How do I know I can trust an
online store?
If
you've ever tried to take something back to a shop only to be
greeted with scorn or accusations, you will probably give a high
priority to the issues of trust with the organisations you wish to
buy from. Many people will therefore only buy online from branded
shops and while this may be a good practice for safe shopping you
will miss out on some bargains and truly proficient service
offered by some lesser known retailers.
Firstly, your online purchases should be
protected by your credit card company, check your agreement for
details. Any company taking money on the internet needs access to
what is known as an internet merchant account. They can either
have their own IMA or have access to a third party IMA such as
paypal or world pay. Either way they will have been vetted and
hold agreements with a bank or third party provider and any
unscrupulous company will soon have its agreement revoked. It is
therefore a good idea to check how long the store has been trading
online; this can be done by finding out how many other sites link
to the store.
In a
google search box such as the one at the bottom of this page type;
links:http://www.domain
name
Where
'domain name' is the name of the site
you wish to query. (e.g. microsoft.com)
I takes several months for online stores to
gain good links to them and then for those links to be indexed by
google so if the store has links to it you can be sure that it has
been around for a while.
Tips to
stay safe with an online store;
-
Make sure that you only
provide personal information to 'secure sites'.
-
Check the privacy policy to
see how the web site uses your personal information.
-
Check the delivery and
returns policy.
-
Look at the contact
information to make sure there are good methods of contacting the
company if it proves necessary.
-
Use an online shopping
directory such as shopsavvy online to search for shopping
products. We personally vet all stores in our featured listings to
ensure they adopt a professional code of practice.
