You would really be shocked at how many innocent shoppers fall for electric scooter scams everyday on the internet.
Whether its buying a generic rip-off or buying from an un-reputable seller, there are too many mistakes that you can make as an ill-informed buyer.
Most of the electric scooter scams on the net are "partial scams", meaning that there is a product for sale but its either of very bad quality, or there is no after-sale service available for the product.
Usually, this is the case with sellers that aren't established, or importers that bring in cheap scooters from overseas just to resell them at a cheap price as fast as possible.
The chase for the quick buck...
it hurts the consumer and the good sellers that don't want the industry's reputation to be tarnished.
Here are some ways that you can avoid getting ripped off when shopping for electric scooters: 1) Never buy from an auction site.
Unfortunately, there are just too many sellers that are fraudulent and/or looking to make a quick buck on auction sites.
Even though you might find a reputable seller, its quite rare.
Infact, auction sites are the favorite hangouts for people looking to sell their electric scooters as cheap as possible without any concern for quality or service.
2) Shop from an established website.
You can check how established a website is by starting with the Alexa traffic rank and Google Pagerank.
Although these measures shouldn't be used as absolute criteria, it gives you an idea of how trafficked and how popular the website is, which can be a prerequisite for credibility.
You can easily learn more about Alexa and Google Pagerank by doing a quick search.
3) Check the company name behind the website.
This is important.
Are you buying from an individual, or are you buying from a legitimate business? Many times, mom & pop stores aren't bad, but you need to make sure that they have a registered business at the very least, which indicates that they are serious about what they're selling.
4) Do they have a phone number and email address? These are an absolute must.
A toll-free number is even better, because it really shows professionalism.
Shoot the website an email asking some questions about the electric scooter you're interested in, and see how fast they respond.
Otherwise, give them a call and get a feel for the company.
At a minimum, response time to emails and phone messages should be 24 hours excluding weekends.
5) Are they members of any reputable service or bureau? Some good places where businesses and websites should be registered are: Better Business Bureau, Better Internet Bureau, Geotrust, Verisign, Validated Site, and Paypal Verified.
6) Is the website design clean and free of spelling and obvious grammar mistakes? 7) What brands do they carry? You can quickly do a search on the internet for the brand-name to see how popular it is and if there are reviews available.
Some good brands for electric scooters are: X-treme, Bladez, Razor, Schwinn, & Mongoose.
8) Are they authorized dealers for the brands they're selling? Being an authorized dealer is important, because it means that you'll be able to receive support from the manufacturer for your scooter.
It is risky to shop from un-authorized individuals.
The above 8 points will help you narrow down a reputable seller, which will help you avoid scams when shopping online.
Make sure to do your homework, and you'll be happy with the electric scooter you've bought.
If problems do come up, you know that the seller will be there to help.