Newegg Launches $50 Amazon Prime Competitor

http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/05/newegg-launches-premier-50-amazon-prime-competitor/?utm_campaign=fb&ncid=fb

by prateekj • 12 years ago

84 96 12 years ago

I wonder how well their marketplace is doing? The selection seems poor and almost random, like a flea market. I never think to check Newegg for things other than computer parts and I almost always end up ordering on amazon because I have Prime. I guess this may change that.

vonmoltke• 12 years ago

I agree on the marketplace. I usually order my parts from Newegg, though, because I have a preferred account and Amazon pricing for computer parts is sometimes very strange and volatile. I saw a set of memory sticks I was looking at go from $136 to $235 to $147 in the span of a week.

15characterlimi2• 12 years ago

In some ways Newegg is like the Best Buy paradigm for me (try things out at Best Buy, purchase on Amazon). Newegg always has better technical details and specs than Amazon but Amazon usually has better prices + Prime. I hope this works out well for the Egg

pekk2• 12 years ago

While Amazon is great overall, in many specific areas they also seem random like a flea market.

Xdes• 12 years ago

Well 3 day shipping for $50 or 2 day shipping across many sites for $79 with shoprunner. Also shoprunner is a free benefit with an Amex card and they occasionally have a deal of spend $x on y site and get a one year membership.

caw• 12 years ago

Wow, I have an AMEX but didn't know about it.

For anyone else curious: https://www.shoprunner.com/americanexpress/

EDIT: Apparently it's not all American Express cards. My Fidelity AMEX doesn't qualify.

rwong48• 12 years ago

Yep, I didn't know either until the holiday season was almost over. I could've ShopRunner'd so many things!

sliverstorm3• 12 years ago

Blue Cash Preferred qualifies. Man, I'm still discovering little perks to AMEX like this.

givehimagun• 12 years ago

Costco Amex card works.

byoung2• 12 years ago

Wow, I didn't know about this. I just signed up with my Amex card.

awa• 12 years ago

And newegg was part of shoprunner, it would suck if they get rid of shoprunner coz of this

aestra• 12 years ago

For those surprised by free shoprunner with amex, check slickdeals once in a while to find out things like this.

encoderer• 12 years ago

Has Shoprunner actually worked well for you?

I've been unimpressed. The last few times I've bought from NewEgg or TigerDirect I tried to use it but literally nothing on my shopping list was marked as shoprunner-eligible.

I signed-up because of the free-with-amex thing but I don't see myself using it all that much.

driverdan2• 12 years ago

I just did a $2100 order from Newegg, of which $2050 of it qualified (a CPU didn't).

nivla5• 12 years ago

Also if you have AMEX, watchout for their offers tab. During December they had $25 off $50 & $75 for Newegg, Amazon & Walmart. No codes, no referral, just use your Amex card at checkout and it automatically deducts from your statement. It also means you can use Ebates & other coupons on top of it.

bluedino2• 12 years ago

The streaming is a huge benefit of Amazon and Prime is worth it for that alone. $6-7 * 12 months

higherpurpose• 12 years ago

It may be, but I assume not everyone wants to pay for that, and may prefer just having Newegg's service + Netflix instead. This is smart business/pricing strategy from Newegg, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

MichaelTieso2• 12 years ago

Really? I find their selection horrible.

dangrossman• 12 years ago

Horrible compared to what? For that price, you could buy one second-rate DVD per month. Or buy half a season of TV episodes for streaming. Or half a ticket to a movie theater. Or 3 weeks of Netflix/Hulu/etc -- Prime is cheaper even if you allocate $0 in value to the shipping perks. For that price Prime is giving you thousands of movies and TV series, including some awesome original programming (Betas, Alpha House). It's hard to argue there's not $6/mo of value there if you can find just one thing a month to watch.

ck2• 12 years ago

They better not kill shoprunner or I'll go elsewhere.

WiseWeasel• 12 years ago

Even without paying for expedited shipping, I get stuff the next day from NewEgg with the free ground shipping option; one of the benefits of living in the Bay Area, near their distribution center. That turn-around is a large part of the reason I prefer to use NewEgg over Amazon, whose merchant partners typically take a week to get stuff to me.

yoshokatana• 12 years ago

Same for me in New York (they have a warehouse in New Jersey, apparently). Maybe this program will be one of those "less than 30 minutes or it's free" deals? Or possibly delivering them slightly before we finish checkout?

kbar13• 12 years ago

I live near Edison, their warehouse in NJ. I can pick up up same day with their "will-call" program, or I can get it delivered tomorrow or the day after for free :)

blah324974• 12 years ago

"whose merchant partners typically take a week to get stuff to me"

Which is a week faster than Amazon's normal shipping rate. I think Amazon has purposefully made their shipping slower to get more people to sign up for Prime.

But I can't make myself sign up to their anticompetitive BS.

ericd2• 12 years ago

Or those prime packages simply get bumped up in the queue to be before other orders that were already placed because they need to be to get out as fast as they do. And how is Prime anticompetitive?

yalogin• 12 years ago

Isn't newegg only for electronics? How is this competing with amazon?

dec0dedab0de• 12 years ago

They've opened up to other sellers like amazon does. I kind of wish they were still just electronics.

bluedino2• 12 years ago

NewEgg sells all kinds of random things now. On the front page I see perfume, jewlery, and paper plates.

I was never a huge fan of NewEgg and after dealing with them for returns and having orders not process until the day after I place them, I order from elsewhere. Most of the time you can find things for the same price on Amazon anyway.

bretkoppel• 12 years ago

This has been my experience as well. Their order chain seems nowhere near as streamlined as Amazon's, and their Customer Service / Return chain has been dismal for me. They aren't anywhere near a competitor to Amazon in my experience, marketplace or no.

troymc• 12 years ago

You are correct. Amazon only sells books and Newegg only sells electronics, so they totally don't compete and never will.

cm2012• 12 years ago

Newegg and Amazon both connect to ChannelAdvisor and other inventory management systems, and I would guess 80%+ of the biggest seller sell on both.

darklajid• 12 years ago

Haven't found the answer so far. Like Amazon Prime? Or .. US only (and maybe like Amazon, for one single country).

ocfx• 12 years ago

Would be cool except whenever I order from newegg I get it the next day regardless of what shipping option I choose

gdulli2• 12 years ago

Amazon throttled their free shipping at a certain point after launching prime. Newegg will do it, too. There was a point when I reliably got Amazon packages fast with free shipping, and now I reliably don't.

The funny thing is, the shipping is all done through the same channels and I guess there's not really a way to slow it down selectively, so the way they do it is sit on free-shipping orders for a few days before shipping. They used to always ship same day or next day, now several days go by at the least before the shipping starts.

Finster2• 12 years ago

Huh? I've ordered from Amazon several times over the past several months and they either ship same day or next day and it has always arrived 2nd day after that, as advertised.

Are you sure you're ordering from Amazon, and not some two-bit vendor that isn't Prime eligible?

You're either totally making this up, or it's due to differences in how your nearest Amazon warehouse is handling things.

I just checked every single one of my orders in the past 6 months, and they all shipped same day, arrived exactly 2 business days after ordering. There was one order that took 3 days to arrive (shipped next day instead of same day), but it was two items sold by third parties.

In fact, I ordered something (computer case) TODAY (2/5) and it has already shipped and is scheduled to arrive on Fri. (2/7)!

Do you even order, bro?

conorh• 12 years ago

Awesome, love NewEgg and this is handy. I had already moved my electronics ordering over to them from Amazon.

lutorm• 12 years ago

I wonder if the free shipping includes HI...

pekk2• 12 years ago

Something many people aren't realizing is that while Amazon is now including state tax most places, Newegg isn't in many places. With the use of this kind of shipping discount, a lot of the things Newegg stocks are going to be noticeably cheaper even if the actual price of the item itself is the same.

chm5• 12 years ago

That's good news, but I'm still forming my opinion about Newegg. I've only ordered three times from them, but allow me this comparison:

I never received a product from Amazon that didn't match its description. That doesn't mean these don't exist.

I recently received an item from Newegg that didn't match the description. The page has since been removed and it was changed in Google Cache too. It was a 1000W PSU which was supposed to have 8x6+2 PCI-E connectors, but it really only has 6.

Also, upon checkout Newegg informed me that I could spare the 17$ of express shipping since they could deliver the goods in the same time with standard shipping. The delivery took 9 days. This never happens on Amazon.

x0x0• 12 years ago

I received an item from amazon that didn't match the description. It was supposed to be a spray bottle of mineral oil to kill plant mites. When it came it was just the oil, but not in the spray bottle. I emailed amazon to let them know and said I didn't want to return the produce since I had a spare spray bottle; I just wanted them to correct their catalogue. The csr thanked me, said he or she would contact their catalogue team, and (unprompted) refunded 1/2 the purchase amount without my asking.

This is part of the reason I made 35 purchases last year from amazon.

chm5• 12 years ago

Good. I have wondered if I should call Newegg to complain. I really only need 6x6+2 connectors, but I still feel like I was cheated. Not only does the PSU only have 6 connectors, two of them share the same rail. One wire splits in two at the end, and 4 wires are independent. Nowhere was this mentioned.

I'm not sure how, if ever, this will affect my graphics card.

mildtrepidation• 12 years ago

I'm not discounting your experience -- by all means, let it inform your future purchases -- but as someone who's been happily ordering from NewEgg for over a decade, suggesting your single bad NewEgg purchase could possibly be representative and/or forming a judgment based on that is... hard to swallow.

You got a raw deal. Once. It's good to share, but it'd be far more useful to know what the product was or who fulfilled it. If it was NewEgg, that'd be good to know, too (I don't know if they sell things that other companies fulfill; it's become so common that I assume it's happening everywhere) but what little you've provided says not nearly enough to draw a conclusion.

goldenkey4• 12 years ago

From my limited experience, Amazon is behind the customer experience while NewEgg is mainly behind low prices for computer parts, and that's about it. I'd say that you feel the difference when the 'limited' experiences occur, because good support only really matters when there are problems.

chm5• 12 years ago

I think I've been careful enough to mention it's not the death sentence for NewEgg. I will definitely be ordering from them again, it's just that in 5 years of Amazon, never has this happend. It took NewEgg only 3 shipments to slightly mess up.

And I should mention that I've ordered this from NewEgg Canada.

Personal experience is just that :)

gtaylor• 12 years ago

I've used NewEgg for about 9 years now, and have built several boxes during that span. I did receive some bad RAM once, but they shipped the replacement the same week, and have been really good about refunds in the past.

Mistakes happen, but they've been really good to me when I run into issues. Much easier to return stuff than Amazon, where they often only refund a percentage of the value of the item being returned (plus shipping).

goldenkey4• 12 years ago

NewEgg sent me 1000 dollar Titan GPUs late, despite me paying extra for 1 day shipping. The box came with a huge hole in it and one Titan, out of the three that I ordered, was missing. I called up customer support and they dicked around and finally said they would send me new ones' overnight. Well I didn't get the GPUs for two weeks because they waited until they got the holed up package back. I would never order from NewEgg again, Amazon has amazing customer support and NewEgg just pales in comparison. Plus I would think that any box with NewEgg on the side of t, is more likely to be ransacked during shipment.

nivla5• 12 years ago

I once ordered an XBox Live Membership Card from them. I ended up getting an empty envelope. Imagine shaking the envelope furiously and holding it up against the sun to see if something drops.

Contacted the customer service, they asked me to email the picture of the desperately ripped open envelope. Once done, they finally sent another one. Well nothing really to complaint about but it was still weird receiving an empty package with extra padding.

rasz_pl• 12 years ago

Why did you sign on a package with a hole in it? Its not Neweggs fault someone stole from inside the box, its Courier service.

GFK_of_xmaspast• 12 years ago

"it was changed in Google Cache too"

Have you considered the possibility that you made a mistake.

chm5• 12 years ago

Yes, I have. I checked and rechecked the order multiple times, with another person. We were building a computer together.

janesvilleseo• 12 years ago

Let me preface this and say I buy from both Amazon and Newegg. I have even purchased from newegg when they were just a brick and mortar store. I have never had an issue from either outside of 1 item being wrong from newegg. I ordered 10' male to male display-port cable. When it arrived it was male to female. I called their customer support and informed them of the issue. It was a quick no hassle response from the CSR who sent me a new one. Except when I got the new one (for free) it was again the wrong one. Here's the kicker, I informed the CSR that it was probably labeled wrong in the warehouse before they issued a replacement. And I guess I was right. I even checked my order and it indicated male to male.

If anybody from newegg is reading this, I would suggest you work on using your CSR's more effectively. Maybe even reward them for fixing issues in your supply chain.

cynwoody• 12 years ago

The delivery took 9 days. This never happens on Amazon.

I ordered something on Amazon Prime on 24 Jan. It shipped† on the 26th, but still hasn't arrived. 12 days and counting.

†http://wwwapps.ups.com/WebTracking/processInputRequest?sort_...

BryanB55• 12 years ago

I ordered from Newegg once and won't ever again. I had to return something and it was a major hassle that took about 10 emails to their support. Amazon makes it so much easier and asks less questions.

NatW• 12 years ago

I see a service anecdotes, positive and negative about Newegg. I don't know if they're real or if they're from Amazon shills, Newegg shills, etc. I guess we're stuck with anecdotes, not data. For myself, I'd always been happy with Newegg (ok, another anecdote) and like their faceted search and their prices. I also bought less from them after I got an Amazon Prime subscription.. I'm guessing Newegg must have noticed their loss of customers, perhaps and is fighting back. Go Newegg! :)

shmerl• 12 years ago

I often use Newegg. Some in the comments there complained about their customer service. I can't compare, since I don't use Amazon much. But in my case for example when I was buying a motherboard with an Intel chipset recently from Newegg, customer service couldn't help me with verifying whether it's C1 of C2 stepping (C1 has a known USB 3 bug: http://apcmag.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-haswell-lynx-p...). I.e. I couldn't figure it out before buying. That wasn't so pleasant, I had to call the manufacturer after I got the board to verify it. Luckily it happened to be C2. But I still prefer to support Newegg because they staunchly fight patent trolls (unlike Amazon).

IbJacked3• 12 years ago

I've been a Prime subscriber for years now, and have recently been reconsidering my membership. The free 2-day shipping now frequently means 2-day free to the local post office. Once there, it's usually another couple of days before it gets to me (and my office is literally next door to local post office). Not cool, Amazon.

hershel• 12 years ago

you should check if there are Amazon lockers in your area or lockers from other companies you can receive packages in, so you could pickup the stuff yourself.

IbJacked3• 12 years ago

I don't think there are, or at least I've never heard/seen any around. I do, however, receive UPS shipments almost daily, and scheduled daily pickups.

It seems weird that they let the US Post Office make the final leg of the delivery, when the destination is literally next door. I understand the reason behind it, it's just odd from a human perspective.

jmccree3• 12 years ago

Have you mentioned this to amazon? I had a book a few days late and amazon overnighted me another one and told me to keep the other one when/if it arrived. Their customer service is rather decent in my experience.

IbJacked3• 12 years ago

You're right, I should mention this to Amazon, not the folks here :) I have otherwise received good service from them, which keeps me coming back. If I cancel my Prime membership, I will continue to use Amazon pretty much the same way.

brianlweiner• 12 years ago

If we're piling on bad newegg experiences, I spent years ordering lots of server components and standard PC hardware from them.

1) Bought a Supermicro 2u server barebones kit that shipped with a defective mainboard (tested RAM and CPU in a similar 2u I had at work, all the other variables I could think of.)

2)I shipped the server back to Newegg who refused to process it since I forgot to include the rackmount rails

3) Newegg ships the server back to me in a box with no padding / packing material whatsoever. Literally a 2u server loose in a big cardboard box - many points of physical damage.

4) I RMA again, explicitly telling newegg they damaged it in shipment.

5) Newegg refuses the RMA, blaming me for the shipping damage.

6) I contest the charges with my Newegg Preferred Card (another mistake). They ruled in my favor, but then 30 days later was notified they reversed their decision. They refused to discuss it any further.

7) Newegg disabled my account.

Quite an experience and I had previously loved Newegg as a retailer. These days I basically stick to Amazon, more esoteric stuff needs to go through TigerDirect or some other electronic retailer. I haven't bought anything from newegg since.

Finster2• 12 years ago

What's to stop me from getting the 30-day trial, buying all the parts for my new desktop build and then canceling? Nothing, I guess, but unlike Amazon, I don't see myself using Newegg beyond the once every two years to buy system components for a new build.

ef4• 12 years ago

That's how I used to think of Newegg too, but they've branched out way beyond computer parts.

It's a very similar evolution to Amazon itself, which of course used to be a book store.

hayksaakian• 12 years ago

Some fraction of people won't cancel. They wager that those people can cover the costs of those who do cancel.

At least that's the intuitive logic.

driverdan2• 12 years ago

Newegg used to have great prices but in the past three months they've increased prices on many computer hardware items by 10-30%, I'm guessing due to demand. You can now find the same prices elsewhere, including Amazon.

nej• 12 years ago

Wow didn't know Newegg was the second largest e-retailer.

Newegg Launches $50 Amazon Prime Competitor

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