Story Created:
Nov 3, 2009 at 7:16 AM CST
Story Updated:
Nov 3, 2009 at 7:34 AM CST
(November 3rd, 2009)
Main Topic: It’s not to plan your online/catalog holiday shopping.
Online shopping will be more costly for many Americans this holiday season. New laws in New York, Rhode Island, and North Carolina will force retailers to collect state sales taxes for the first time on purchases from Internet and catalog sale retailers.
The overriding problem your BBB sees each year in regards to online shopping is late deliveries and non-deliveries. According to Federal Trade Commission laws, online and catalog companies must deliver items within 30 days of when the company receives an order. This ‘right’ is automatic unless the merchant states a different delivery time frame such as “allow six weeks for delivery”, etc. If the merchant finds it cannot make the delivery within those 30 days, it must inform the customer and give him the option of waiting or of canceling the order. Unfortunately, this is rarely done. With this in mind and a look at the calendar we see that in order to get our merchandise in time for Christmas, we must place our order by November 24. If you send in a written catalog order you have to add the time for the order to reach the company, another week at least.
What about scams? There are plenty. Make sure that when you are at a website that it is the correct site. Many schemers copy legitimate sites hoping to catch you and your money. Always check out companies at www.bbb.org. If there is a BBB report make sure the URL you are going to matches what’s in our report. In a future column we will discuss shopping tips and concerns when buying from local stores.
Scheme of the week: Schemers Attempt to SELL high BBB ratings
Businesses across the country have received calls from a company called "Reliable Ratings" offering them preferred BBB listings on the Internet. This is a scam. One company in Houston was charged $1,600 for the service and then within two weeks it was charged $2,774 twice and $3,995. In our local area, two accredited businesses have received such calls and fortunately, contacted us immediately. It seems that using our BBB name to perpetrate scams is a growing problem. Now it seems that our new rating system is creating yet more opportunities for schemers.
