So were do you start? – The contact us page is a good place, I always look there first and check to see if there is an address I can visit, this is a good thing to do because if you need to go looking for the company then your going to need to know were there are! – Also if the address is based on an industrial estate it is more likely to be a legitimate company.
The next thing I look for is a landline telephone number, this to me proves they don’t have anything to hide, we have a 0800 number but we also display our landline number which begins 01535, and numbers that begin with 08 are often diverted to a mobile which makes them harder to track down.
Look for the company registration number and VAT number, although not essential items, these numbers mean you can actually check when the company was formed, so if your reading the text on the home page and they claim to have been in business since 1994 and when you check with companies house to see if they have, and if the search returns anything other than what they claim be aware! – we have been trading since April 2004 and in business terms are still young, but it shows that we have been trading for nearly four years at the time I write this (Feb 08) & shows we have several years experience to fall back on.
Other things I look for when deciding to buy from an internet company; are they members of safe shopping schemes, such as ISIS (Internet Shopping Is Safe), these schemes have been set up to protect you as a customer, when we applied for our membership we had to provide our company registration number and VAT number, Data Protection Number and all whole list of other things which can be found here. These schemes give an internet retailer credibility and goes to show that we take your custom seriously, but moreover it means you have piece of mind when your passing your hard earned money over, the company will deliver what you ordered and that your card details are safe.
I also use my gut feeling, after checking out the prices and comparing them, I then normally choose the site with the most credibility, it doesn’t always boil down to price, and it depends on what your buying, just remember that those underfloor heating cables may be under your floor for a long time and you need to know that those cables are going to be reliable and the company you bought them from is still going to be about in the future and stand by you in the unlikely event of a problem.
Choosing the cheapest supplier isn’t always the best thing to do, it is generally true that “you get what you pay for” these days.
