Worry Free Online Shopping
Each year after the gift season is over, online merchants happily proclaim the growing popularity of web spending with increased sales figures. In spite of the fact that more amore people are doing their gift shopping online, many people are still hesitant to reach for the plastic. If you are one of those standing on shore, still unsure if it’s safe to take the plunge, we have a few tips.
Protecting your privacy and credit card are real concerns but there’s no need to despair. If you are ready to buy and wrap your holiday gifts but worried about online security here are easy-to-follow guidelines.
You should feel safe about shopping with major stores, they want your business and work hard to protect their brand name. But what about smaller online sellers? There is no reason to be fearful of buying from a small merchant if you follow basic guidelines such as:
• Does the merchant have a page that describes their purchase policy?
• Do they have statements that describe how personal information will be protected?
• What is their return policy?
Bookmark the page with email and phone number. If you aren’t satisfied with this information, look for another merchant because this could be a good indication of what to expect if something goes wrong or you are not satisfied and want to return an item.
If you need to take action remember that the majority of these merchants are honest, reliable people who got where they are by providing good service. Often it means you can talk to a real person if you have a problem. But remember that mistakes can happen, emails get lost or orders can disappear. Merchants know that satisfied customers build good will and will usually act quickly to correct problems.
After you’ve made your online selection you are usually referred to a shopping cart page. This is when you should take note of the URL in the bar at the top of the page. This address line should begin with https://. The “s” stands for secure and it’s very important. Look for this “s” any time you are doing a credit card transaction. After the buy is made there should be a reference code that‘s your reference number in the event of problems.
For added safety you can make a recorded backup. To do this, hold down the Alt key and press Print Screen. Then open your word processor and on a new page press Control-V. You now have an exact picture of the transaction page. You can put more than one image on a page. If you do a lot of online buying you could have a folder just for these pages.
If the worst case scenario does happen, contact your credit card provider. They are ready to help and have the experience to handle just about any situation. And it should be comforting to know that the U.S. Consumer Protection Act protects you from liability in excess of $50 and in many cases even this amount will be waived.
So relax and take the stress free approach to gift shopping. With smaller parking lots and bigger gas pump prices, online shopping is looking very attractive.
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