Online shopping is at its all-time high and while the majority of the things you buy are legit, it’s still a good idea to be cautious at times. If you’re trying to buy authentic oriental and Persian rugs from online stores, then you need to keep these things in mind.
Is The Website Safe?
Scammers can get pretty creative nowadays and they can curate websites to make them look legit and real, but you don’t want to fall for this trap. A lot of the time, scammers fail to obtain an SSL certificate. SSL is an indication that the website is secure and safe for inputting for your personal information. You can easily identify whether a website has an SSL certificate or not, by looking at the padlock, next to the URL.
If it is blue, then you’re good to go and if it’s red, then the website isn’t secure at all and you should refrain from even clicking on it.
However, keep in mind that a website that uses SSL doesn’t necessary will be legit as getting SSL certificates is pretty easy. So, look for other hints too.
Read The Customer Policies
You also need to be knowledgeable about the website’s policies and how they treat their customers. Usually, the policies include things like cash on delivery, return policies, and other ways of getting your money’s worth.
No return policy is a huge red flag and you don’t want to purchase anything from this website because it’s probably a scam.
Terms & Conditions – Don’t Skip Them
The terms and conditions, which are more often than not, skipped, can tell you about the legitimacy of a website and the goods people are selling there. For rugs, there can be a lot of room for scams and errors, so you must not be falling victim to this. You always want to read through the terms and conditions, so that if any problem occurs, you can legally claim your rights because it’s mentioned in the document.
Reviews Help A Lot
Reviews are going to help you out a ton, especially if you’re considering buying a rug from an online store. Since rugs, especially authentic ones, can be very expensive, you don’t want to turn a blind eye to the reviews. When you visit a certain website, it’s good to scroll down to the reviews of the products you’re interested in and see what other people think about it.
If the website has no reviews, then it can appear a bit sketchy and it’s better to play safe than to waste your money on a useless online purchase.
Moreover, online reviews on the website of a store can be fake too so only trust reviews of a third-party review site like Google and Trustpilot.
Does The Website Look Legit?
How a website looks and displays products can give away a scam too. If you visit the websites of normal and legit online stores, then you can see how everything is categorized and filtered according to the customer’s preferences. Sketchy websites will probably not have that much attention to detail and they will just throw in all of the products in one window. This is not pleasing to the eye and something would about appear right with the website either.
If a real rug store is trying to sell rugs on an online platform, then they will categorize things according to size, color, material, and so on. There will be a lot of thought put into displaying the rugs.
Be Smart With Information
When placing an order through an online store, it’s normal for the website to ask for relevant information like your name, contact number, address, and mode of payment. What’s not normal is the fact that the website is asking for too much information like your social security number, identification number, driver’s license number, PIN to your credit card, and so on.
These things are not relevant at all, even when you’re opting for advance payment so it’s better to keep these websites at bay and not give out any personal or too sensitive information.
Take The Right Measurements
The biggest dilemma with online rug purchasing can be the sizing. You need to be smart about the dimensions of your rug and what you’re looking for. So, before even thinking about buying a rug online, you must measure the available space first because the last thing you need is getting a rug that’s too big or too small for your space.
Also, read the description and the size specifications of the rug before buying to ensure that it fits the dimension bracket of your space.
Find Authentic Stores
If you don’t want to get duped by an online rug scam, then it’s better to do some research and find stores that specifically deal in the online selling of authentic rugs of all kinds. There are a lot of physical stores that have online platforms for selling different kinds of rugs and you want to go for those stores, in general.
They are going to have a better track record and even if something goes wrong, which rarely ever does in authentic stores, you can easily visit the physical store and show them your online purchase details and get everything sorted out.
Don’t Be Tempted By Sales
Rugs are seldom on sale, so you don’t want to get blindsided by the misleading “buy 1, get 1” and “50% off” sale slogans because all of these things are just gimmicks to get you to click on a certain website. Rugs are an expensive splurge and they are never usually on sale or have promotional offers so it’s better not to fall for this trick, and even if there is a sale, it won’t be on authentic Persian and oriental rugs.
Synthetic rugs and machine-made rugs can be on sale from time to time, but the same can’t be said about authentic woolen and silk ones.
The Description Is Important
A lot of the time, the way a description is written can give away the authenticity of a rug. Usually, professional descriptions of rugs can be very alluring and they attract multiple buyers, whereas scammers will use tricks to make the description look convincing, but the right skilled eye can catch onto this dupe pretty fast. Scammers will exaggerate the qualities of the rug in the description.
So, whenever you’re buying a rug from an online store, it’s best to scroll down to its specifications and have a look at the product description. It will give you a good idea of whether the website or the rug is legit or not.
Ask Your Circle
This is slightly different from reviews, but just as helpful. Do you have someone in your family or friend circle who has bought a rug from an online store recently? Well, ask them about their experience and share your thoughts.
It’s always a good thing to have someone close to you buy something from an online store (if they are willing), so it will be the best and no-filtered review of the purchase. If the thoughts are convincing and there wasn’t any problem with the purchase, then you can easily proceed as well.
Conclusion
Scamming is just as normal as online shopping nowadays and you want to protect yourself and your money from getting into something sticky. That’s not to say that every online rug store is fake. There are authentic ones out there too that have a variety of genuine traditional and antique rugs VA. You just need to do your research.
