Summersault Blog

Today, the Palladium-Item published Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter’s recently released “safe online shopping tips.” I thought I would comment and expand on these tips, especially as they relate to Summersault’s experiences with online commerce.

• “Research vendors and personal sellers before making any online purchases.“
  This is certainly a good idea. But how to do this research? Enter the site’s name into a search engine and see what kinds of reviews or references come up. Are there a lot of people complaining about customer service or shipping time? Does the seller have a related store (on eBay or Yahoo!) that might contain useful feedback? How long have they been in business? You can also check with more formal business review entities such as the Better Business Bureau or even Dunn and Bradstreet. Locally, you can call the Chamber of Commerce to see if the organization is a member in good standing.
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• “Confirm an online seller’s physical address and phone number in case you need to get in touch with them.“
  Of course, to really confirm a physical address, you need to visit it in person and go inside, and that’s not always going to be possible. Making sure the phone number is valid and eventually gets you to a real person can be important, but many online vendors have chosen to offer support correspondence only through e-mail, so the unavailability of a phone number isn’t always a sign that the vendor isn’t legitimate.
   
• “Don’t reply to requests for financial information.“
  As written, this tip isn’t entirely helpful. What if the vendor writes you an e-mail back asking for your billing zipcode? Not all requests for financial details are suspect, but you should certainly be careful what information you give out to a vendor, and certainly don’t give your personal or financial information to anyone who writes you “out of the blue,” even if they appear to be from an organization you have done business with.
   
• “Know what you’re getting. Read the seller’s description of the product closely, especially the fine print.“
  This is a pretty standard tip - caveat emptor. If a vendor has to put any significant information about a product in fine print or otherwise tries to hide it from you, you probably don’t want to do business with them anyway.
   
• “Calculate the costs. Check out Web sites that offer price comparisons and then compare “apples to apples.” Factor shipping and handling into the total cost of the order and evaluate this final, complete cost against your budget and needs.“
  Good advice. Many vendors on the web try to position themselves as the “lowest price available,” but they can only do so by pumping up their shipping and handling fees. Also note that some vendors will have to charge you sales tax while others will not, depending on where they have physical locations. If you’re buying a big-ticket item, consider making a spreadsheet that compares item price, shipping and handling and taxes.
   
• “Be certain the Web site is secure. Be suspicious if the seller states you can only pay by a money transfer service, such as Western Union, as it is difficult to track someone down without a paper trail.“
  A website can be secured in a few different ways. One is through the use of encryption for the information that flows between your computer and the vendor’s website - this is usually indicated by the use of a “lock” icon somewhere in your browser window while using the site. But you should also make sure the vendor is careful about what information they ask you for at all, what information they e-mail you, etc.
   
• “Do not send cash under any circumstances. Consider using an online payment service, such as PayPal, or your credit card, which protects your transaction under the Fair Credit Billing Act.” Good advice. PayPal and credit card companies have established procedures for settling disputes related to product quality and payment, and you’ll be much better off than trying to get someone to pay you back for a cash transaction.
   
• “Purchase insurance. Postal insurance is approximately $1 for every $100 of insurance purchased. This is a small price to pay in comparison to losing your entire shipment.” I would say that purchasing insurance isn’t always necessary. Most shipping companies provide minimal insurance to the seller anyway, so unless your item is particularly expensive or particularly at risk of being lost, insurance fees can be an unnecessary expense.
   
• “Maintain a paper trail. Print and save records of your online transactions, including the product description and price, the online receipt, and copies of any e-mail(s) you exchange with the seller. Read your credit card statements as you receive them to be on the lookout for unauthorized charges.” Good advice, although printing a copy of every transaction can be an unnecessary use of paper as long as you’re saving and backing up copies of the messages on your computer.
   
• “Check a company’s privacy policy before doing business with it. A company should allow you to know what personal information its Web site operators are collecting, why and how it will be used.” This is good advice, but remember that just because a company publishes something on its website doesn’t mean it will necessarily act in that way. Building trust in a vendor through referrals from your colleagues and a solid transaction history is the only way to know that a vendor is going to treat you well.
   

In addition to these tips from Mr. Carter, there are a few more I would recommend:

• Be careful when buying from overseas vendors. Although there are successful international online commerce transactions happening every day, be aware that currency conversions, shipping charges, and importing laws can make these purchases more complicated. Make sure you know what you’re getting and how long it’s going to take to get to you before you buy - you wouldn’t want a holiday gift stuck in customs.
   
• Don’t be afraid to call a vendor for purchasing help. It can sometimes be overwhelming to choose the right version of the right product based solely on a photo on a website. If a vendor offers a toll-free number to use, then they’ll usually be happy to help you finalize your purchase decisions, and may even be able to offer extra advice on the product and how to get the most out of it. More importantly, a vendor is likely to pay its best attention to you in the “sales” phase of your relationship, as opposed to the “support and warranty” phase.
   
• Buy local when you can. Just because an item is available online and can be overnighted to you doesn’t mean its the best deal, especially when it comes to the economic impact you can have by spending your dollars locally. From a safety perspective, you often can’t get much more safe and reliable than a local business that has a storefront and live people you can go meet face to face to talk about your purchase.

I hope these tips are helpful. If you have others to share, please comment below!

This entry was posted on Monday, November 27th, 2006 at 9:51 am and is filed under Miscellaneous, Website Design, Richmond Happenings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.