stuart@sdchema.UUCP (Stuart Oatley) (09/25/84)
I received a offer in the mail recently for a MasterCard called the Insider's Card, which is linked to an organization called Comp-u-Store. They run a database of the `cheapest' suppliers of consumer goods. You call them up, get the price and make your order if you wish, charging it to your Insider's Card. Does anyone have any experience of these people? Stuart Oatley Chem. Dept., UC San Diego
stewart@ihldt.UUCP (R. J. Stewart) (09/28/84)
> I received a offer in the mail recently for a MasterCard called the > Insider's Card, which is linked to an organization called > Comp-u-Store. They run a database of the `cheapest' suppliers of > consumer goods. You call them up, get the price and make your order > if you wish, charging it to your Insider's Card. Does anyone have > any experience of these people? We had one of these cards for a couple of years, but discontinued it. While it seems to be legit, it was not economical for several reasons: 1) The card has a yearly fee, while my wife and I both have cards with no fee. (If your current MC/VISA has a fee, the economics may work out differently for you). 2) Their prices are good but not great. We found that we could always do as good or better by looking for sales or checking in discount stores. 3) Their selection is limited. While their list of suppliers is impressive, they don't always have every model of a particular product line available. Also, the people that you call to get their prices are not trained well and often can't tell you what you want to know. The real advantage to this service was the ability to call up and check prices to find out how much we could expect to pay for an item. After a while we decided that we could do just as well by looking in the Sears sale catalogs. Bob Stewart ihldt!stewart
joee@orca.UUCP (Joe Eckardt) (09/28/84)
I recently received a similar offer from "ABC", also linked to Comp-u-serve. With this offer they included a membership card along with a letter giving use instructions and an invitation to try the service for 1 month, no strings, to prove to yourself it is worth the money. They didn't even require returning any forms first. Anyway, I figured I'd give them a try and see how good they could do. First off, they will only give you three quotes per phone call; probably just to keep from tying up the line all day. No problem in calling back, however. You have to know exactly the manufacture and model numbers you want. If you have an incorrect model number suffix they can't help you much. They DO get a brief description in front of them for any numbers they do list so you can double check the model number. I THINK that they can list a range of model numbers but they weren't terribly helpful in that regard (was looking for something with number of "K45-S<something>" were <something> was one of about 6 letters. I didn't really care which one, but I had to give them each combination separately to get a quote.) Through the course of three phone calls I got quotes on various CD players for which I had already found what I thought were the best prices. Several of brands Comp-u-serve did not handle; some specific models they could not get although they could get other models by the same manufacturer. For those they handle, the prices (including shipping) ranged from $50 to $120 below the lowest price I found for the same unit either locally or mail order. I ended up ordering a Technics SL-P8 for $348 through them. More on that later. Doing so well on the CD player I tryed a couple of more items. I priced several models of expensive countertop mixers. Quotes on all models that they handled were about $10 more than the price at the local Jafco (Best, Price Club, etc). Also found the same mixers on sale at Sears for $5 less. Next tried a Gellato (sp?) Ice Cream machine. Price was $5 more than available locally. My conclusions? Appears that Comp-u-serve does pretty good on high-demand items that are currently involved in a "price war". This would include stereo gear, computers, camera equipment, etc. The don't seem to do so well on low volume items. A good local sale prices sometimes beat Comp-u-serve's quotes, usually for just about the amount of the shipping. There is, however, an added price that you will have to pay: patience. I ordered my CD on 15 Sept. I was told I would receive an order confirmation in 7-10 days; it would say were it was being shipped from and the delivery date. The confirmation arrived yesterday, 27 Sept. Estimated delivery date is 16 Oct. Guess a month's wait is worth a $100+ savings but, BOY!, am I getting impatient! Bottom line: it's a neat idea but I think I'll save my $32/year. If I was planning to do a lot of buying in the next year it probably would be worth it. It was great to be able to try it out first. [They claim that you can also buy a car through them. I have no idea how that works.] Joe Eckardt Tektronix Wilsonville, Oregon UUCP: ...!tektronix!tekecs!joee (ignore return address) CSNET: tekecs!joee @ tektronix ARPA: tekecs!joee.tektronix @ rand-relay