select the area that your current conditions are monitored from typically many local options. There are monitoring facilities at many schools and government facilities. The temperature readings I’m receiving come from a mile away – and in Chicago where the weather fluctuates from block to block, a neighborhood temperature reading is essential as the temperature where I am can differentiate by as much as 10 degrees more or less from where the TV stations are (which is only about five miles away).
As they are with most things, AOL gives horrible weather (http://weather.aol.com/national.adp). It’s updated sporadically and usually gives one reading per region. For instance, the Chicago readings and forecast are usually for either of the two main airports, Midway and O’Hare. That’s great if you’re a pilot or a cab driver but the rest of us are out of luck.
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