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10 TIPS FOR BUY ART ONLINE
Before you decide to purchase works of art, some tips for buying art online must be followed. These advises are mainly based on some concepts of reliability and safety when purchasing these kind of exclusive products on Internet.
Online purchases offer some advantages: comfort and speed, 24 hours service, lower prices for cost reduction, experience exchanges with other users, direct access to great catalogues of products and services, etc. In other words, surfing the web is an useful tool if you cleverly have the ability to identify secure and reliable websites of firm companies.
Here you have 10 basic recommendations to identify a safe website, to know its private policy, payment methods, how you can differentiate the most usual quality seals and know your rights, guarantees and ways of complaining as user and consumer.
1. INFORMATION ABOUT THE COMPANY
Please be sure that the website provides information about th company (name, corporate name, NIF, etc).
2 .GENERAL CONDITIONS OF THE WEB PORTAL
Please, first read the purchase conditions and find out the most essential aspects. If you have any question, contact with the company.
3. PURCHASE PROCESS
Firstly, get informed about prices, shipping costs, payment methods, deliveries and general conditions before purchasing. A great e-commerce website must guide the user in the entire purchase process, indicating all the steps to be followed in order to succeed.
Afterwards, do not forget to check all the purchase details.
4. PRIVATE POLICY AND PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION
Companies are required to inform about their data protection policy (LOPD in Spanish - Organic Law of Personal Data Protection), as well as having a personal data file and, undertaking obligations regarding the protection of this data is compulsory.
5. HOW TO IDENTIFY A SECURE WEBSITE (https://)
Check out the website to verify whether it is secure:
- In the address bar you must find "https://". The last -s means that the website is secure, although in some cases you will only find it in Custom Payment websites.
- The secure websites usually show a padlock symbol in the address bar. If you click on this symbol you could check the data of the SSL certificate.
6. SECURE PAYMENT METHODS
Please be sure that the company makes use of secure payment methods. This is a list of the most used methods: payment gateways (TPV), cash on delivery, bank transfer, direct debt, Paypal.
7. ONLNE CREDIT CARD PAYMENT (payment gateways TPV)
Paying online by credit card is a safe payment method. The banking institution is in charge of the payment, not the seller.
Once the user selects the products to be purchased, the website automatically redirects to the payment gateway of the banking institution indicating the total price. Thus, the banking institution website will ask for the credit card data. Therefore, the seller or third parties could not see the bank details and the transaction is safe this way.
8. QUALITY SEALS
The quality seals are granted by a renowned and prestigious company. This enterprise attests that the adhered company undertakes the regulations and codes of conduct and also that it makes the commitment to safely protect the rights and interests of users.
Nowadays, the Spanish National Consumer Institute counts on 3 quality seals:
- Sello de Confianza Online (Online secure quality seal)
- Sello Óptima web (Optimalweb seal)
- Sello de calidad AGACE (AGACE seal)
9. AUTHENTICITY OF THE WORK
It is recommendable to check whether the company provides any certificate of guarantee and authenticity of the work, above all if the price is substantively high.
10. RETURN
Checking that the company provides 7 working days for returning the product is recommended. Be sure that you would only pay the return costs.