The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Travis. Travis is a customer blogger for Care One Debt Relief Services, and also appears weekly at Enemy of Debt. Travis candidly shares his personal journey to pay off $109,000 of credit card debt and the tips he’s learned along the way. As a father and husband he provides a unique perspective on balancing debt, finances, and family.
Online shopping is big business these days.
It’s even inspired a new phenomenon in recent years called Cyber Monday when savvy online shoppers start their holiday shopping the Monday after Thanksgiving. I’ve done my share of online shopping, and can’t disagree with the convenience of searching, price comparing, ordering and having the item delivered to your doorstep all without leaving the comfort of your own home.
However, as my son found out recently there are things consumers need to be wary of when they shop the cybermall.
Last summer, my son saved his lawn mowing earnings and bought an entry level gaming computer. Over the last year, he’s continued to save his money in order to upgrade his system with items such as a new monitor, headset with microphone, and upgraded graphics adapter. All of these items he researched himself and ordered online so I didn’t think much of it when he approached me asking to order a gaming mouse.
The specially designed mouse cost $59.99 with an additional $9.99 tacked on for shipping. Once it arrived, I could tell immediately as he started using it that he didn’t like it. It was bigger than a standard mouse, and he found it uncomfortable. After a weekend of using it, he was sure he wanted to send it back. I opened up a support ticket with the manufacturer, and received authorization to send it back. The return authorization was good for three weeks, so we decided to order a replacement mouse that he was sure would be better, ensure that he liked that one, then send the original mouse back.
We ordered the new mouse, which also cost $59.99, plus $6.98 for shipping. Thirty minutes after getting mouse #2, I knocked on his bedroom door to see how he liked it. Seeing the mouse unplugged laying on his bed answered my question. “I think I’ll keep the first mouse, Dad. This one feels weird. Plus I’ve gotten used to the first one anyway.”
The next day I shipped the second mouse back to the manufacturer.
When I returned home, my son and I had a discussion about the lessons learned from our great mouse adventure.
Make Sure You Know What You’re Getting
The initial complaint my son had with the first mouse was that it was too big. The complaint about the second mouse was that it was an odd shape. It’s reasonable to believe that he may not be able to tell 100% whether the mouse would be comfortable in his hand until he was able to physically hold it. However, I also doubt that he looked at the dimensions or specifications of the mouse to see how truly big it was before he ordered it. He was more enamored with the button placement, and the fancy lights on the product. I suggested that before we order anything else online we do as much research on the product as possible to give us the best chance of being happy with the product.
Shipping Isn’t Always Free
Many retailers will offer free shipping when your order exceeds a certain amount. During the holiday season, free shipping is even more common. Unfortunately, the two retailers we dealt with here made no such offers. Because my son was not satisfied with the product he ordered, he had to pay multiple shipping charges for multiple items to be shipped to our house.
Beware Of Restocking Fees
Both manufacturers boasted a money back guarantee. However, once we started down the path of returning the second mouse, we found that there was a 15% restocking fee. That’s $9 that we just flat out lost.
Return Shipping Fees
In addition to the restocking fee, the shipping fee to return the product came out of our pocket. Shipping the mouse through the United States Post Office with insurance and tracking cost $12.95.
First Impressions Aren’t Always Right
My son didn’t like either product right out of the box. He didn’t give the second product a chance, but after two weeks of using the first mouse, he became used to it. In fact, now that it’s been almost two months he actually likes it a lot and is glad that he decided to keep it.
Know The Return Policy
Had we known that the return shipment was our responsibility, as well as the restocking fee, we may have been more diligent in our product research before ordering anything.
Finally, I totalled up for him the extra fees that he had to pay for due to ordering two products and returning one:
- $6.98 to ship the second mouse that we ended up returning
- $9 restocking fee of the second mouse
- $12.95 return shipping cost
Total: $28.93
I could see the wheels turning in his head, as we both realized that due to the fees of ordering and returning the second mouse, he ended up paying almost $100 for one he kept.
That’s an expensive rodent.
Shopping online definitely has it’s benefits. Not only is it convenient, but products can be purchased that may not be available locally to some consumers. But there are still pitfalls that consumers need to be aware of, or they may end up dropping their hard earned cash down a mouse hole.
How about you all? How much shopping do you do online? Have you ever had to return something, only to find out it was going to cost a significant amount of money to do so?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Image courtesy of marin at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
