Just a few quick checks can save a lot of pain and wasted cash....
Before you click the 'buy now' button..
1. Go to Google and type in the name of the site followed by 'reviews' - if they are scammers or their customer service is just not up to par you will see the complaints spread across several forums. Non-delivery of goods is a no-no, but if it's just bad customer service (usually the wrong goods delivered, faulty goods delivered...) then move to the next step
2. Send customer services an email - ask any reasonable question about the product you want to buy. If you get a reply look out for badly spelled or gramatically incorrect English. (Check the headers from the email and see if the sending IP address is in the general area of where the seller purports to do business). This is not a massive issue as a lot of large online businesses now route customer services through China
If the reply comes from an internet based email account (gmail, yahoo, hotmail...) it's a large red flag waving at you. You should expect any reply to come from the same domain as the sales site.
If you don't get a reply you know what's going to happen if you order from them and there is a problem!
3. Look at the 'contact us' page - most reputable businesses will give their physical address - once you have this enter it in Google maps and drill down to an image. If it comes up with run down building on a residential estate this could be another red flag.
4. Pay by credit card - if their online business doesn't accept cards it's, well, not an online business!
5. Before you enter any card details ensure you have a valid SSL connection (should be https not http). Click the padlock on the browser and check that the certificate is valid (although your browser should do this for you and throw up a warning). Even the most respected corporations, and the largest, sometimes link to images on their secure pages via http instead of https, so you might get a warning that not all the content could be loaded securely.. If you are concerned just click 'load secure content only'
Also check the site for merchant accreditation - usually a logo from the gateway provider (like authorize.net) or the certificate issuer (like Comodo). If the logo is installed correctly hovering the mouse over it or clicking on it should provide a pop-up with the merchants details verified and usually offering insurance up to a certain amount (around $50k).
These few simple steps should ensure that shopping online doesn't result in misery!
Before you click the 'buy now' button..
1. Go to Google and type in the name of the site followed by 'reviews' - if they are scammers or their customer service is just not up to par you will see the complaints spread across several forums. Non-delivery of goods is a no-no, but if it's just bad customer service (usually the wrong goods delivered, faulty goods delivered...) then move to the next step
2. Send customer services an email - ask any reasonable question about the product you want to buy. If you get a reply look out for badly spelled or gramatically incorrect English. (Check the headers from the email and see if the sending IP address is in the general area of where the seller purports to do business). This is not a massive issue as a lot of large online businesses now route customer services through China
If the reply comes from an internet based email account (gmail, yahoo, hotmail...) it's a large red flag waving at you. You should expect any reply to come from the same domain as the sales site.
If you don't get a reply you know what's going to happen if you order from them and there is a problem!
3. Look at the 'contact us' page - most reputable businesses will give their physical address - once you have this enter it in Google maps and drill down to an image. If it comes up with run down building on a residential estate this could be another red flag.
4. Pay by credit card - if their online business doesn't accept cards it's, well, not an online business!
5. Before you enter any card details ensure you have a valid SSL connection (should be https not http). Click the padlock on the browser and check that the certificate is valid (although your browser should do this for you and throw up a warning). Even the most respected corporations, and the largest, sometimes link to images on their secure pages via http instead of https, so you might get a warning that not all the content could be loaded securely.. If you are concerned just click 'load secure content only'
Also check the site for merchant accreditation - usually a logo from the gateway provider (like authorize.net) or the certificate issuer (like Comodo). If the logo is installed correctly hovering the mouse over it or clicking on it should provide a pop-up with the merchants details verified and usually offering insurance up to a certain amount (around $50k).
These few simple steps should ensure that shopping online doesn't result in misery!
