Chip Ellis: ‘For those who don’t want to order on-line, PriceGrabber is also great to use at stores that guarantee they will meet the lowest price.’
☞ So I guess you just print out the page and bring it in to the store. It will make them crazy, but could work. (It is a great era for consumers and bargain hunters; a tough era, perhaps, for profits and investors.)
Jacki Stirn: ‘Your Pricegrabber column was very timely for me. I was in the process of buying a digital video camera and had a price quote. Using pricegrabber, I negotiated $25 off a price that was reasonably good to start with. I also learned a little about some of the ridiculously low prices (not authorized dealers).’
Brenda Boswell: ‘You can use PriceGrabber much more easily via Watson, a Macintosh OS X utility that looks it all up for you! Plus flight times, stock quotes, weather, movie start times, and much more! (And no, I don’t work for them –I just respect a really well designed product.)’
Pieter: ‘WARNING: I’ve been using PriceGrabber for years and find it a valuable tool. However, your readers should be aware that the best PriceGrabber price is often not a real one. In some areas (e.g. cameras), vendors with gross misrepresentation will always make the top of the list with “unbelievable” low prices. some of the sneaky things they do (but won’t tell you) to get such a good price: Selling ‘gray market’ (import) instead of USA model – good luck getting warranty service! Removing EVERYTHING that comes w/ camera and selling it as add-ons. Pumping up the shipping. Pressuring you to buy extras and if you refuse, the item you’re buying is suddenly ‘out of stock.”
☞ Pieter says you can’t entirely trust the seller ratings, either. ‘The reviews for the terrible vendors are mainly written by the vendor themselves! It’s obvious to spot – the detailed authentic reviews are 1-star, followed by many vague, I-presume-bogus 5-star reviews praising specific employees.’
FOREPLAY
John Seiffer: ‘All this time (when it took 18 months to find the right car – and three years to find the right living room furniture) my fiancée has accused me of procrastinating and I was actually engaged in foreplay. Who knew?’
