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There are three pieces of relevant legislation that will protect you when shopping online

There are still a large number of people that are simply afraid to shop on the Internet which worries me somewhat as my livelihood is completely reliant on people feeling comfortable using their credit card details to order online. Not only is online shopping one of the most secure ways to shop but there are also a number of avenues available to protect you online and minimise the risk presented.

Legislation
There are three pieces of relevant legislation that will protect you when shopping online.
- The Distance Selling Regulations which allow you send goods back for ANY reason whatsoever within seven working days of delivery. You do have to pay for the return of the goods though.
- The Sale Of Goods Act which allows you to obtain a full refund if the goods are not `fit for purpose´
- Finally, the Consumer Credit Act which means that if a retailer refuses to refund you then your credit card company may refund you then recover the money through the retailers´ bankers.

Trading Standards
If you were to have a problem then Consumer Direct would be a better first point of call than Trading Standards. They can be contacted by phoning 08454 040506 or visiting www.consumerdirect.gov.uk. They will be able to advise you on appropriate legislation, provide you with sample letter templates to send to the retailer, collect complaints against a retailer and not only advise you on how to proceed but in some instances they may take the complaint up directly.

County Court
If all else fails you will may be able to use the small claims procedure. For advice you should contact the Torquay and Newton Abbot small claims court on 01803 616791 and it´s worthwhile noting that you won´t have to employ a solicitor.

If you are having problems with a retailer than when employing any of the above methods it would be worthwhile keeping the following records:
(a) Keep a diary of exactly what happens and when.
(b) Keep details of the agreed product specification, the order, emails, faxes, letters and phone conversations.
(c) Send all important letters by Recorded Delivery and consider taping any important phone conversations.

At the end of the day it´s worthwhile noting that 99.9% of all Internet retailers are reputable and it is very unlikely that you will ever have a problem at all. Any problems that are encountered are usually easily solved in a friendly manner and it is unlikely that you will ever have to employ any of the methods detailed above.

An ongoing concern is that of security but in all reality this isn´t something that you should really worry about. Modern websites employee a high degree of encryption which is extremely difficult to hack in to and even should your details be compromised online you would be protected by your card company. Many retailers now days don´t even get to see the card details that you enter in online - for example, at Refresh Cartridges when we take an order online all we get is an authorisation code as the transaction is conducted directly with the bank.

I´m always amazed how some people are happy to give their card away at a restaurant for a waiter to take out the back, out of sight but at the same time seem reluctant to use their card online with some of the Internets biggest retailers. I think it´s time to get some perspective as to how safe Internet shopping is especially when compared to more established and less secure payments which we conduct locally in our day to day lives.

I´ve recently received a couple of questions regarding last weeks safe shopping article in which I discussed the bases that you could cover in order to protect yourself whilst shopping online. Below Ihave printed one such e-mail which raised a couple of unanswered questions:

I recently read your article supporting Internet shopping with interest as I have always feared shopping online because I have had friends whose cards have been "cloned". You mentioned a couple of interesting points regarding the protection your credit card company will extend to you however I only have a debit card and so in your opinion would this be equally safe to use?
I am myself aware of checking that the site has padlock symbol on the bottom of the toolbar and that its website starts with `https´ but are there any other checks which would help?
Seán, Brixham

This is an interesting question and one that I had to do a little bit of research on in order to find a satisfactory answer. In terms of the protection offered to you by your debit card company I discovered that unfortunately this is a little less than when using a credit card. Because there is no `credit´ involved when you purchase a good by debit card you are unfortunately not covered by the Consumer Credit Act and therefore if you are trying to retrieve any money off a company then the card issuer isn´t equally liable. With a credit card you would be entitled to claim the money back off the card issuer and they in turn will chase the retailer in order to obtain the money themselves. Although debit cards don´t afford you this protection there isn´t a huge need to worry as in the event of a non delivery, bankruptcy or a fraudulent transaction the financial institutions would claim the money back off the companies merchant bankers who in turn would be left to claim the money back off their clients.

With regards to checking out potential suppliers I would tend to suggest using simple common sense. As you mention; check for the padlock symbol when entering your card details as this means your card details are being securely transmitted but other than that you should be able to do your own research in order to establish how legitimate the company is. I tend to work on a number of factors and so far have never suffered a fraudulent Internet transaction.
- Does the website look professional? I would tend to trust a nicely designed site with my card details rather than one that looks like it was designed by a 5 year old, is riddled with errors and has a large amount of out of date, non rotating stock.
- Check the Internet for reviews of the company you are about to purchase from. Obviously take them with a pinch of salt but a quick search on Google and you should get an idea as to their customer service reputation.
- Install the Google and Alexa Toolbars - Although in no way a guarantee this will show you how important Google ranks a particular page and the Alexa toolbar will show you how popular the site is on the Internet. If Google rate it as PR0 (the lowest available) and according to Alexa no one ever visits it I would be cautious about giving them your card details. If a site has a large number of visitors and it doing a lot more business it is probably a lot safer to assume that they won´t be going out of business before your goods are delivered.
- Check for contact details and try phoning them just before you actually place an order. Be very careful about buying from a site with no phone number unless it´s a name you know you can trust.
- Don´t place too much importance on logos such as `ShopBuy´ and `ICOMMU´ - I have these logos on www.refreshcartridges.co.uk and know that it´s basically just a way for the logo issuers to make money off merchants such as myself. These schemes do very few background checks on a company and are very limited in how they can help should anything go wrong.
- Don´t pay by cheque; you have practically no protection in the event of a non delivery.

The above points are only my own personal methods of shopping online so don´t take them as gospel and whilst to the best of my knowledge the legal standpoint at the beginning of this article is correct, please do check with your debit card issuer. If you want to download last weeks article about protecting your card online or read up about the Alexa and Google please visit www.computerarticles.co.uk

Safe Online Shopping