On shopping at online stores

In our restless age, it’s getting harder and harder to trust anyone. Wherever you look, there’s someone waiting to trick you, cheat you, or profit at your expense without lifting a finger themselves. Not getting cheated, and not losing what took a huge amount of effort to earn, is a task for every one of us — and not an easy one at that.

…but…let’s move on from the lyrical detour to the point of this article.

And the point of our article is to warn readers against being cheated by online stores, of which there are now a huge number. It’s long been no secret that buying online works out much cheaper than in a regular shop, and it’s very convenient when you’re always busy. Even so, the fear of buying things this way is still very strong, and not always justified. It’s worth trying it at least once, and after that it will probably start to feel like the normal way of doing things.

Say, for example, you’ve decided to order something for your car from the online store AvtoGSM.ru — an onboard computer, say. Check the payment receipt for the store’s bank details; that’s proof it’s registered with the government bodies that oversee business activity. The bank then credits the money to the store’s settlement account and gives you a payment receipt. That receipt is your main piece of evidence if the store fails to honour its obligations. From this you can draw a logical conclusion: a fake online store has no interest whatsoever in opening a settlement account at a bank.

Many online stores let you order goods cash-on-delivery, meaning you pay for delivery (and that sum, it should be said, is small), and the store ships you, say, a Multitronics RIF-500 onboard computer. At the post office, once you’ve received the item you ordered, you pay for the purchase itself.

Goods sent by courier service or by post are packed in envelopes that are hard to open without leaving a trace. So when you receive the item, check that the packaging is intact. If you suspect the item is damaged, you can open it right there at the post office, in front of a postal employee, drawing up a report on the opening. If there’s damage, you can return the item, and the online store is obligated to exchange it and cover all your losses. Check that there are contact phone numbers, and of course, if the slightest question comes up, reach out for advice straight away.

Many people find the prices at online stores oddly low. It really is odd, but if you think it through and compare with traditional stores, there’s a decent explanation for it. Most online stores have only a warehouse and an office, sometimes just a warehouse, and they don’t need to spend significant sums on renting retail space and the surrounding grounds; customers of online stores browse the goods on offer themselves, so there’s no need to pay salaries to sales assistants. On top of that, online stores have no reason at all to spend money on expensive forms of advertising, especially since those would be of little use anyway. Online advertising, in this case, is both the most effective and relatively cheap.

It’s also worth noting that when hunting for the item you need, you don’t have to drive around dozens of shops, spending a lot of time and money. In this sense, competition with ordinary shops and markets is slight. So buying online has its advantages. The main drawback is not being able to control the whole process from ordering the item to it landing in your hands. Well, as they say, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” So you should make full use of all the conveniences the internet gives us, but approach it sensibly.