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How to Shop Safely and Avoid Hidden Fees
The Internet can be a shopper's paradise,
as long as you know how to shop safely and avoid hidden
fees. Here are some tips to make sure your online shopping
experience is a positive one.
Make sure the web site is reputable.
If you're shopping on a new site that
you've never done business with before and it isn't
a brand name you recognize, take the time to do a little
homework before you share any sensitive personal information.
Look around the site to see if there's a third-party
seal of approval posted from a trusted source like the
Better Business Bureau Online, or Trust-E. Membership
in these organizations means the web site has agreed
to be held to strict standards in how they handle personal
information, as well as customer complaints.
Opinion sites, like BizRate.com or Epinions.com,
may have information about the site listed along with
customer reviews. You can also enter the name of the
web site or business into your favorite search engine
to see what comes up. If someone has had a bad experience
with the site, it may be mentioned in a user forum or
consumer information site.
Only shop at sites that use secure
technology.
When information is passed between your
computer and the shopping site's server, it should be
encrypted. If a shopping site's server uses encryption
technology, your data will be scrambled into something
like 'secret code' and then unscrambled when it reaches
the shopping site's server, to prevent unscrupulous
hackers from capturing the information during transmission.
When a shopping site asks you for any
kind of personal data, there are two things to look
for to know that it's using encryption technology:
- An icon of a small locked padlock
will appear in the bottom right of your monitor's screen.
- The URL of the web page should begin
with "https:", which also indicates that it's
a secure web page.
Know what your shipping costs will
be before you check out.
A reputable site will make their shipping
costs easy to find, before you check out. Take the time
to look for this information, to avoid any unpleasant
surprises. Data collected from surveys of online shopping
experiences consistently show that the one thing online
shoppers dislike above all is shipping charges. While
it's unavoidable that you have to absorb the cost of
shipping one way or another, smart retailers will try
to keep these costs to a minimum. Sometimes they'll
do this creatively by offering you incentives to purchase
more, to help offset their costs for discounted shipping
charges.
And while reputable sites will have
a liberal return policy in the event you're not happy
with your merchandise, be aware that in most cases you
won't be reimbursed for the shipping charges to return
the item.
Make sure you understand the return
policy.
Never purchase anything from a web site
without reading the fine print - particularly the fine
print about its return policy. Good retail sites will
allow you to return items you're not completely happy
with, but sometimes there are stipulations that you
should be aware of before you order.
Is there a restocking fee? This charge
can be anywhere from 5%-20% of an item's purchase price,
and is meant to discourage customers from returning
merchandise. Also make sure you know how much time you
have to return an item in order to receive a refund.
Some companies seem to allow an almost unlimited return
window, but in some cases it can be as little as one
week after you receive your order. You may still be
able to return an item after this period, but will only
receive a store credit instead of a full refund.
Shop with confidence.
Online retail sales in the U.S. amounted
to $65B in 2004, and predictions for 2008 expect that
figure to rise to $117B. An unbelievable variety of
merchandise is already available on the Internet, and
as time goes on the choices will be even greater. But
to take advantage of this shopping paradise, consumers
still need to be savvy shoppers. Shop securely and read
the fine print, and then enjoy the savings and convenience
of online shopping!
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