Google Checkout and Buy.com
I’m not one to rave about retailers or services, but I feel like doing so because of the contempt I’ve been accumulating for Amazon, eBay, and PayPal.
First, let’s talk about Google Checkout… It’s fast as hell, saves my preferences, and whatnot. Since it saves my addresses, I don’t need to individually register for each reseller. It’s also a common interface for each reseller as well, so I know where to click and stuff. I loathe using PayPal. It’s slow as a sloth. Just logging in takes forever. Also, I don’t like transferring from my bank account with PayPal, and it won’t let you set a credit card to default. I know it’s in their best interest, but not in mine or a general consumer. If you’ve ever had to dispute with a seller, it’s a whole lot easier going through the credit card company than PayPal. Also, checking out takes several clicks, and it’s not a very intuitive interface. There’s times where I thought I was finished paying for something, but I didn’t click the one last confirm button.
Let’s move on to Buy.com. Sure, it’s nothing special, but they do use google checkout and have some pretty good deals. Also, they don’t mess around with shipping like Amazon does. Sure, amazon has free super saver shipping, but what good is that if they hold your package for 5 days until they ship it. They’re certainly not doing it because it would cost them more to ship it in the next day or two. With Buy.com they ship it fast, and have fair or free shipping prices. I ordered a package yesterday and got it today. Also, there’s no misleading crap to trick me into purchasing Amazon Prime-like service with one click. I know it’s gotten a lot of flack on resellerraitings.com, but the 3 or 4 purchases I’ve made from them had been quick and easy.
Tags: amazon, buy.com, ebay, google checkout, paypal