Make sure you’re shopping smart this holiday season for your loved ones with these expert tips:
- If you are unfamiliar with the company you are shopping with, do a search online with the company’s name plus words like review, complaint, or scam, to see what other people are saying.
- Avoid the urge to click links that pop up in social media. These often advertise a very attractive price for hard-to-find products… but many times they are not legitimate websites.
- Don’t send money via P2P (person-to-person) to an unknown seller. There’s no guarantee you’ll get the merchandise, only that the money will be transferred immediately.
- Read the fine print to be sure you understand the merchant’s terms and conditions, including their refund policy.
- Be mindful of items being shipped from a foreign country. Items may take much longer to arrive, and if they are held up in Customs it’s your responsibility to retrieve them.
So, what do you do if you have a bad online shopping experience? Maybe you ordered one thing but got another. Or that new company never shipped your order, despite charging you.
- Contact the seller. Most businesses will work with you to resolve the problem.
- If you need to contact the merchant, go directly to their website instead of searching for a customer service phone number.
- Contact your card issuer, if you made the purchase with a credit or debit card, to see if you have dispute rights.
- Always save your receipts and confirmation emails. If something goes wrong, these can help you get your money back from the seller or file a dispute with your credit card company.
- Save all correspondence with the seller. Email, text, or direct messages with the seller are helpful if the purchase has to be disputed.
Additional resources about safe shopping can be found in our online Security Center.