Great Experience on my purchase.
Written: Aug 07 '04 (Updated Aug 07 '04)
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I think epinions is starting to get a chronological listing of my frustrations and shopping successes in trying to locate quality items for my new home at reasonable prices. Since most I covet are pricey.. free or low cost out of state shipping with no sales tax are much sought after :)... although I am in no way advocating cheating your local or state government of their income that pays for our roads and community services.
How I came to use Vanns.Com:
Suffered a rather nasty experience with a NY based shop over a month ago. (see my review under PC and Plasma - online retailer). Although very shaken at the time, have now recovered enough to try shopping online again. Local stores (Best Buy and Goodguys) do not offer a price break plus 8.x% sales tax makes it a rather steep purchase. Did an online search for lowest price again but paid attention to the state they were based in. AVOIDED anything that had NY associated with them. Vanns.com is located in Montana and after reading their "where are we" page, it seemed plausible that they may not be rip off merchants. Okay... call me naive for getting good vibes based on what is written on a website. I did call their 800 number and spoke to an agent named Mike about the background of their company and customer policy as well as the many "what if" scenarios my anxious brain could think of for the next 15 minutes.
Website - navigation:
Very easy. Since I had a specific model, I went to and comfirmed the low price on their website. They were running a special so it was $800 less than the next online retailer (non NY based). What also helped was that they are listed as an authorized Sony retailer. Just so that there would be no buyers remorse, their website also made it easy to narrow the search by brand name first, then item type or other way around (plasma screens first, then narrow further by brand name).
Ordering Process:
After another 2 hours of surfing (and another night to sleep on it), I still felt strongly about buying the same model. Website showed the item to be in stock so I added it to the shopping cart and proceeded to checkout. Received the confirmation email in 10 minutes but being the anxious person I was, I was already on the phone again talking to Mike who was very good about telling me what to expect. They did renege on the White Glove Delivery. Was originally quoted $200 when all details for the order was confirmed (and emailed to me) but got a call back later that it will be $350. If added to the total order, it was still a reasonable deal (and still lowest total cost) but my penny pinching bank account wanted to feel I was getting a great deal so I declined. Figured I would work out the delivery details only. Standard Free delivery from Vanns is for curbside but that is normal (same policy as goodguys.com)
**HELPFUL HINT: Instead of paying the trucking company $350 (thru Vanns), I opted to tip the truck driver $60 cash to have him carry it into my place. Obviously can only be on a case by case basis but if you ask nicely, I'm sure they won't say no to a little extra into their pockets. Overall, I felt it was a better way to compensate them for care they took with my TV. This is not for the overly anxious (those with more worrylines than me). To be fair, since I only had curbside delivery, one of the concerns I chose to ignore was "what if" something happened to the TV on the way from the curbside to my home? Where does the insurance responsibilty fall? I opted to save $350 and pray and hope nothing would happen (and someone above was smiling on me that day).
Delivery experience was A++:
Trucking company arrived within their 4 hour window. I called them during that time and the scheduling lady was kind enough to radio the driver and let me know that he would be there in 10 minutes. I had mentioned that I was on a time crunch and had an appointment later that afternoon.
Overall Satisfaction:
So far so good. It's been two days since having it delivered. May write a review on the TV itself later after some usage. It works beautifully so I haven't had to deal with return or post-sales service from Vanns yet. One of my "what if" scenarios was "what if the TV is DOA".. Mike said that they would take care of the pick up and shipping BACK to Vanns as well as replacement. I believe he said that it's actually the manufacturer that takes care of it all but Vanns will put the request into Sony on my behalf. Have not tested this yet... and hopefully will not need to. Overall experience from online shopping to ordering to telephoning and receiving the item itself has been very smooth. Order placed and confirmed on Friday. Got a call from the trucking company on Tue to arrange delivery (seems they already had the item on the truck). Delivery received the very next day (wed).
Would I shop from Vanns.Com again?
Yes. I have read some bad reviews on Vanns so I would still add buyer beware to anyone using them. Personally my experience was great and I would say that knowing what you want and asking all the right questions is probably the best way to ensure your own experience flows just as smoothly. However if a merchant is out to rip you off (like some un-named NY based camera/electronic merchants), then there is nothing much you can do except use your own best judgement but know that there are some good places out there.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Sony 50" Plasma Flatscreen HDTV
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Epinions.com ID:
lainys
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Location: Fremont, CA
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 0 members
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