These are some of the most common online shopping fails, complete with personal anecdotes from those who have survived them.
Not Checking the Return Policy
From fees for return shipping labels to getting e-credits instead of refunds, returns when shopping online are a pain. And since you’re not actually seeing the merchandise in person or trying it on to see if it fits when buying, returns are relatively commonplace when shopping online.
While you don’t have to head to the store to return an item, you may have to head to the post office, print various shipping labels, buy an envelope or box or dig through poorly designed websites to figure out if and how you can complete a return for something you bought online.
Elise, an Indiana resident, experienced this firsthand when she did online shopping hauls at a few stores. One store charged her $7 for a return label to send the item that didn’t fit quite right back for a return, while another vendor only provided her with an e-credit to use online instead of a refund for an item that didn’t work for her. “You have to be careful with the online return policies,” she said. “If I had exchanged the item at the first store, I wouldn’t have had to pay the $7 shipping fee, but since it was a return, I had to pay that extra shipping cost. I should have read the fine print, but some companies make it difficult to find.”
Not Taking Advantage of Cash-Back Offers, Card Category Bonuses or Statement Credits
From Amex Offers to Rakuten to Honey, there are many ways to save when shopping online. Many of the major credit card companies have statement credits or bonus points you can get from clicking through their sites to the retailer, such as Amex Offers, Capital One Offers or Chase Offers. Websites like Rakuten offer cash back for clicking through from its site, and Honey searches for coupons. I, myself, have missed out on getting additional perks and savings by forgetting to check cash back and points options, especially on automatic renewals like yearly Dropbox or Kindle Unlimited subscriptions.
Certain credit cards have bonus categories, whether that be rotating or static, that offer bonus points for shopping at particular retailers within specific industries. David, a frequent online shopper, didn’t realize when he did a major haul for Amazon Prime Day that his Discover it® Cash Back had changed its rotating category cash-back bonus to Amazon and Target in October. He used another card, earning just 1% cash back, missing out on that additional bonus cash back. “I didn’t keep up with the card’s rotating categories—but I’ve learned my lesson,” he lamented.
Not Using Shopping Portals
Many airlines have shopping portals that offer bonus points for clicking through the portal to get to the retailer. Sometimes, around big shopping days like Black Friday, portals offer bonuses with even more points and miles. Using these is easy, with the option to earn extra points on purchases you’d already be making.
Missing Out on Sales
Sometimes, patience pays off, especially when it comes to online shopping. The waiting game is tough because if you wait for prices to drop, your item may not be available—it could sell out or be replaced by a different version. It’s tough to know when the right time is to purchase an item, but waiting for a sale could save you money.
Jason, a New York resident, was setting up his new apartment after a move, ordering furniture and a television. He realized a few weeks after he bought his brand-new TV that it was on sale for 38% off on Prime Day. If he had waited, he could have saved a couple hundred dollars.
“I jumped the gun and bought it too early. I should have waited to see what offers were available on the upcoming Amazon Prime Day. Oh well. Now I know!”
Not Checking the Shipping Address
Who knew a simple address error could result in rotting worm carcasses? It’s easy to simply check out online when your addresses and credit card numbers are saved or entered automatically, but double-checking everything before clicking “Buy” is always a good idea.
When Carrie was a sleep-deprived mom of young children, she decided she wanted to start composting worms. “I ordered the worms online during a late-night nursing session, then kind of forgot about them. A couple of months later, I remembered and thought, what the heck happened to those worms I ordered? I looked into it and realized that I’d paid using PayPal, and I never realized that the worms were shipped to the address my PayPal was registered to—an apartment where we no longer lived. I knew that the landlords had moved into our unit when we moved out but that they were only in town sporadically, so the worms had probably sat in their no-AC foyer for a good long time. I felt bad that the worms had likely perished. On the other hand, our landlords had been jerks to us and had kept our security deposit, so I didn’t mind imagining them coming home to find a box of stinky old worms.”
Ordering From Suspect Companies
Many online companies are scams, so shopping from reputable companies is important. Lisa learned the hard way after ordering $25 wind-up kids’ toys from a video ad she saw on Facebook for her nephew.
“I got two pieces of paper with some printed pictures, plus a rubber band that didn’t remotely resemble the toys in the ad, plus a sheet with Chinese writing, possibly assembly instructions. When I complained to the company and asked to return them, they sent me links to some Chinese language videos that seemed to have nothing to do with the toys and refused to do anything further because they claimed that the videos they’d sent had all the info I needed. Epic fail! I became very skeptical of Facebook ads for unfamiliar companies after that. My mistake was not Googling the company before ordering, since if I’d done so, I would have found numerous reviews saying it was basically a scam,” she told Forbes Advisor.