Shopping on the web has become more and more popular, and is tremendous for the shopper – it’s never been easier to buy things. Also, a more competitive market unified with the cost-effectiveness with selling online has ensured low prices for items.

Yet, as the shopping market has flourished, so too has the necessity to be aware of your rights as a consumer, and what you should do if you are in receipt of goods that you paid for but didn’t actually get or faulty goods. Information is available online, like the consumer protection act 1987.

Another consideration is which payment provider to use to pay for your items, as each payment provider has its own terms and conditions. For example, Paypal are an independent arbitrator only for physical goods, not digital downloads. Doing your homework can prevent you getting ripped off by internet fraud.

Our word to the wise is to do your homework about the seller : do they display their postal address and phone number? What is the seller’s returns policy? Their terms and conditions? Their privacy policy? All these enquiries must be answered prior to considering making a purchase from the seller.

Another very important point to think about: what are the methods of purchase? These days, it’s not enough to simply look for an SSL certificate – this won’t tell you how they keep your information, only how it’s transmitted when you make the order. If you have doubts, only buy from vendors who use third party payment providers such as Google Checkout, PayPal, SagePay, NoChex and WorldPay.Also you can see what reputation the vendor has with his payment gateway, e.g. check his PayPal account and how many transactions have occurred on this particular account.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 9:12 pm and is filed under Consumer World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.