From: fitchitt@wam.umd.edu ()
Subject: Re: Risks of buying through mail-order?
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 17:30:13 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.182028.2032@merrimack.edu> desmondw@merrimack.edu writes:
>In article <15510@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>, cccsims@othello.ucdavis.edu (Jonathan Sims) writes:
>> 
>> 
>>   What have been people experiences with mail-order products? You can get
>> Boston Accoustics 5.2 Pro speakers for 256$!!!!  How big of risk are these
>> companies?  Is not getting the warranty on speakers that risky (atleast not
>> getting the factory warranty)? 
>
>     What is the name of this place where you are buying these from? I
>know I wouldn't trust a mail order company. I know certain ones to
>stay away from(basically all in Stereo Review magazine). And $256
>for a pair of Ba 5.2 pros isn't all that great. I seen them on sale
>a month ago at a store near me for $289. True thats $33 more but at
>least if you have a problem with them, you can drive to the store and
>talk to a human being about it and have them listen to them. Plus, these
>mail order companies always are blaming the installers for the broken
>equipment. If these speakers were defective or factory serviced(aka ready
>to break at any time soon), They would say the place you had them installed
>were at fault and not who you bought them from. My advice would be look
>around, wait for a sale, and go for it. Try the want ads. If you're
>willing to buy from these scam joints, at least try them. 99% of the
>time you can listen to the equipment a person is selling before
>buying it and make your own judgement. Ask the person when he bought
>them, where, and why he is getting rid of them. You just might be
>surprised!
>  

While this is good advice, there ARE several advantages to Mail-order:

1) they usually will stock the latest models before local places, who usually
try to move "last year's" models first (Circuit City is a prime example of this)

Unless you live in Delaware or some of the other no-sales-tax states, you
save a bundle on that, PA is 7%, MD 5%, and I think NYC is a whopping 8 3/4%
Typically, shipping will be less than that due to the unfortunate high-cost
of audio components.

One place you can "trust" is Crutchfield, While they're prices are about par
with SuperStore places like CircuitCity, they charge $3 flat for all shipping
and handling.

Plus there is the 30 day money-back full refund. I have personally taken
advantage of this when I realized I didn't need one item I had ordered,
and probably couldn't afford it. They took it back NO HASSLE.

They are also pretty good of the phone, I was once trying to help my Mom get
a replacement head unit for a Grand Marque with the "premeir" sound (They're
decision to get) The head unit was messed up, and 3 different Audio places,
2 specialty and CircuitCity had given her 3 different opinions on
what you could "get". When I called crutchfield, it wasn't in the
database, so the order lady went and got an installer, who told me what
the thing had. (Some crappy custom amp job). So I decided not to order.

Turned out it was covered under the Fort Extended Warrenty my 'rents got!?

I was suprised. They put a new head unit it, and off she drove....

Anyway, the moral of the story is that Crutchfield is an ok place, and
if you have to order mail-order, try them out.

I tend to agree with the above though, don't bother if you aren't going to
install it yourself, the money you save will reduce drastically to pay
these sound guys.

I personally get a good sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from doing
a well installed (or re-installed after some f*cker tries to rip it out)
system. Especially with the bizzare things I have to do to make it all
"come out" so it won't get stolen, but still sound good.