sandy456

Online shopping for electronics in the Uk (which websites?)

I am looking for websites (serving UK home addresses) listing the best online deals for consumer products (i.e. electronics).

In the USA, i used amazon to purchase an mp3 player (at very low, competitive cost), and they shipped it to my door. Other North American sites include Epinons, CNET reviews. What similar site is popular for the UK? Is it dealtime or is there a better option for low prices?

willit

If you have something specific in mind, try kelkoo.co.uk as a price comparison.

some things are relatively cheap at www.ebuyer.co.uk or Aria.co.uk (both more computer orientated, but sell mp4 players, cameras etc).

If you are used to US prices, the online UK sites may be somewhat of a shock to you.

PatrickLondon

I've no idea which is regularly better, but names that come up when I've been searching are

amazon.co.uk
pricerunner.co.uk
kelkoo.co.uk

You could also try searching google.co.uk for "consumer reviews" + [product type] using the "pages from UK" option.

Maria_H

For small electronics, such as MP3 players, cameras, flash cards, etc, try the following site. It is based in Guernsey, which gives it a tax advantage, making it very cheap:

www.7dayshop.co.uk

caroline_edinburgh

Is there a particular reason for your wanting to buy online ? Where will you be staying ? The best bet IMO is to go to your nearest John Lewis department store - helpful, knowledgable staff and "never knowingly undersold". (A UK survey on most trusted persons/organisations listed them at number 1, ahead of God !)

willit

John Lewis may never be "knowingly undersold", but they are significantly more expensive than most websites.

caroline_edinburgh

True, they did exempt comparisons with online from that promise at some point. But I'd still rather paya little more and have their customer service - knowledgable staff to help make a choice & good after-service if there is a problem.

willit

Don't get me wrong, I love John Lewis as a shop for exactly the reasons you state.

I always find it ironic that Walmart owned Asda is the height of Capitalism, while "posh" Waitrose is almost a "Workers collective"

TeddG

I pretty much buy everything from Amazon as 9 times out of 10 they are the cheapest and I have always had excellent service (even when wanting to return items).
However I would suggest finding what you want on Amazon and then doing a search of the same product at a few other stores to check out the prices (or even just google the item)

As for High street Stores yes you do get an excellent service from John Lewis (but paid for in the price) but you also tend to get 2 years warranty as standard as opposed to the normal 1 year manufacturers guarantee (very handy when my camcorder broke after 20 months)

caroline_edinburgh

My washing machine (from JL of course) came with a free 10 year warranty !!

My other problem with buying online, apart from worries about after-service, is that since I work full time & live in a 4th floor flat, it's difficult for me to get things delivered at a time convenient for me. I'm happy if companies use Royal Mail since I can pick up parcels from the local sorting office, but courier firms are generally no good for me. sandy, think about whether this is a problem for you.

TeddG

I forgot to mention also trying www.moneysupermarket.com

(It was the John Lewis thing that threw me and Carolines amazing 10 year warranty - makes my 2 year warranty look like I was robbed now - lol)

Lets not forget our MP's household shopping budgets are based on John Lewis products.

kenderina

Do you know any reliable US company (online) which delivers PC's to Europe ?
I'm not too much worried about after-service (I manage quite well to do my own repairings/changing components) just with delivery expenses and transportation (I don't want to open the cage and find a broken PC ).

And yes, if you are thinking about it..yes, I would like to save some euros but if the expenses are too high maybe it's not worth, I just want to "shop" some websites and do some maths

Maria_H

If I was going to buy a PC online, I'd choose Dell.

caroline_edinburgh

I'd still choose John Lewis

RM67

Warehouse Express for anything photographic.

Sainsbury's for white goods - brilliant delivery service which lets you know exactly what time your goods are coming, and v helpful, contientious delivery men.

RM67

Conscientious?

RM67

I got my Vaio laptop from JL.

It wasn't delivered on the day it was meant to be, and they gave me a delivery charge refund and a £50 voucher to say sorry.

BigRuss

Is this a survey question?

<<The most recommended and trustable website is ebay.com.>> Really? In what universe? eBay is not a seller, it's a marketplace and the marketers have different levels of reliability and different return policies if anything goes wrong.

Amazon has UK operations. That should be your start point and then compare from there.

The question is: what kind of electronics? If you're looking for a computer or i_____ or something portable, then you should buy in the US and transport to the UK because the prices in the UK are usually higher. For example, US products in the $500 range will cost 350-400 GBP and at a 1.60 exchange rate that makes the UK product more expensive. (In the early '00s, we met Aussie business people who'd buy electronics while on business trips to the US and bring them back to Oz - and that was when the AUD was 1.50 to the USD).

Electronics bought in the US almost always are 100-240 volt so they only need adapters (US is 110 volt, Europe is 220 volt) for the plugs on the power cables, not converters.

If this is a gift, then buying on a UK site may be better because people generally don't have adapters for their own homes. But the likelihood is: you will spend more.

janisj

BigRuss: This is a VERY old thread that was topped by advertisers.

BigRuss

Bollocks. I usually catch that.