The first PC I bought online was my third (OK, the first PC my parents bought online). I bought it from NCIX, despite the distance between British Columbia and Quebec. My next 3 PCs also came from NCIX. After an epically bad experience with months of delay, I bought my seventh PC at Future Shop. Last weekend the time to buy my next PC came and I came close to buy it at NCIX, but my friend Xavier suggested considering DirectCanada instead. In the end, I decided that was the better choice.

The good

• Prices appear to be lower (compared to NCIX).
• Total price is even lower as DirectCanada offers free shipping for most orders.

The bad

• Website as flaky as NCIX's
• Product categorization is basic - more than NCIX's
• Product categorization is incorrect - my RAM stick and many more are considered as "Physics card"
• No price matching (unlike NCIX)
• Product catalog might be slightly inferior to NCIX's

The really bad - almost

After completing all checkout, I was about to place my order when I had a last minute idea. I replaced an item in my cart in a different browser tab and came back to my checkout tab, which of course showed the outdated cart. I then clicked "Go Back". But instead of going back, my order was placed! Thankfully, the system ordered my current cart, so it did what I meant to do, even though that's not what I requested. In a sense, that's worst - the system not only ordered when I said to go back, but it ordered something other than what it offered me. I'm still struggling to believe it.

But what is DirectCanada?

I was amazed to realize that only 1 out of the 7 items in my NCIX shopping cart was unavailable at DirectCanada - I simply had to take a somewhat slower CPU. After noticing so much similarity between NCIX and DirectCanada, I realized they're actually associated. I'm not sure of the exact nature of this relation, but they essentially share the same products, website engine, physical location and policies. I wonder why they're not the same - perhaps history.

Now that the easy part is done, let's hope the hard part won't reflect cheapness too much and DirectCanada won't be a topic again on this blog