OT
?>>OT Ganesh, did you use any online retailers when recently furnishing your house?
Not really. I bought a TV from 800.com, since I didn't relish the idea of wrestling one up my stairs myself. (Reality being messier, their shipper sent a lone delivery person, who plaintively asked if I would mind helping him carry it. Obviously, I should have bought it at Best Buy, where it was a bit cheaper, and made a pal help me move it.)I also bought a bunch of home-office stuff from Office Depot.com, but I went and looked at it in the store first. It is worth pointing out that there are tons of offline stores in/near the neighborhood I moved to; I live alone, in a condo, and have no problem with the kind of cheap/ugly furnishings my friends w/spouses aren't usually allowed to have; and my tolerance for shopping of any kind is very low.
I like Crate and Barrel a lot, too; I'm shocked they don't have a store in WA. I have never had a problem w/their online store, which I often use to send gifts. I was seriously underwhelmed with the websites for the major department stores, and have wasted a ton of time trying to figure out what happened to orders from places like Macys.com. I encountered lots of people who have been inadequately trained on their call-center software.
Costco.com has some surprisingly high quality stuff, though it is clearly aimed at people who don't live near one of their stores; the merchandise is generally more expensive, even before shipping.
The rest of the process, starting with house-hunting on realtor.com, is so far from being ready for prime-time it is not even funny. |
