Surviving the Web’s Holiday Shopping Season

Shopping online can be so efficient--you find the perfect gift for Aunt Midge, fill in some info and press a button--that it can create the illusion that everything that happens to fulfill your order will proceed with the same computerized smoothness.

But as thousands of online shoppers can tell you from their experiences last year, a lot of mishaps can occur between that final keystroke and actual delivery, especially when companies are unprepared for the holiday e-rush.

I speak from experience--a box of candy I ordered from a California company for a friend in Los Angeles ended up, for still unexplained reasons, at a residence in Fayetteville, Ark. I know this because I had a tracking number on the package. Perhaps it was diverted by a hacker with a sweet tooth.

There are a number of things you can do to make your online shopping experience a successful one. Here are 10 survival tips.

* Shop early. The adage about holiday shopping, preached for decades by the Postal Service and merchants, takes on a whole new importance when you are buying online. To put it quite simply, the earlier you get your order in, the easier it will be to remedy a problem if one arises.

For example, because I had luckily placed that candy order a couple of weeks before Christmas last year, there was still plenty of time to get the candy company to send a box to the correct address.

Also, just like the bricks-and-mortar stores, online emporiums will get crazed as the number of days before the holidays become single digits. You want your gift choice out of the warehouse and into the delivery system before employees start working 20-hour days.

A good rule of thumb is to get on the computer the first week in December to place your orders. If the volume of online shopping is anything like last year or greater, merchants will start to run out of popular products as the holidays approach. And of course if you wait until the last minute, you’ll be paying premium shipping costs.

* Comparison-shop. The main advantages of online shopping are convenience and the ability to easily compare prices from several venues.

You can get some help from a few sites that do comparison shopping for you. Two of the best specialize in consumer electronic products--CNET (https://www.cnet.com) and click on “Latest Prices,” and PriceGrabber (https://www.pricegrabber.com). Both not only show you the range of prices being offered online for hundreds of individual items, they also include reviews of the products.

Both sites also let you know if a distributor has an item in stock, but it’s a good idea to check directly with the merchant before making an order. Especially at this time of year, items can run out before online information is updated.

A more general service is MySimon (https://www.mysimon.com), which compares prices for a wide range of products, including clothing, household items and garden tools. But it specializes more in finding bargains than it does direct price comparisons on specific items.

* Know thy merchant. If a friend had a good experience using an e-commerce site, that’s probably the best recommendation you can get, especially if you hear good things about the site’s customer service if a problem arises.

Apart from personal recommendations, there are several business-rating sites on the Web, a couple of which are especially easy to use. Gomez (https://www.gomez.com) rates online merchants by anonymously going onto a site and evaluating its ease of use and features. Its team also makes “mock purchases” to test the buying process.

BizRate (https://www.bizrate.com) rates a site by gathering information from questionnaires issued to customers who actually bought something there.

* Find a customer-service number. When something goes wrong, nothing beats talking to someone. Most merchants list a customer-service number somewhere on their Web pages although some, such as Amazon.com, make it difficult to find. If you can’t find a phone number, e-mail the site and inquire.

* Check the return policy. Know what it is before you order. In most cases, a merchant’s return policy is spelled out somewhere on its Web site. If you can’t find it or it’s vague, that might be a warning flag. If you really like the merchandise, call the customer-service number to check on the policy.

If the online retailer also has a national chain of bricks-and-mortar stores, ask if a gift bought online can be returned to one of its retail locations. That could make a return far easier for someone receiving your gift in a distant city.

Gap, for example, will accept returns at its stores of goods bought online for up to two weeks for exchange or full refund as long as the customer has the original receipt. If you have a gift receipt, you can still go to a store, but only for an exchange. Online purchases made at Barnes & Noble can be returned to its stores but only for in-store credit. For a full refund, the goods can be returned to an address listed on the site.

* Be security-conscious. Most security experts agree that there is little danger in using your credit card for online purchases. In fact, it’s probably easier for someone in a restaurant or store to copy down your number. But there’s no use taking unnecessary chances.

Your best protection is to make sure you are on a secure site--one that uses encryption technology to protect data such as your personal and credit card information. Most sites make use of this protection when it comes time to enter payment information. You can tell if a page is secure if you see a little padlock near the bottom of the screen (on Internet Explorer, it’s on the right; on Netscape, on the left).

* Figure sales tax. One of the major reasons to shop online is to avoid paying sales tax, but it’s a tricky game. As longtime mail-order customers know, many out-of-state companies do not collect sales tax. Those that do have either a physical presence in the state where items are being shipped, or are complying with a states’ wishes on tax regulations. If you’re buying a big-ticket item, tax can add up.

Many sites have a tax-information page that will show you in which states taxes apply for goods bought from them. Also, if taxes do apply, they should appear on your final statement (see “Get a final bill,” below). Again, if you’re in doubt, call.

* Pay attention to shipping and handling costs. Shipping prices should not be a mystery. Shortly after you reach the point in the ordering process where you type in your shipping address, the site should give you a delivery price. If the figure seems high for the item(s) you ordered, call and ask how they arrived at that figure. (If still not satisfied, you can ask the weight of the package, then call the shipper yourself to get the delivery price).

By the way, there are sites that do not charge for shipping, even for overnight service. Outpost.com (https://www.outpost.com) is one. And as it gets closer to the holidays, some sites will waive shipping costs in an effort to lure shoppers.

I’ve never quite understood handling charges. If you go into a shoe store and a salesperson has to go into the back to bring out your size, you are not charged extra. If a site does charge for handling, you might want to look for the same item on a site that doesn’t.

* Track your tracking number. If given a choice of shipping methods, it’s good to go with one that will offer you a tracking number, although it might not be the cheapest choice.

Airborne Express, Federal Express, United Parcel Service and the U.S. Postal Service’s Express Mail issue numbers so you can track your package’s progress and delivery.

The Postal Service’s Priority Mail tracking number won’t track progress, but it will let you know where and when a package was delivered.

* Get a final bill. Any honorable e-commerce site will present you with a final bill, detailing all charges, before you commit to the purchase. Read this page carefully. Then, before you click on that purchase button, print out a copy.

After you make the purchase, you often will get a confirmation or order number in the form of an e-mail. Print this out, too, and save it.

You never know when you’ll have to prove that box of candy wasn’t supposed to go to Arkansas.