You’ve shopped online for a portable generator. You found one that you like because of its price, because it suits your needs, and because most others owners seem to like it.
But you’re just not quite sure about ordering one online, sight unseen.
If you’re still on the fence like this, consider the following points.
If you bought one at your local hardware store, you’d probably get to see and touch one for real. But you likely wouldn’t be able to fire it up to see how it’s done and to hear what it sounds like. The one you’d take home wouldn’t be the one you looked at. It would be in a box or crate in the storeroom in back. There’s no guarantee it would work exactly like the one you saw on the showroom floor.
Speaking of taking it home, do you own a truck? If you do, great. You can have someone who works at the store help you load it on the back, and off you go.
But what if you don’t have a pickup? Do you own a minivan or SUV? If you do, you still might be okay. Depending on the size of the box, it would be a little more difficult to load, but it should still work.
However, if you’re like me and just own a regular car, even a full sized sedan, you’re out of luck. How are you going to get it home? Rent a trailer? Pay the store to deliver it?
If so, then aren’t you in exactly the same situation as ordering one online? Yes, you are.
In that case, you might as well just click the buy button and be done with it. The online price is probably less than the one you’d see at your local brick and mortar store anyway, even with shipping tacked on.
Even if you do own a truck or other larger vehicle, I think it’s worth saving yourself the trip and the lifting (which you likely can’t do by yourself anyway unless you’re getting a really small generator) to just order online.
Should the day come when you need to return your generator or have it repaired, you may have the option of either sending it back to the source or taking it to a local dealer. This really depends on the policies of the original seller, so be sure to check this out carefully.
If you bought it online and can return it to the same seller, you should be able to box it up fairly easily (assuming you kept the original packaging) and have a shipper pick it up from your house. That’s simple enough.
If you managed to buy it locally, you’re in the same position as when you made the purchase. You have to either lug it back to the store yourself or pay to have someone do it for you. What a hassle!
So again, if you were still unsure about ordering a big generator online, I think you can set any worries aside, realizing that not doing so creates as many problems, if not more, than the click and pay method.
The links below will take you to two of the more popular generator articles at Gen Power.