How to find Deals on the Internet - March 17 Update Skin Care
I wanted to write a quick diary entry on how to find the best deals on the internet. Guess where the best places to find deals on skin care, professional hair care, perfume products? If you guessed Amazon, Jet, Walmart? Wrong!
Article edited 3/3/17 found a great place to find skin care. LalaDaisy.com review. in order to be organized, we wiil keep adding to our finds on the web and keep it on this post.
3/6/17 Currently Reviewing https://www.naturalhealthyconcepts.com
they sell vitamin related items. Carry brands like NOW brands, which i am partial too. Pricing is good on google shopping. Free Ship. Paid with paypal! bonus. One thing i didn't like was the paypal integration wasn't too great. You still had to enter your shipping address. why? just grab that information from paypal.
Will keep you guys posted on how the items arrive, etc.
3/7/17 Nikkiglamor
This store looking better and better every day... they seem to have 300 more professional hair care items from all the leading brands: Oribe, Aveda, etc. We also like this new customer review link.
https://www.nikkiglamor.com/pages/customer-reviews
The best place to shop for these items is google.com more specifically google shopping. You do 2 things:
- Type the item your looking for directly into google.com search bar?
- Go to google shopping tab and search from there.
I think going to google shopping is the best way. However, typing directly into google.com you might find some special deals. Sometimes it’s good to search both ways.
How do you trust the company? Here the following way i check:
- They take PayPal
- They take apple pay
- They use https or SSL. (shows the little lock on top of the chrome browser)
- Check out there return policy?
- Are there restocking fees?
- Are pre-paid labels for the return?
- Check out the shipping policy? Is it free shipping? Free shipping of over a certain amount?
- Do they respond via email?
I think found if they take paypal.com your protected. I like companies with free shipping and free returns. It means they stand by their product.
Google trusted store is good; but I don’t find it so necessary. PayPal protection is enough. Google shopping is so competitive. Poor customer service, the company would go bankrupt in no time. Is a phone number needed? not really it's good. If they are responsive to email its good enough. The cost savings of not having someone pick up the phone is significant. It usually passed to the consumer.
The following stores I like to shop at and had positive experience. I'll update this post as i find more stores.
http://www.theperfumespot.com/ - Perfume
https://www.nikkiglamor.com/ - Hair Products
https://laladaisy.com/ - Skin Care
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/ - Photography, Electronics.
http://www.fcpeuro.com - German auto parts, BMW, AUDI, etc.
https://www.walmart.com/ - hate waiting on line at the store. I buy my 50 lbs cat litter, paper towels, toilet paper on Walmart, who wants to be lugging around bulky or heavy items.
laladaisy.com
We just discovered this little gem on the web. They carry some pretty good skin care brands:
Obagi, Image Skincare, Colorescience, EltaMD ,Peter Thomas Roth, Glotherapeutics
They got great prices on skin care items. A quick check on google shopping; they had some of the best skin care deals on the web. We ordered a few items as a test. We found the products to be in good condition and legitimate.
As I always tell people its not always about best prices. Customers services and condition of the product are more important. Will do future testing of their return process. stay tuned.
The problems with amazon:
They charge vendors 15% -- so those charges eventually get passed to the consumer.
Amazon is becoming monopoly. Check beauty brands like Oribe. You'll only see one seller Amazon. Monopolies are not good for the consumer.
Counterfeit products it’s all over amazon for certain items like electronic items. An additional reason, I like google shopping, you cut out the middle man (amazon) dealing direct with the company.
If it’s an electronic item or high priced item not sold directly by amazon.com stay well clear.
Amazon Dirty little secret:
While on the surface it does seem like a great market place to get many vendors online selling the giving the best prices. Amazon actually analyzes the data. If the product is really hot, it will cut a deal with manufacturer and start selling the product themselves cutting out the little guy. Another reason why i use google shopping, cause google is agnostic. If amazon becomes an monopoly ultimately it hurts the consumer.
Paypal and Apple Pay for security:
Afraid of buying online because of news about hacks at big box stores getting credit card information? Enter Paypal and Apple Pay, besides the convenience factor, these two payment methods give enhanced credit card security.
When you buy via paypal no credit card information is being transmitted, thus hackers can't get your credit card information. All that is passed is a security token to PayPal servers. Apple is stepping up the game by including apple pay fingerprint scanner on the latest macbook pro. I am sure you will be seeing it more on future releases of the mac books.
PayPal and Apple Pay means no more typing in billing shipping information and credit card information. Winner!
BH PHOTO RETURN TEST
BH PHOTO might not have the lowest price but they got best customer service and I think they have a 30 day easy return on most items. This is really good for camera, lenses, etc. Lenses can get very expensive so its nice to try and buy with no fear of getting stuck with junk.
Quick Tip:
If you ever get into buying a DSLR, you want to buy a cheaper cannon like EOS Rebel line. Then save your money for a good lens. Lens hold their value far longer than the cameras. You can use a high end lens on EOS Rebel Line and get great pictures. In addition, Canon camera's have basically a dumb mode like a point and shoot. So its really a great way to start playing with a DSLR.
Lens unfortunately, quality is very specifically linked to a specific brand and model. One of photographers actually spent over $1000.00 on sigma lens, great reviews on amazon, the lens would grind like crazy when it focused, not what you expect on $1000 plus lens.
2/20/17 I actually called BH PHOTO, customer service, i had to return $1700 lens. Customer service representative was very good and responsive. Emailed me RMA number and pre-printed shipping label.
Its always good to call customer service. You want the pre-paid return label. Shipping and insuring a $1800 lens can get expensive. If your buying something else from them, they usually do it as a courtesy
Why you should buy your own car parts?
I also wanted to touch upon auto repairs. FCP EURO has the best parts, they basically have a great easy return policy. FCP is where i goto get genuine BMW, Audi parts for my vehicle.
The issue with the auto repair shop is they usually buying some cheap after market garbage that last 6 months to a year. So while you feel great when you get your car back and handles great, 6 months later your fixing the same thing. How do you prevent this? Long story short (I'll create another article for this) You call my friend up at www.robertspinner.com. Robert's one those rare people that loves to help people. He'll actually take your call about car issues, give you honest advice about parts for FREE! ( I usually tip him via paypal).
Buy genuine parts for your Volvo, Audi, BMW because they will last you years not months and will keep you away from seeing the mechanic every 3 to 6 months. When the mechanic tells you its OEM, that's code word for cheap part that he can mark up.
If the mechanic won't let you go your own parts go elsewhere. A good mechanic will let you buy your own parts and install it. Besides the FCP parts have lifetime warranty vs the usual 1 year warranty by the mechanic.
