Online sales conundrum
Let me begin this week's submission with this simple question: Have you ever received a substandard product from an online store?
I have. Yes and it has happened to me on more than one occasion.
The first experience was when I purchased food from an online vendor. This was a typical case of what I ordered versus what was delivered!
The online promotion was good and in fact, the store I selected was not based on any recommendations but mainly on the way the vendor had positioned the products.
But what was delivered did not look or taste like what I had anticipated. And on my part, too, the picture had whetted my appetite even more, so you can imagine my disappointment.
Even more worrying to me was the response after I had called the store back to complain about the poor quality of the service. It was simply: "This is a food order and we do not accept returns when we deliver food to customers".
Simply, when you make a food order and you don't like it, you are on your own!
There is this other example too. This time, I wanted to buy some nice shirts from an online store.
This is something that I do very often, especially with retail stores in the United Kingdom. These online platforms are user-friendly and the shopping experience is quite close to physically walking through the shops and selecting the shirts yourself, except that, on this occasion, you avoid the in-store queues at check-outs where you make payment.
My disappointment with buying shirts online came when this particular online store, not UK-based, advertised shirts with cuts far smaller than the standard sizes offered by credible shirtmakers.
So, for instance, I wear size 17 and so I placed my order for that size. However, when the shirts were eventually delivered, they couldn't fit at all, far smaller than the regular size 17 that I buy.
That too became another cost to me and added to my bad experience of utilising online stores to fulfil a need. So which online store?
The answer is pretty simple: Take your time online because it is dangerous out there! Whereas there are legitimate online stores, scammers and fraudsters have also found a way to set up fake websites to dupe unsuspecting customers.
But before I continue, let me make it clear that receiving substandard goods does not mean that the online store is fake. No, that is not the case.
However, it also happens that some legitimate online stores could list "UK sizes" but actually deliver a substandard product.
So, whereas the problems may be linked somehow, it is always important to distinguish between a fake website and a legitimate one delivering a substandard product.
Now, back to the question of which online store and I am going to use the August 26, 2023, edition of this column to explain why you should exercise extreme caution when transacting online.
This issue had the headline "Take your time online" and discussed how copycat websites are set up to deceive patrons.
This is what triggered that write-up. I read a story about how bargain hunters had been misled by fake websites trying to get them to part with money.
This story was about how Wilko, a popular chain store in the UK, had gone into administration and how fraudsters were trying to cash in on the unfortunate situation.
With Wilko in administration, naturally, there was the opportunity for some good bargains as it was closing down. But the fraudsters had other ideas too.
Several fake websites were set up by fraudsters, promising shoppers heavily discounted goods from the collapsed company.
In one report, it was stated that at least one site was attempting to draw people in with a social media post offering a sofa at £4.99, as well as other discounts of almost 90 per cent on some goods, with the promise to consumers that “because there are still a lot of goods piled up in the warehouse, we are going to sell at a super low price”.
Meanwhile, Wilko was not in the business of selling sofas!
In fact, a spokesperson for the administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers had to respond to the scandal as follows: “We have been made aware of several fake Wilko websites which are offering Wilko products at heavily discounted prices. These websites are not genuine and have been set up to scam users". But by the time of this statement, some consumers had already lost money.
This is the sad reality of life online. In times past, it was very easy to notice the “thief” among the lot by observing movements and weird patterns of activities.
Today, you don’t easily see the thief as far as cybercrime is concerned; they just follow the trail of your online footprint, all at your blind side.
Criminals online are always looking at the fault lines, the weakness in the system that could get you to part with your hard-earned cash.
To avoid copycat websites, you must always make sure that you type in the correct website address, making sure that the website address is correct and matches the site you intended to visit.
Most often, the fake websites have similar URLs (the website address) to the original one, but by close observation, you will notice the slight differences, such as spelling errors or a different domain extension (.com, .info, .biz, etc.). Of course, it is not that easy and straightforward at all times.
And what about spotting those offering substandard products online? This is also another difficult one to spot, but if you do a little bit more probing, you will find, within the same space, a note or two reviews from someone about the company's products that did not satisfy the order.
You find this normally in the product review section. However, some scammers are quick to delete adverse reviews from their websites, but there are always other ways of tracking their footprint.
Take your time with online shopping so that you don't lose money in the process. Some credible e-commerce websites use a scoring system to certify online stores.
It may be helpful to use verified stores, but even then, you still have to be careful, as standards can be lowered and copycats can still infiltrate. The watchword always is caution.
