7 Essential Tips When Shop From Overseas (Online Store)

Think it’s easy being a smart consumer – 7 essential tips when buying from overseas store will help you stay focused and not get ripped off! Further more, being a smart consumer enables you to react effectively if a product you purchase doesn’t live up to your expectations.

Certainly there are a lot more than just 7 essential tips when buying from overseas online store but here is some of the most important common sense advice you can receive. Read and pass it on! Your own list of tips and advice will no doubt grow as you continue to purchase goods from overseas.

Here are the Tips:

1) Know before you buy: Sounds crazy, but just because you “heard” some product is all the rage doesn’t mean a whole lot if you don’t know how it works. Ask questions and gets the specifics about purchasing terms and conditions. Many reputable product sales sites on the internet even come with 24 hour customer assistance in case you have questions. Being a smart consumer means asking questions and getting answers!

2) Hidden costs and small print: If you don’t understand about currency conversion then it’s time to learn! Taxes, insurance and currency conversion can add up and actually change the price of the product you want to purchase. And keep an eye out on delivery costs. A lot of tack-on/add-on charges are included in the purchase agreement, but the print is so small you can glance right over it. Buyer beware!

3) Arrival date: Generally you have 7 days after the purchase of your product to change your mind. Make a note of when you made the purchase and when it arrives in the mail. I’m not saying this is going to happen to you per se, but some companies actually ship late so by the time the product arrives the 7 day grace period has already expired.

4) Contact address: Another “fine print” issue. The warehouse or company you purchase from may not be the same location as the customer service office. They are not necessarily one and the same. So if something goes wrong and you pursue the issue at the wrong address and with the wrong individuals you are just wasting your time. Being a smart consumer means at the outset, get a name, a number and an e-mail address of the customer service liason and make sure that information is current.

5) Product quality: In other words, does the product you’re purchasing come with a money-back guarantee? Does it have a warranty to guarantee repair if it gets broken? Generally the warranty last 2 years. However, be aware that if you are seeking a repair, the shipping costs back to manufacturer come out of your pocket.

6) Get Protection: Protecting yourself can come in many forms. But the best way as a smart consumer is by making you have credit card insurance through your bank. All it takes is one overseas product purchase gone bad and before you know it you’re seeing all sorts of purchases appearing on your credit card statement. Credit card protection through your bank or whoever issued the card will make sure you are not the one getting charged for purchases you want no part of. Another way of protecting yourself is by making copies of receipts and other paperwork.

7) Problem response: So you purchase that new electric can opener that also doubles as an mP3 player and it only plays music and doesn’t open any cans. Now what?

a) Stop using the product and DON’T try to fix it

b) Write up a statement of when, where and how the problem occurred – stop using it.

c) Break out your receipts and warranty information.

d) Contact the seller and explain the problem and make sure you enclose copies of applicable paperwork. If you’re sending an email you’ll need to scan your receipts and other documents and attach them as a file.

e) Wait for a response. Based on whether or not you received a replacement item or got your original repaired or received no help at all, you’ll have to make a decision to either cut your losses or pursue legal action. And that will probably cost more than what you paid for the product in question

So there you have it! The 7 essential tips when buying from overseas online store that will help you stay focused and not get taken advantage of!

Remember, being a smart consumer enables you to react effectively if a product you purchase doesn’t live up to your expectations. As you can see, there are probably a lot more than just the tips mentioned above when buying from overseas but these are some of the most effective methods for protecting yourself.

Being a smart consumer means not being scares to purchase from overseas. But it also means being smart enough to respond if the transaction does go the way you anticipated.