Newegg Launches $50 Amazon Prime Competitor | Hacker News Reader

Newegg Launches $50 Amazon Prime Competitor

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84 pointsprateekj96 comments

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.

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.

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

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

Any other notable perks?

The one that always jumps to mind is, on "Small business Saturday", if you register beforehand:

- visit a small business on their qualifying list, which is quite long

- Spend $10 or more on your AMEX

- Get a $10 statement credit

I don't know how "notable" that one is, but I always liked it and not everyone knows about it

From the FAQ: "Can I still register my Card for the American Express $10 Card Member Offer for Small Business Saturday?"

"Unfortunately, the enrollment period for the offer has ended."

Looks like this the enrollment was only available Nov 24-30.

Yes, you do have to enroll every year, but it is easy.

Purchase Protection.

This saved me recently. Broke my new Nexus 5's screen in a matter of a week. Sent to LG for repair and they repaired it for 150$.

I filed a purchase protection claim for this 150$ with AmEx and they refunded me the cost in a week. Just emailed them the claim form and receipts. Can't recommend this enough.

Generally AMEX is known for better customer service, but YMMV. AMEX is often seen as a good choice for people looking to build credit because they're often willing to give out a 3x credit limit increase (without a hard credit pull) first 90 days after getting a card, and then every 6 months after that (up to a point and assuming you're using the account and in good standing).

Costco Amex card works.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So you get what you pay for, in other words?

Precisely, although occasionally Amazon has cheaper or equal prices as Newegg on computer parts -- so it's preferential to choose Amazon for that better support in those cases.

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 :)

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).

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.

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.

Wait so when you realized the envelope was empty you went into a rage and shook it furiously, then held it up against the sun so you could see through it?

Its one of those instincts, like when you realize there is no money in your wallet you still dig through it or hold it upside down and shake it. There was no rage involved, just disbelief, also since all I was looking for was a 16 digit code, there was also possibility it might have been in a fortune cookie styled paper.

> like when you realize there is no money in your wallet you still dig through it or hold it upside down and shake it

huh. ive never done that.

what are you, a cartoon character?

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.

I did not sign, I refused the package. I called them afterwards to let them know, and emailed them a picture I took at the post office before I refused the package. They still dicked around and did not treat me respectfully. I ended up buying the GPUs elsewhere and having NewEgg refund me my purchase amount for ren-(egg)-ing on the 1-day shipping.

"it was changed in Google Cache too"

Have you considered the possibility that you made a mistake.

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

This may be inaccurate info but I recall the actual invoice having the data hard coded in it rather than linked to the product in a direct manor.

The invoice has an item number, but their "specifications" page is not accessible anymore for the article in question.

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.

>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_...

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.

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?

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 :)

"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.

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?

Membership plans are anticompetitive b/c they effectively lock you in to one retailer thereby decrease competition. You're effectively paying for the shipping ahead of time with the membership, so going to NewEgg or TigerDirect means you "throw money away".

The other issue is that since there is no fixed cost associated with shipping you things throughout the year, do to the the economics of it, the plan must be to your disadvantage. Amazon isn't a charity - the deal is making them money - and therefore on average the consumers are losing out.

Take the 80/yr and split it among all your purchases. Amazon is likely spending less than that on the extra shipping speed.

PS: Hypothetically they could be spending slightly more and decreasing their profit margins in exchange for higher volumes (b/c now that you spent your 80 bucks you feel guilty about shopping elsewhere). However I'm almost certain S&H fees are a lot larger than profit margins. Since the market is already very competitive they don't have much of a profit margin in the first place.

Free shipping isn't the only thing prime gets you.

I don't know where I fit in the scheme of things, but I suspect people get a lot more on Amazon than you're thinking they do once they have Prime. I've got 120 orders in the last 6 months. If you take the $80/year and split it among all orders, it's close to free: and that's before all the Amazon Prime Video I've watched. Amazon of course is making money on Prime, but how does that mean consumers are losing out, any more than on anything else they purchase? I'm paying for a bunch of videos, and a very small amount per order to get physical items in two days, with (often) a cheap option for next-day. Lastly, I do not think anticompetitive means, what you think it means. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-competitive_practices

I understand how it encourages lock-in, I would just take issue with the use of the word anticompetitive because it has a lot of implications that don't really fit here (Amazon isn't a monopoly, they're not colluding, etc).

Also, Amazon loses a hell of a lot on Prime directly, though I'm sure they just view it as subsidizing growth. I'm sure they've lost money on my shipping, at least.

Finally, your zero sum view of the program doesn't really make sense - by increasing the frequency of orders via Amazon, it gives them more power to negotiate better shipping rates, negotiate better bulk rates on products, and expand their distribution network, all of which can benefit both Amazon and me in the form of lower prices than if the program didn't exist, and better service.

"by increasing the frequency of orders via Amazon, it gives them more power to negotiate better shipping rates, negotiate better bulk rates on products, and expand their distribution network"

I'm skeptical that that is happening (Prime doesn't represent a giant change in volume for them). But let's assume it is, then the benefits should affect all their customers? So non Prime users end up being overcharged?

"Also, Amazon loses a hell of a lot on Prime directly, though I'm sure they just view it as subsidizing growth. I'm sure they've lost money on my shipping, at least."

Maybe you have managed to "beat-the-system", just like people that cycle credit cards end up making off with more money than they give the CC companies - but on average people are being ripped off.

There is no growth to subsidize b/c that only makes sense if they had a mechanism to cash in. If they drop the free shipping then people will stop paying for Prime and will switch to other retailers. Slowly raising the prices to a point where you stop loosing money and then hoping people keep shopping at your website b.c of habit is also a short term strategy.

On a side note, leveraging their size to get preferable shipping rates is also anticompetitive. They aren't a monopoly per se, but they've dominated the market to such an extent that UPS probably can't say no to whatever rates Amazon demands.

Last I heard amazon was losing an average of $11/yr on prime subscribers. They are relatively famous for caring little about making a profit in the short term. I'm not sure how often you order from Amazon, but just a few overnight $4/orders and you can save the $80 easily. I've bought multiple pieces of furniture off amazon with free 2 day shipping. I don't want to know how much that would have cost me.

You're being tricked. The saving are artificial.

They clearly normally overcharge for two day shipping. Just because it says it costs 15 bucks to send the widget, doesn't mean they pay $15 when you ship it with Prime.

Most people that opt for faster shipping and are willing to fork over money are people that need something urgently and are willing to pay extra. Amazon obviously exploits that.

While it's true that they don't seem to care too much about profits, it's naiive to think they have a program where they just throw money away for the sake of an increase in volume. There is no long term way to "cash out" and turn that volume into money. Once you drop the incentives or raise the prices your customers simply leave to the next cheap online retailer.

They posted over 3 billion dollars in shipping losses in 2012 and are currently saying they will likely increase the cost of prime soon. Perhaps if you haven't used prime you may not realize how much many prime subscribers use it, I'm not being tricked. Looking over the past few years of my amazon orders, I average 50-100 orders per year. I know they have good shipping rates, but I doubt it's less than $2/package for at min 2day.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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! :)

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

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.

Really? I find their selection horrible.

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.

Compared to other streaming services, not buying physical media.

I wouldn't call it horrible but you can't compare it to NetFlix or Hulu. Their selections are very limited and they rarely update ~ every 3 months or so.

I compared netflix streaming to amazon once and they seemed pretty much the same. I have netflix streaming and it seems like there's actually very little worth watching on it, have considered canceling a few times.

I never had Netflix so I can't give a honest comparison but I believe Netflix has their own exclusive shows and their library is atleast 10 times bigger than Amazon's.[1]

http://bgr.com/2012/04/13/amazon-netflix-said-to-be-inflatin...

Amazon Prime very rarely has any video in HD. Closed Caption also doesn't seem to exist on any video.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

I wonder if the free shipping includes HI...

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

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.

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?

There's no need for this kind of attitude.

The respondent was referring to Super Saver Shipping, which is still free for many orders of $25 or more. Before Prime existed, Super Saver shipments usually shipped the next day, and if you were fortunate enough to have a warehouse nearby, you'd effectively get next-day or 2-day shipping without paying for it. But after the introduction of Prime, Amazon had to incent customers in such a position (of which there are many) to pay for it, so they artificially delayed Super Saver shipments by several days so that they could never arrive before or at the same time Prime shipments would.

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

As I mentioned, I was talking about the free shipping, not the Prime shipping, which is $79/year.

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