Hi ,

I would like to know if there is a way to know if a site is honnest
before ordering from it.
For example I plan to order for US$ 1500.00 from a an e commerce site called
www.tocsales.com and I am not sure about their serious.
I will appreciate to know the way how to verify if they are seriuous or not.
I hope that my question is enough clear because my english is short.
Thank you in advance.
Corinne

Hi,

There are several ways to check a site that's been up for a while.

Ecommerce - business Web sites - have the option of joining one of the
"watchdog" programs. Academics call these "trusted third parties."

Seals Of Approval And Trusted Third Parties
The term ‘Trusted Third Parties’ (TTP) refers to a party that provides
some form of external validation and/or assessment of an e-Commerce
site... more than half of the respondents who had yet to make a
transaction online would be more likely to purchase electronically
from sites with a TTP validation. TTP’s can serve as privacy
validators (TRUSTe and BBB Online Privacy), business
credibility validators (BBB Online Reliability, BizRate)... and there
are even those that serve as complete business assessors (WebTrust).

TRUSTe does not rate or verify the trustworthyness of the ecommerce
site. They do assure you that the businesses that have signed up with
them will not make your information available to anyone else without
your permission.
http://www.truste.org/

BBB Online Privacy & Reliability
BBBOnLine's Safe Shopping Site - There are currently 13006 web sites
covered by the BBBOnLine Reliability seal. That's not many compared to
the number of business web sites, but if you find the company here
without any compliants it's probably safe.
http://www.bbbonline.org/consumer/

BizRate
Rates sites by customer reviews
http://www.bizrate.com/ratings_guide/cust_reviews.xpml?mid=24805
They also have a program that allows businesses to be certified after
they consistently get high ratings from customers
http://www.serenityhealth.com/bizrate.html

WebTrust
The sites listed in this index have passed the WebTrust examination by
a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Chartered Accountant, or
equivalent.
http://www.ariba.com/ has a webtrust seal at the bottom of their home
page.

There are a few other programs as well. 

The problem is that many sites don't belong to any of these programs.
many newer sites don't know anything about them. It doesn't mean that
they are not honest.

You can do a search for the name of the store to see if anyone has
registered a complaint against them. In this case it won't work
because they just put the site up - as a matter of fact most of it
still doesn't work.

One way to discover whether a store is on the level is to speak to
other customers. An email to the store requesting contacts to check
their reliability should be understood.

I would have reservations about doing business with a online store
that has a web site that doesn't look finished.

If it were a restaurant with construction going on, would you sit in
it to eat dinner? The web site represents the company. They seem to be
anxious to get sales started, but not concerned about how they present
themselves. That would worry me. Is there any way that you could make
a small purchase to make sure that they actually have merchandise to
deliver before you spend $1500?

The other alternative is to pay with a credit card. If they don't
deliver, you can notify the credit card company and have the charge
deleted from your account.

I would email them and let them know that there are concerns. See if
they will provide some information on other customers that you can
check with... place a small order to start and pay by credit card.

They may be having budget problems that interfere with the website
getting finished due to the low prices they charge.

Test the waters before you spend a lot of money.

search terms: check e commerce ethics reliability

Good Luck,

bcguide-ga

Not really answered because I still did not know if they are serious or not.

The tocsales.com website is not yet an actual e-commerce site. All the
links are simply "request for quote". As this site appears to dealing
in wholesale trade, you should be aware that most consumer protection
law does not apply to business-to-business sales.

A WHOIS search for the owners of the tocsales.com domain name gives:

Touch Of Charm Sales Center Inc., 7448 140th Street, Surrey, BC V3W
5J7 CA (i.e. in Canada). Administrative Contact: Bustos, Erick 
bustos@shaw.ca 7448 140th Street Surrey, BC V3W 5J7 CA Telephone:
604-325-8221

A search for this name on Google provides one link to 
http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/consumers/weblist/direct_seller.txt
"List of Registered BC Direct Sellers" listing a business of a very
similar name operating from 8185 Main St Vancouver BC V5X 3L2

A further Google search for that name and location provides nothing. 

I would suggest that before you deal with this business you take
normal business precautions of eg asking them for a copy of audited
accounts and taking up a reference from their Banker. Although no
guarantee of honesty, if the business has been trading with the same
owners for several years with consistent cashflow and profit, that
provides some reassurance.

Owain

I'd be cautious. Very cautious.  Trust is everything on the Net.

This company does not offer any contact information on their site
except an e-mail address.  That should tell you something.

With a little investigation, you could probably find out more about
them if its out their on the Net, but I would not want to deal with a
company that is not up front about who they are, how long they've been
in business, offering testimonials on their site, make it easy for you
to contact them (phone, fax, physical address, etc.).

Looking at their website, they offer none of this.  My gut instinct
tells me it sounds 'fishy' at best.