Well, it’s official; I love shopping on the Internet. I started off slowly a couple of years ago. I was scared to use my credit card and expected to have horror stories about the experience. I’ve been very lucky, and except for one bad time it’s all been wonderful.

I guess I’ll start with the bad time to get it out of the way. I bought a Visioneer scanner at buy.com and couldn’t get it to work. I returned it, and buy.com sent me another one. I had the same problems, so I assumed it was my computer. I updated the bios and the drivers and called tech support to the tune of $1.00 a minute. Time passed, and I’d had the unit over 90 days, so I returned it this time to Visioneer. I didn’t pay to send it registered mail so naturally it was lost. The address I mailed it to doesn’t seem to be a valid address, and I’m out $130.00 for the scanner plus the cost of trying to get it to work because I just don’t have the time to pursue the problem any more.

Now for the good news, everything else has been positive. I did all my Christmas shopping last year online. The presents were delivered to my door, I wrapped them and stuck on bows and never had to leave the saftey of my home. I could have had them gift wrapped, but didn’t want to pay extra for it. And I saved money on every single item.

I’ve saved on books, software, hardware, clothes, shoes, etc. I got hotel suite rooms at Priceline.com for $70.00 instead of the regular price of $249.00. I’ve flown several times for small amounts of money. I’ve paid less for the items that I’ve gone to a bricks and mortar store to buy because of researching things on the Internet first. I’m buying some groceries now through Priceline.com, and every day something new and interesting is added to my list of ways to use the Internet to shop.

If you’ve had any experiences that other members could benefit from, either good or bad, please write them down and send them to William LaMartin to be included in the newsletter. Happy Shopping!

My favorite sites: buy.com, barnesandnoble.com, necx.com, amazon.com (be sure to link from tpcug.org to this site), priceline.com, lowestfare.com, and of course, mercedes.com. u