Womaz.com Online Shopping: Help

Womaz Help

Privacy
Any personal information you submit to Womaz.com will not be shared, sold, or disclosed to third parties except when required by law. However, some of the companies whom you'll find listed on our site may have different policies to our own and, therefore, if you're concerned, you should check the privacy policy of a site before providing any personal information.

You'll usually find that most commercial retail sites have a privacy policy that is very easy to find, often within the "Help" section, or on a separate page. If you're not happy with what you find then you should shop elsewhere; most reputable merchants that care about their customers will not sell or share your personal information, but it's always worth checking.

Cookies
Cookies are very small, simple text files that are stored on your computer and, contrary to the belief held by some, cookies are perfectly harmless. In fact cookies are essentially your friend, helping websites to customize their site for you (displaying local weather for example, or showing different news for different geographical locations). Although any website can create its own cookie, only the website that created the cookie (and you) can read it. For example, Amazon.com cannot read a cookie on your system created by Barnes & Noble, it can only read Amazon.com cookies.

There are websites and advertisers that use cookies to track the display of their advertisements. This is often mis-interpreted to mean that they are tracking you; they are not. At worst, a few companies may try to figure out the sites where your browser has taken you, so they can better target their advertisements, but they do not know any personal information (ie. your name or e-mail address etc, etc) about you. Generally speaking, you're simply a number to them.

Contact Us
We're always pleased to hear your comments, and you can contact us using the form provided at the following link: Womaz Contact.

My Order Hasn't Arrived!
We empathise with you if, for whatever reason, an order you've placed with a store has not arrived, but the best assistance we can provide is to say that you should check with the site you actually placed the order at. Womaz is simply a middle-man, directing visitors to relevant sites where they can purchase goods. We do not sell products ourself (yet). However, some tips:

If you have an order reference number then make sure you quote it in any communications with the company involved - it generally speeds things up.
Don't respond to the confirmation e-mail (unless it says you can), since these are usually produced automatically, and often will not have a real mailbox (or a real person) on the other end to read your reply. Instead, check the website for their Contact Details section - you'll probably want the number, or e-mail address of Customer Services.
As annoyed as you may be, try to be a little patient. Yes, they should have delivered your order on time, but there can sometimes be circumstances beyond their control … but do be persistent.
If you think you've been conned, and you can get no response from the company and your order has not arrived, then (if you paid by credit card) contact your credit card company and try and get a refund. It may take a while, but will be worth it. If you paid by check ("cheque" for UK residents) then contact your bank, and if the check has not already been cashed then cancel it.
As much as you may want to scream and shout down the telephone, or write obscenities in a complaint to said company, then at least wait until you've either received your order or got your money back … they, like you, are human, and respond best when not antagonized … And, when you have got the problem resolved, your best recourse is simply to tell other people not to shop there. Stores don't like that!

Even More Help!
Occasionally you may want some bigger and better help in dealing with retailers, and for that you need a consumer advocate organization of one kind or another. There are many, but searching Google for "consumer organizations" will pull up a number of relevant sites, and the following link to Google's directory page of Consumer Advocacy and Protection is also helpful. Residents of the UK will find the ConsumerComplaints website useful, and it allows you to contact your local Trading Standards Service: their site is located here: ConsumerComplaints.org.uk.

Please feel free to suggest other helpful consumer advocate sites. If we think they're useful then we can post them here for other visitors.

Security
While not specifically related to this site it is, none-the-less, a good opportunity to recommend a few general Internet safety tips:

Whether your browser of choice is Internet Explorer or one of the several others, try to ensure you have the latest version. The more recent the version, the more secure it's likely to be, and the less chance there is that malicious websites can take advantage of browser security flaws. The following sites provide downloads of their most recent browsers: • Internet Explorer • Netscape Browser • Opera Browser • Firefox Browser
Don't provide any of your personal details unless you absolutely have to. Even when you have to, provide the bare minimum.
When you shop online you'll likely have to provide at least your credit card details and your name and address. However, some sites now allow you to store your information at their site for ease of use the next time you visit - resist the temptation. For the sake of saving an extra couple of minutes re-typing in your credit card details the next time you visit the site, it's simply not worth it. You'll often find a checkbox to let you "not save" your details. It's a good idea to use it.
Do not provide your Social Security Number (SSN) to any website. Many scam sites try to obtain your details under false pretences, but if you keep a mind-set that you'll never provide it to anyone, anytime, anywhere, then you'll not be their next victim.
If your e-mail program (Outlook Express, for example) allows you to receive e-mail as "text-only", then do it. This will prevent malicious HTML/Script e-mails from trying to wreak havoc on your system. If you receive mail only in plain-text, then the chances of becoming a victim are greatly reduced. In Outlook Express you can select the Tools menu item, and then Options, and then the Read tab. Then click on the checkbox next to the "Read all messsages in plain text", and make sure that it is ticked.
Don't open e-mail attachments from anyone you're not expecting one from. Even if you know the sender, be wary; their own computer could have become infected and may be sending malicious e-mail without them even knowing.
If an offer, on a website, or in an e-mail, sounds too good to be true, it probably is …
While there may be some excellent free software available on the Internet, the fact is that until you've downloaded it you'll rarely know whether it's safe or not. Even if it looks like it is behaving properly, it could easily be recording your keystrokes in the background, or something much worse. Malicious software usually appears to be non-malicious! Instead, as boring as it may sound, download only from reputable sites, such as Microsoft (Microsoft.com), Download.com (Download.com), or the downloads section of somewhere such as PCWorld.com (PC World Downloads).
Get a free e-mail account at Yahoo or Google (Google Gmail) using a made up nickname that you'll remember, and use it when possible whenever when you need to provide it for site log-ins etc, or for the various offers that abound. If you can avoid using your real name, then do so.
Change your passwords regularly. Always use at least six characters, preferably numbers and letters, and if possible use punctuation as well. The longer the password the more difficult it is for someone to guess, and the longer it would take for any automated process to crack it. Long passwords, changed regularly = good!
Use different passwords on different websites. That way, if someone hacks one of your accounts, it's unlikely that they'll be able to hack the others.
Get a good anti-virus program installed. It does not protect you from all the bad things out there, but it does protect you from many. Norton Anti-Virus (at Amazon.com) and also at Amazon UK is possibly the best of the many anti-virus programs available.
Don't download free screensavers, free weather monitors etc, etc. While some are probably quite innocuous, many screensavers and the like are designed by hackers specifically to gain access to your system and cause mayhem. Maybe the one you downloaded recently seems to be ok … or is it? The fact is that it's very hard to know, and it could easily be recording passwords, harvesting e-mail addresses, or even worse, without you even knowing. Stay safe, and stay away from free software, unless it's from a reputable, well documented and respected source.

The bottom line (almost literally) is this. Each time you surf the Web, or are connected to the Internet, someone, somewhere, somehow, is trying to get your personal information or hack into your computer. That's a fact. It's worth remembering!

The Internet can also be a lot of fun, and there are a lot of nice folks out there too. By being careful, and by "thinking before clicking" you'll ensure that both you and your computer stay safe out on the wild Web.

Linking to Womaz.com
If you'd like to provide your own website visitors with a link directly to the security information above, then the following code will do exactly that. Simply copy and paste into your blog or webpage:
… or if you'd like to link to any of our other pages then we'd be very happy for you to do so. A link to our home page would look like this: