This guide will help educate you what to look for when you are purchasing address labels or rubber stamps on the internet. Actually, this guide will educate you in what to look for when you are considering purchasing ANY item from ANY online store on the internet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How fast do you get your address labels? Make sure the company you are considering tells you EXACTLY when you can expect your order. Make sure you know BEFORE you place your order. Did you know that some companies can take from 4 to 6 weeks to deliver your order? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is the guarantee? Find out what the guarantee is and if it is a limited guarantee. Guarantees can vary widely and some have NO guarantee at all. The most common guarantee for labels and stamps are that they will be reprinted only if the vendor makes an error. In most cases, you are required to send back the item to them (you pay the postage) as proof that they made an error. Once they have the item and have verified that they made an error, they will reprint and ship the item to you. This can take another 4 to 6 weeks. Here are two actual guarantee policies from label companies. As you can see, you need to know what the policy is BEFORE you buy. "Guarantee" from one label company All products & services are provided "AS-IS" and without warranty except for as described below: Orders are processed, printed, manufactured exactly as submitted by the customer via forms contained within site and/or any pages thereof. Any misprints or errors due to customer information input will be charged full price for the reprinting or re-manufacturing. In addition, any requested reprints (i.e. repeat orders) will also be charged full price. Misprints or errors made on our behalf will be reprinted/re-manufactured at no extra charge once the entire order is returned to (competitors name) returns department at the contact address provided at this site, within 45 Calendar Days from the original order date. If an order is not returned within 45 Calendar Days from the original order date, (competitors name) reserves the right to return the item back to sender. (competitors name) also reserves the right to deny a reprint/re-manufactured request if the order was not returned within 45 Calendar Days from the original order date and will not be held liable for refunding any monies paid for that order or shipping fees. No credits will be placed towards the customer's account balance, credit card or checking account for return shipment charges on any returned or reprinted orders. "Guarantee" from another label company If we print your labels incorrectly and the mistake is ours we will send replacements without question. You do not need to send the whole batch back - just one label to illustrate the mistake. If you do not notify us within 10 working days, you are deemed to have accepted the item(s) and we shall not have any liability towards you. If you have made a mistake in providing us with the details we can not offer free replacements. Please check carefully the details you send to us, and the order acknowledgement we send you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Testimonials Customer testimonials can be a good measure if a company delivers what they promise and how personalized their service is. It's one thing for a company to tell you how great their service is and what they promise you, its another thing altogether when actual customers are willing to share their positive experiences in a testimonial. Most people will give alot credibility when a friend recommends a company. The same can hold true for testimonials. A customer writing the testimonial really wants people to know what a great experience they had with the company. Companies that get alot of positive feedback from their customers will most likely post them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How secure is the website you are ordering from? Internet security is an important issue for all online consumers. The site you are ordering from should use SSL technology. It is the industry standard and is used by the Giants on the internet such as Amazon.com, Yahoo.com, Target.com, Walmart.com and others. SSL technology encrypts all credit card and personal information until it reaches the vendor you are ordering from. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is your information private or being sold? This issue is extremely important. Some companies make thousands of dollars selling or renting their customer list. Sometimes it is disquised on an order form that asks you to uncheck a box (that is already checked) if you do not want to receive information about "related products". Some companies will actually sell their products for a lower price because the more names they can collect, the more names they can sell or rent to other companies. Make sure that the company states that they do not sell, rent or trade customer information. They should have a customer privacy policy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How is customer service? This one is a little difficult to judge until after you have ordered from a company but still it is important. To judge this BEFORE ordering from a company there are a few things to look at that should give you a pretty good indication if the company has good customer service. Testimonials - the more they have, the better you can judge Guarantee - the better the guarantee, the less your risk of being disappointed. 100% money back guarantee and no charge for redo orders is always the best. Contact info - Make sure they have email contact info or phone number. Although some people prefer to contact companies by phone, we recommend using email. The reason? You have a printed record of when and what you requested. Also, it avoids telephone tag. When you email a company, try to be as specific as possible, so they can send you a specific answer to your question or concern. Your email in most cases should be answered within 24 hours. |
