Ratings for Online Stores??

New guy here, ready to go on a shopping spree.

Are there any ratings available on this site (or anywhere else) for collecting ratings of online stores? Or walk-in stores?

I come from a camera world, where the cheapest prices always come at a price. Poor customer service, terrible return policies, and the classic ask for Ccard number first before any information is given.

The place I go for ratings is Bizrate, but I wanted to see if there was something else, since I can't find some stores there. Unless you can name the top 5 stores to shop, then I won't have to hunt for others. And yes, I was lucky to find the list of store on "wiki", but there are so many.

Thanks.

Faleman --

I don't know of any ratings here at B&B. There *are* a couple dozen on-line vendors that have a good following here at B&B; noted for excellent products at great prices combined with superb service. That's why they have the following and acceptance that they do.

Read through the postings in the different forums and in the shopping forum, and you should see the comfort level various folks have with these vendors. There is no *best* vendor, but quite a number that are valued and respected by the wet-shaving community.

-- John Gehman

Coming from the camera world, you're in for quite a treat. While the "best" place to shop really depends on what you're looking for (eg. we have many boutique soapmakers who are superb but aren't really retailers). In general, however (and presuming you're located within North America)...

Start at QED for superb prices and service (despite a horrid website).

Crabtree & Evelyn has an excellent $35 starter best badger brush that should be available in their local stores in any urban centre.

And the recently started Shaving Essentials looks to be a fine startup. Though their product line is rather thin at the moment, John's been great about listening to customers and very willing to procure things they don't yet carry. And their prices look to be some of the very cheapest around, so it's worth taking a look at.

Xert - now that is what I am talking about!!!

Thanks for the info. And yes I am in the U.S. looking to acquire intro shaving kit. Merkur HD, affordable creams & soaps. I think I will just walk to C&E to get the "infamous" brush. Thanks Amigo.

Faleman --

Before you rush out and buy a lot of 'stuff', click on the 'Reviews' tab (the one with the star) at the top of this page. Check out the subsections for 'soaps' and 'creams' or for other product types. You'll find the reviews by experienced B&B'ers there to be invaluable *before* you make a bunch of purchases.

-- John Gehman

Faleman, you may notice a little reluctence in having your question answered directly. I buy from a number of suppliers and vendors and would not wish to forget someone.

I will say that we have a small harem of soap mistresses who make some outstanding products which many of us use. If you'll check out my signature, you'll see a few listed there. Read some of the threads in the Shopping Forum and you'll find reviews for many of the on-line vendors that have earned the praise.

I'll bet if you look and shop around a little and come back asking for a particular review of a vendor, you'll get more in the way of feedback.

Once you decide on equipment and supplies you want to bring in, check out the Shaving Mall Forum here too. There's some good deals offered there.

By the way, welcome aboard!

Thanks for the quick replies. B&B is a great place. I know that I can keep reading forums but a man has to act and make the buy. I have ck out the Mall forum and I guess now I have to ck out the Shopping forum as well.

Hope to get my whiskers into wet-shaving within 2 wks.

BTW, at QED many of the items are hidden on the page "Other Fabulous Toiletry Products" (in the lefthand menu).

On my blog, I have a long list of shaving vendor links in the blogroll at the right, under "Shaving." These are all vendors with whom I have had excellent experiences.

faleman said:

I think I will just walk to C&E to get the "infamous" brush. Thanks Amigo.

Click to expand...

Be watchful! It seems that C&E has two $35 brushes available. One is a Pure Badger and the other is a Best Badger. You want the latter.

fritz said:

Be watchful! It seems that C&E has two $35 brushes available. One is a Pure Badger and the other is a Best Badger. You want the latter.

Click to expand...

You'll not notice a huge (if any) difference between the two [pure vs. best], at least with C&E brushes (I haven't). At that grade [pure/best] I would look at quality of the brush (bristles, handle, your choice of knot size) and after that rundown if you picked a pure over a best, you likely picked the "best" of the two for yourself. The jump in performance and quality is up to silvertip badger. Some guys prefer pure/best brushes over silvertip anyway, so it's really subjective.

I don't know if there are any shaving vendors listed, but I find http://www.resellerratings.com/ to be a valuable tool in general. (There are a lot of online electronics and camera stores there, though.)

I had a loverly expereince with BestGroomingTools.com I ordered my Merkur Progress, 10 Merkur blades (before I heard about the sampler pack), leather carrying case, & styptic pen, and they were shipped out within 3 hours. Yes, 3 hours. Wowzers.