TECH SUPPORT: The holiday byte
Last year was the breaking point. It was another year just like the rest. Countless hours in the local shopping malls, scurrying back and forth looking for a gift that would have even one cent of the meaningful suggestion, “I saw this and I thought of you.” Need I mention the practice of western origami, aka wrapping presents? Man I hate wrapping presents.
This year in effort to not repeat season of the past, I figure I am faced with two alternatives. One, join a culture that omits practicing Christmas, or two, come up with a better way of carrying out this year’s goodwill. Considering I’m a bit on the greedy side and don’t mind receiving presents, I’ll have to go with number two. My better way is to go totally online this Christmas season. Yes, I know this isn’t exactly a revolutionary idea, but I figured it would be one others would share with me this season.
While shopping online has the benefits of avoiding nearly all of the pre-mentioned, it does have certain drawbacks. Fraud, credit card theft, and outrageous delivery times are just some of the evils floating about the Internet. With the practice of certain precautionary steps, we can avoid these lumps of coal and stock the base of those Christmas trees better than that overweight guy in a red, leisure, jumpsuit could ever imagine.
The first step is to buy from who you know and trust. Of course you are not going to be able to get sociable with most of these vendors, sometimes not even over the phone. There are many ways to help you get to know a company. Most companies post their Security and Privacy Statements. Read through these and ensure they have your consumer safety in mind.
Another aspect of this is to find out if other consumers have had good experiences with the vendor in question. Resources such as the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) and Trust-e (www.truste.org) are available to help you see if a vendor has had any complaints filed against them. Other kinds of resources worth perusing include Epinions.com, Consumer-Reviews.com, and ResellerRatings.com, these sites help to rate the vendor’s average performance with comparison scales, such as 1 to 10.
The second step to safe Christmas bliss is to verify you are in a secure environment before you make any transactions. When processing transactions with your credit card, ensure you are in an encrypted site. Encryption, for lack of a better word, scrambles your credit card number and information across the Web. You can verify this by looking at the URL or the address. An encrypted environment will begin with https://, as opposed to http://. The extra ‘s’ stands for secure. It is also denoted by a locked “lock pad” in the browser icon field. Never ever, ever, ever give your credit card number over e-mail. Not only is the person requesting it probably a little on the shady side, but e-mail generally has no encryption and goes out to the Web completely readable by whoever may cross its path.
Just as important is the method of your payment, uses of credit cards or payment services are generally the best alternatives. Visa’s Zero Liability policy virtually eliminates consumer liability in cases of card fraud for all Visa card transactions — namely online purchases (one should not assume this is a general policy and check with your card provider). Certain vendors also offer benefits, discounts and buyer rewards for using credit cards because they are also protected through the transaction by similar services.
VeriSign (www.verisign.com), BidPay (www.bidpay.com) and the highly recommended PayPal (www.paypal.com) are payment services which provide a convenient, secure bridge in the transaction between consumers and vendors. These services allow a consumer to pay with other accounts, such as checking and savings, but to reiterate, still have the same security benefits.
The last step would be to keep track of your Internet purchases. With almost all online purchases, a confirmation of your order is immediately e-mailed to you. If you don’t receive this confirmation in a timely manner you should start searching for answers. Problems with online purchases can delay your receiving time almost exponentially, and it is imperative you remedy them quickly. Also keep track of your purchases for any discrepancies. Just as ostensibly competent cashiers can make mistakes, so can online checkouts.
If you follow these steps, undoubtedly you will bring plenty of Yuletide to your holiday season. Aside from the joy you’ll bring others, your bottom line will appreciate it as well. Online purchases are almost directly associated with lower cost. Chances are you’ll have a little extra to ring in the New Year. Not that my true motive of online shopping is to save money and in turn use it on an illustrious trip to Vegas for New Year’s Eve … or is it?
Zach Howes is a senior majoring in computer science. Comments can be sent to helpdesk@cc.usu.edu.