I've bought some stuff online. I usually wait until I have a few things I need that I will save enough money on to justify the shipping. It's averaged about one order per year. I still buy most of my stuff locally. Here is my experience with the places I've ordered from.
BikeNashbar (2002): My order arrived in 4 days with ground shipping (Nashbar is in Ohio), which means they had to have to shipped it out the same day I ordered it. Everything was correct and well packed. Great pricing and painless.
JensonUSA (2003): My order arrived in less than a week, nicely boxed. The only problem is they shipped me the WRONG FORK. I emailed them several times to try to fix the problem and was completely ignored until I threatened to slander them on every bike forum possible. I eventually got everything sorted out but it was a pain in the ass.
Bikeroom (2004): My order took 2 weeks to arrive. The box was trashed and the packing consisted of a crumpled garbage bag. My order was complete and intact though and the prices were good so I was still happy. Then 11 months later, BAM charge from bikeroom on credit card statement. Never again.
As you can see my experiences steadily got worse :lol: