Safe Online Shopping

How can you tell if an online company is legit when you’re thinking of buying something? Well, there are some key things to look out for:

If you get an unsolicited email about a product from a company you don’t know, then DEFINATELY do your homework before you buy. Check out their contact us ^[1] ” link). You might also want to review the Privacy Policy to make sure they won’t sell your information to marketers.S

Read the refund and return policy (if the website does not have one, I would avoid it altogether). Can the item be returned? What if it is opened? Is there a restocking fee? What about damaged merchandise.

If the site displays the BBB Online Reliability logo, click it and read the popup (hold your Ctrl key if you have a pop-up stopper) to make sure the company is currently participating.

Speaking of our friends at the Better Business Bureau, they have a very detailed page full of online shopping tips :
http://www.bbbonline.org/OnlineShopTips/

Keep a record of your online purchase. Print out the page with the seller’s name, address, and phone number. Print out the page about the item you ordered. Print any email confirmation messages you get and any follow-up messages about problems in shipping. Log any phone conversations. I know this sounds like alot of ink, but if there is a problem, you’ll be thanking me!

~ David