How to shop from home -- safely

By NANCY PARADIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 21, 2000

The advantages of shopping from home are clear. You can shop when you want, often 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are no traffic or parking problems, no crowds of people or waiting in lines. You're not restricted by geography either, since you can order from other states and even other countries, but, while you may feel safer and more comfortable in your own environment, there are risks from shopping at home.

Friday we printed a quiz on shopping safely from home, the theme of the second National Consumer Protection Week organized by the Federal Trade Commission in conjunction with a number of federal and state agencies and other public and private consumer protection advocates. Sunday's column gave the answers. Today we offer the following tips from "Armchair Armor: Shopping Safely From Home," an informational brochure prepared for National Consumer Protection Week. Check out Tuesday's column for tips on spotting fraud.

For a copy of the publication Armchair Armor, call the FTC's Consumer Response Center at (877) 382-4357 (FTC-HELP) or write to Consumer Response Center, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20580. The quiz is also available at the federal government's Web site: http://www.consumer.gov.

Know whom you're dealing with. Your best protection comes from doing business with companies you know to be legitimate. Don't let a fancy Web site, telemarketer's pressure or a door-to-door salesperson's sincerity guide you. If you don't know the company, check it out with your state or local consumer protection office or Better Business Bureau. Find out where the company is located. It may be harder to pursue claims if it's in another state and impossible if it's in another country.

Protect your privacy. Provide personal information only if you know who's collecting it, why and how it's going to be used. Don't give your computer password to anyone. If asked for your Social Security or driver's license number or other personal information not needed for the transaction, hang up or click off and look for another seller. Give your bank or credit card number only if you're using that account to pay for a purchase.

Think it through. Don't buy on impulse or cave in to high-pressure sales tactics.

Pay with a credit card. Credit cards offer the best protection if the product fails to show up or is not as it was represented.

Check on delivery dates. Keep or print out any information from the company that gives specific delivery times or keep a written record of any promised delivery time. By law, merchandise must be shipped by the time the seller promises or within 30 days after the order date if no delivery time was promised. However, if you're applying for credit to pay for your purchase, the company has 50, not 30 days, to ship your order. If the delivery time cannot be met, the seller must notify you and give you the option of canceling with a full refund.

For magazines and other merchandise that comes periodically, the 30-day rule applies only to the first shipment, and it does not apply to orders for services, such as photo finishing, negative-option sales or plants.

Check shipping and handling fees. Be sure to find out what delivery options you have -- standard/ground, two-day, overnight -- and their costs. If you don't select the delivery method yourself, the retailer may decide for you.

Keep records of your purchases. When ordering by phone or computer, write down or print out the following information: the seller's name, address and phone number; the name of the person you spoke to; a description of what you ordered; the seller's delivery date, terms and return policies. You will need this information if you either don't receive your order or receive the wrong merchandise or have some other problem.

Track your order. If your order doesn't arrive when it is supposed to, contact the company. You have the option of agreeing to wait longer or canceling your order. If you cancel, your money must be refunded within seven days or your credit card account credited within one billing cycle. The company does not have the right to substitute merchandise if you cancel. Note that federal law does not give you the three-day cancellation right for mail, telephone or online orders.

Seek help if you have a problem. If you can't solve a problem with the company itself, contact your local consumer protection office, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service at (800) 435-7352 (HELP-FLA), local state attorney's office, Better Business Bureau or the Federal Trade Commission's toll-free help line at (877) 382-4357 (FTC-HELP).

If you have a question for Action, or your attempts to resolve a consumer complaint have failed, write: Times Action, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or call your Action number, 893-8171, or, outside of Pinellas, (800) 333-7505, ext. 8171, to leave a recorded request for Action. Names will not be omitted except in unusual circumstances. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.