Online Bargain Shopping.
Getting the Best Buy.
Online bargain shopping offers virtually unlimited possibilities. Getting the best buy involves knowing where they are and how to take advantage of them. The proliferation of the internet has provided numerous opportunities for online bargain shopping. These include
comparison shopping sites,
online coupons,
online stores, and online auctions. Unfortunately, along with the good comes the bad. Most online stores and specialty sites are honest and reliable bargain sources. However, there are people whose whole purpose for getting out of bed in the morning is to lie, cheat, scam, and otherwise rip-off the consumer.
Fraud Prevention
While online bargain shopping you need to protect yourself from fraud. Make sure you know who you are dealing with. Get a phone number and/or a physical address. An email address can be forged and if that's all you have, you have nothing. Check it out by calling the phone number, writing the address, and sending an email.Comparison shopping sites offer reviews and ratings on stores. Use these to your advantage. Checking out a company with the Better Business Bureau before you buy a product or service is an excellent precaution. Know the product you want to buy online. Bargain shopping involves research. Know what the average retail price is. This will let you know when you have found a bargain price. Watch for add-ons like shipping and handling, taxes, insurance, and fees. Know the final price. Other factors to consider are does it have a warranty? Is it new, used, rebuilt, or refurbished? Can you return it? Where do you get it serviced? Is the bottom line still a bargain? When paying online make sure the site is secure. This is usually indicated by some type of lock symbol or a written notice. Paying by credit card may offer the protection of using charge backs. It may also provide a way to track a seller if necessary. Consider using an online payment service to pay for your online bargain shopping. It can offer protection against the fraudulent use of your financial account information. The payment service company does not share your financial information with the seller. They may also provide other fraud prevention features. These precautions will help but nothing is 100% secure. Not even a connection with SSL encryption. At some point the information must be decoded and thus becomes vulnerable. Do your homework. Research. Choose a reputable online payment service. Never send cash. Never give your social security number. Never give your account PIN. Never give your account password. If someone asks for them take your online bargain shopping elsewhere. Should a problem arise, try to solve it with the seller first. It could just be a misunderstanding. If you are the victim of fraud, contact the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, and/or the Attorney Generals Office for your state. If it is a problem with a financial institution, contact the Comptroller of the Currency. Filing complaints and reports helps to shut down unscrupulous operators, warns other consumers, and in most cases get you your money back.
(return to flea markets)
Shopping Online Stores
Shopping online stores for bargains is fun and easy. You can search by store, product, or site. There are sites that specialize in Black Friday sales, online clearance, and online coupons. There are others that specialize in crafts, books, DVDs, electronics, baby clothes, childrens clothing, housewares, jewelry, furniture, and glassware. You can also find bargain sources on overstock, liquidation, surplus, wholesale, and dropship items.Use shopping search engines such as Amazon, Bizrate, Froogle, MSN Shopping, Shopzilla and Yahoo Shopping to find online bargains. There are even some shopping search engines that do local searches. Research a product by reading expert and consumer reviews. These reviews can be found on the store sites and on product review sites. Comparison shopping sites offer an advantage to online bargain shopping. You can compare prices on the product and the stores reputation. Is it still a bargain if you get terrible customer service? Some of the things to consider when choosing a store are how fast do they process the order? How soon do they ship? What are the shipping costs? Who pays the shipping? Are the products available immediately? What is their return policy? Who pays the return shipping? Is there a restocking fee involved? Warranties? Are they honest about the information they provide? What do other consumers say about them in the reviews? Reading the reviews on the stores and the products are a boon to finding a bargain online. Find the sites that have reviews by consumers. Beware of comparison shopping sites that simply sell the number one spot to the company that is willing to pay the most for it. Online bargain shopping is also benefited by online coupons. Several websites provide online coupons and discount information for offline and online stores. Enter the store name along with the word coupon to see if any exist for the item you are buying. Some stores offer online deals that are only good if you order online. Placing an order online is easy. When you find your bargain put the item in the shopping cart. To check out you may be required to log in or register, depending on the store. Then enter the billing, shipping and email addresses, phone number, payment method, and delivery preference. Remember, no social security number, no financial account PIN, no financial account password, no cash, no wire transfer. OK, log out. If you did your online bargain shopping correctly, a bargain is on the way.
The bargains at online stores are as numerous as the stores. My philosophy is, "So many online stores, so little time." There are many more bargain sources to explore. "Pick and click" on another bargain source and I'll see you there my friend.
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