Computer Related Sites
MultiWave - offer a variety of computer components and are generally reasonable on most and often come back the cheapest or near cheapest. I have had back orders, but they have been shipped within a day or two. It's my favorite place to buy from.
Supermicro - I am thoroughly impressed with their product, and customer and product support. When I initially purchased my MB, I had a problem I couldn't figure out where I got no video. They had me mail in my MB, memory, graphics card, and CPU and they debugged problem for me. Prior to this, I went to a local PC shop to see if one of their CPU's would work, but it didn't either. It turned out the problem was a conterfeit 450 PII processor, and they mailed my MB back to me free of charge. The local PC shop must have had a defective CPU or didn't seat it properly. They offered a upgrade to make MB work with PIII slot 1 processors for $25, which included return shipping, and all went great. From time to time their website has not been as easy to find things as I'd like, but the last search resulted in finding what I wanted on the first hit.
Norton Internet Security 2002 - I have been thoroughly impressed with the product which includes firewall, anti-virus, and privacy manager. I have recommended it to many people that had McAfee products that either conflicted with other software or McAfee products have let them get infected. The only things I don't like are the automatic updates are only performed on the virus definitions and not the software and the automatic updates seem unreliable at times when using dial-up. I recommend to everyone that they check for updates weekly as with any MS product.
Windows 2000 Professional - I never thought I'd do anything, but bitch about a MS Operating System. However, Windows 2000 has been a pleasure to use and made networking and other setup tasks a breeze. I previously was stuck on NT 4.0, because I HATE Windows 98 due to many, many problems, and I heard ME wasn't much better. I thought Windows 95 was nice also. I thought Windows 3.1 was just a fancy menu system, but Windows 95 actually gave me something for all the resource consumption.
Antec - I love the plus1080B case I just purchased. It is quiet and keeps things way cool. I purchased the two optional fans, for a total of five, from their website and it was painless. It was not much of a chore replacing MB and all components in this roomy well designed case.
Banana PC - Purchased best priced retail boxed CPU painlessly.
Next Generation - Purchased best priced IBM hard drive painlessly.
Page Computer - Purchased best priced USB card.
Buy.com - I have never had a problem with them and bought many best priced items there. Lately, they don't seem to come up on many best priced search engines with a best price.
Direct Deals - Purchased best priced MS software painlessly.
Digital Foto Club - Purchased a digital camera and accessories. There sales support was helpful and there prices on accessories were good enough to make purchasing camera at a little higher price OK to me. Their customer support person I dealt with was rude. I would buy from them again.
Directv DSL - Changed to them for DSL and internet provider. They give you a dedicated IP address, will host your website or let you host it on your IP, and cost $40 for the first six months, and $50 after that. The setup fee, which included modem and all needed parts except PC card was $25. I did installation painlessly myself. Many problems were experienced early on, but were due to Ameritech problems with a bad card. After three weeks of intermittent service, they finally got Ameritech to replace a card in the remote terminal. I had to get my local ISP back during the problems, because I use my stuff for business. They were extremely generous with the billing credit and gave me a credit for almost a full month, which highly pleased me after the frustrating experience. The email didn't work once on Sunday for about an hour. It may have been scheduled maintenance. All has been great since.
Will not buy from these guys ever again (no links to these sites)
Mixed feelings on this merchant, very overshadowed by the worst return I've ever experienced. My opinion is these guys SUCK! Messing with a persons money just isn't acceptable.
EMS Computing - I received two orders from them painlessly. They were a little higher on some DLink equipment, but I bought from them again due to their shipping rates being good, and a previous good experience. Returning items was the worst I've ever experienced. First of all, they said their policy is you wait up to 5 business days for an RMA number just so you can return a defective or unwanted product, which in my opinion sucks and their policy actually says nothing about getting a RMA number. After 6 business days or 8 days, I was told by their customer support that I would have to wait another 3-4 days. I asked them is there any way I can get an RMA number, I need to return this before I go out of town and they said NO. Later I called back, after an hour or so with Dlink, and my request got elevated to a supervisor and a RMA number was mailed within minutes, which is the kind of service that makes me happy. Then the nightmare began. Their policy states RMA credits will take 5-7 business days. So far it's been a 30 day month. I have not been permitted to talk with a supervisor. I have left voice mails with the supervisors twice and never received a call back. Due to their slowness in getting my money back to me I am going to have to dispute the charge to cover my self.
Good product, bad support, bad customer service.
Dell Computer - I heard many good things about their products and support, however over the past three years I've had some real problems with their support, such as a one-day business support that took over a week and spanned two cities, extreme long hold times for support, very rude customer support, getting sent in circles on their website and by their phone menu system and support people, and failed to replace copy of software (as MS said they should). However, very painlessly they replaced a defective mouse and their products are solid. I expected more for the big price.
Bad product, bad support, bad customer service
DLink - I would not recommend them. I had a very bad experience with their product and customer service. Everytime I called or emailed them, they acted like I had never called them or emailed them before. This is from an email:
I have been told by two different technicians at dlink that my equipment is defective. I spent MANY hours trying to debug problem, I removed and reloaded network drivers, your software, and upgraded from Windows 98 to Windows 2000 Professional (I was going to do anyway later). It was suggested by the last technician that rather than return the product to you that I return it to the reseller. I contacted the reseller, www.emscomputing.com, on 4/17 and they say they'd have my an RMA# emailed to me within 5 days. I haven't received one yet and they told me their RMA department was backed up and it would be another 3 to 4 days. The online purchase agreement said within 5 business days. I have spent numerous hours trying to get this resolved both on the computer and on the phone, and would like to return my DI-714 and DWL-500 for replacement VERY soon. Today I attempted to get an RMA# and I was told we would have to test equipment a third time. I am not willing to do this. It has been in the box for 8 days, waiting....
Today I was complaining about this at 8007585489. I was told to call 8003261688 and pick tech support. I did. It told me to call 9497905290. I did. I picked wireless products and it told me the original number I called 8007585489. I went in a circle.
I called back and they said that's the only number they or their supervisor could provide. I asked for the RMA department. They told me they'd be glad to send me out refurbished equipment. At this point I decided to get my money back.
Travel Related Sites
America West - I have got some of the best hotel prices here.
Orbitz - I have got some of the best airfare prices here.
Other
Godiva - They often time have great web deals, but bombard me with email. I filter out their emails now.
TurboTax - I really like their turbo tax deluxe product and have used it for many years. I hate the multiple rebates 12.95 for filing, 29.95 for State Software, and $10 for product. What a hassle. Until something appears to offer as or near as much and does not require all these rebates, I will stick with it. I wouldn't mind paying $10 more for the crap if I didn't have to send in 3 rebates.
Resole America - For $55 they transformed my previosly all time favorite Clarks $165 shoes with holes in the bottoms, to original resoled Clark shoes, 2 sets of new laces, and cleaned up and polished shoes. I was very happy, however I have since got some Dexter shoes for around $60 that are almost as comfortable. (800) 876-7463
Magnum Watches, Perfumes, and more - I got a great price on a watch for my wife. I loved my Seiko Kinetic so much, I had to get my wife one to. She also loves hers although at first she wasn't too sure about liking the larger size and weight.
C2it - Run by Citibank this is an easy way to make payments via email backed by credit card type protection against fraud. In some cases there are no fees.
Pay Pal - An easy way to make payments via email backed by credit card type protection against fraud. In some cases there are no fees.