CertificationKits.com Buying Experience
Hello All.
I understand a new account may not carry a lot of weight, but for what it's worth, I wanted to leave public feedback on how my experience with CertificationKits.com went.
I tried to get the best value out of building a kit as I could, as I'm a near-broke student. I've used simulators and worked through the Wendell Odom CCNA books, but wanted some hands-on experience.
One of my concerns in buying equipment online was what I was receiving. There's more to the purchase than just the hardware, and as someone with little experience with Cisco equipment, I didn't know what I was getting into to be honest. The staff at CertificationKits.com were really patient, and answered many of my questions. They also have a lot of pages with information on buying, and what hardware you should pick. I'm sure it's slanted towards purchasing the equipment they offer, but it was useful nonetheless.
One thing you don't get when purchasing equipment of eBay is a warranty, which is important to me. The last thing I want is for my recently purchased equipment to stop working for whatever reason, and have to re-purchase it. When purchasing a kit, the price of the warranty doesn't rise with the 'upgrades' you get in the kit. So there's more value to your warranty when buying a kit and just 'upgrading' the hardware you get.
I felt the price was fair, when shopping on other hardware sites that offer warranties. Obviously you can get a deal on eBay, but I feel like there's more risk from buying from an individual, so I felt more comfortable buying from a business.
The hardware came really quickly! I purchased it on a Friday, and it came the following Tuesday. The shipping WAS expensive, but given the amount of stuff they shipped, I wasn't surprised at the cost.
I haven't had my equipment for long, but they offer a trade-in program, where you can trade in previously purchased equipment from them towards bigger and better pieces. I just started with my equipment, but I feel this is yet another value-added bonus that you couldn't get from buying off eBay / Craigslist.
Cons:
They don't accept PayPal, or any other payment service. I'm sure there's a reasoning behind this, but I would've prefered any number of the other payment services out there. I understand the security risks involved with processing online payments, and would rather it be handled by a large company whose primary focus is payment processing.
They don't allow you to ship to an address other than your billing address when paying by Credit Card. Again, I understand it's a security thing, so someone doesn't steal your credit card information and buy a bunch of Cisco equipment, but using payment services could really help out here.
TL;DR
I had a great buying experience at CertificationKits.com and look forward to doing business with them again in the future.
If anyone has questions or comments, please share!
