I used faucet direct.com for my delta faucets, and lighting direct.com for my sconces, and both came quickly, were the correct item, and well packaged. I also ordered my sinks from Faucet direct, and they are in shipment now......they are great about shipping status updates!

I had three great online puchasing experiences for my bathroom: I purchased a towel warmer from Vintage Tubs. Great all-around experience, excellent customer service. Great price with free shipping. Product arrived in the time frame promised and in perfect shape. I bought Danze accessories (towel rings, tp holder, robe hook) from National Builder Supply. Great prices and my order arrived very quickly in perfect shape. I bought a Fantech exhaust fan from WSC Direct. Same thing. Great price, free and fast shipping. I would not hesitate to buy from any of these online retailers again.

My numerous experiences with online retailers have been overwhelmingly positive.

Yes, 'out of stock' can be a problem, but I think in the majority of cases, that generally means that the manufacturer or distributor is out of stock, not the retailer. So you'd experience the same problem in a bricks and mortar store -- though you may be able to find out about it before you leave.

I recently ordered some sink drains from VintageTub.com which turned out to be out of stock. They jumped through hoops to get them to me quickly.

Thanks for your time muscat, susan631 and sweeby. It is good to have these names and maybe confirms my husband's feeling that comments on forums are predominantly negative as people with positive things to say don't bother. Keep the recommendations coming please!

I recently purchased Price Pfister faucets for my kitchen and bath from Ebay vendor Faucet Discounters. The faucets arrived in excellent shape, including the box. It was shipped fast an the price was 1/3 of what I would have paid from a store. Would definitely buy from them again.

When doing research on the vendor, I read somewhere that the vendor is Price Pfister and they are selling overtock and discounted items through Ebay. Not sure if it's true, however, it would explain the amazing price.

I used Improvement Direct for my powder room remodel. I'm not sure if it is related to Faucets Direct or not - websites are remarkably similar. I purchased purchase a sink, a toilet, faucets, and lighting online. They were marvelous - everything arrived on time and undamagede, they sent numerous emails letting me know the status of everything, and returns were a snap. I plan on working with them again for my two upstairs bathrooms.

I have used www.irawoods.com for kitchen sink and facuets. they are great and good prices.

I read such bad reviews of Irawoods on Epinions I think but things change as for exmple I had good luck with Homeclick 5 years ago and they have had a lot of negative press recently. I am finding some of the things I want on designerplumbing.com and the person on the 'phone was really on the ball. Has anyone used them?

I, too, saw lots of negative reviews for Irawoods and was afraid to buy anything from them for that reason.

Faucet-Warehouse.com, multiple purchases, >50 items. Very positive. Clear communication of what is in/out of stock, accurate estimates of when out of stock items would be delivered, reasonably knowledgable phone support, pricing is consistent across all products from manufacturer (I hate when I have to calculate discounts which vary across products), prompt delivery, great communication of order status.

Used QualityBath.com for tub/sink purchase, Faucets4Cheap for Hansgrohe, both very positive. Got some 'returned' lighting from CSNLighting.com, perfect condition, great price. Purchased some items from e-bay stores, again positive experience.

To be honest, have never had a bad on-line experience from any vendor.

Bought Grohe faucets from FaucetDirect. Not the cheapest place on the web, but not far from that. Everything came on time and in perfect condition. Got Newport Brass accessories and Ginger shower baskets and lighting from Plumbtile. Best prices I could find, and the Newport Brass items were packed like fine jewels. Had to call to follow up on the order. Got some other lighting and Robern medicine cabinets from CSN Stores. Again, the best prices I could find, and everything came on time and in perfect condition.

I would definitely recommend faucetdepot.com and faucetdirect.com (yes, they are affiliated with improvements direct, lightingdirect.com, ventingdirect.com, morehome.com, handlesets.com, etc). Good return policies, packaged well, good customer service. Also purchased 2 copper sinks online and was very happy with the service. I did have tight deadlines and called in to verify that my orders would arrive on time. I was pleasantly surprised with all my online purchases.

I don't trust sites that allow anonymous reviews. Bad ones are often placed by employees of competitors or disgruntled employees. Add to that that unhappy customers are much more like to post complaints than happy ones. My online experiences have also been overwhelmingly positive to the point that I begin my search online.

As for timing, order your products with plenty of lead time. Think how soon you will need it, then double the lead time. Things happen and it ends up costing you money if you don't have the product when it is needed.

Make sure you know your vendor's return policy. You sometimes don't really know how a product looks or feels until you get it in your space.

And remember your best weapon - your charge card. If you do run into the rare bad actor, just contest the charge. Your charge company will refund your money and go after the company themselves. There is no investigation and the vendor has no appeal. The charge company will ask your reason, but it is just to record in their system. You can always get your money back. Much easier than stopping a check. I know this applies to Visa, MasterCard, and Amex. I do not know about Discover.

Relax and enjoy internet shopping. Use the same caution you'd use with a storefront vendor and all will be fine. If not, cancel the charge.