I was inspired to write this because of the frequent emails and help desk tickets that I recieve from people who have bought a product and are not sure what it is, how much they have been charged or who to go to when they need support.
I’ve received many emails recently from people who have bought some scammy product from a company (which I have nothing to do with, by the way) and received a charge on their credit card for an amount that they didn’t expect. Because the charge on their card happend to have the word “homebiz” in it, they searched on Google for “homebiz” (a very generic term), found my site at the top and assumed that just because my site had this word in it, they had purchased it from me! I’ve had at least 15 accusational emails like this so far, even though my site does not sell this product and has no mention of it anywhere! !  I also get an email or a ticket every day or two from someone saying that they have bought something, but are not sure what they have bought.
So, here is my list of things you MUST do when buying home business products online:
1) Read the sales literature or watch the video very carefully – make sure that you understand what the product  or service is. If you don’t understand it don’t buy it! Never buy something if you are not sure what it is.
2) Understand Exactly How Much it Costs – ensure that you know exactly how much you will be paying for the product or service. Make sure you know if it is a one time fee or a recurring fee and what the exact amounts are. This information should always be on the payment page. If the company looks like it is deliberately trying to hide something from you, I’d recommend staying away. A good vendor should always state clearly what the charges are.
3) Look at the Refund Policy – check if there is a refund policy and make sure that it is acceptable for you. Most legitimate companies will have some sort of refund policy. A 30 day money back guarantee is ideal.
4) Check out their Support – make sure that the company you are buying from has a support helpdesk, telephone number or email address. If they don’t, how are you going to contact them?
5) Make Sure the Page is Secure – before you enter any financial information e.g. credit card details, make sure that you are on a secure payment page. This is shown with “https://” at the beginning of the URL rather than “http://”. You can also look at their security certificate which is usually viewable by clicking on a little padlock or icon in front of the URL.
6) Take a Note of the Website Address (URL) – you need to write down the website’s URL and the contact information of the site you are about to buy from. (Please take note of this, you people who keep emailing me for support of that homebiz product that is not mentioned anywhere on my site!)
7) Look Out for an Email – most companies will send you an email receipt with download information or login information. You should normally receive this straight away or within a few minutes. If you don’t see it check your spam folder. People with hotmail addresses, these are usually the worst email accounts for not receiving emails, so try something like Googlemail if you want more reliability. If you don’t receive anything within an hour or so, this is the best time to go and raise a ticket on their helpdesk.
Hopefully these 7 simple things will help you to be safer and more organized when buying online. I also like to keep a spreadsheet of everything that I’ve purchased along with costs, support addresses, login information and so on. If I subscribe to something new with a monthly cost, I’ll put a reminder in my online diary a week before the renewal to review this and decide whether I want to keep going with the membership or not. This helps to ensure that I am not paying for things that I don’t find useful.
Let me know in the comments below if you have any other tips for buying home business products safely online. For tried and tested home business products check out my Legitimate Home Business Opportunities page.