Web Site Warning Signs
In the course of working on an online shopping story with Consumer Reports' ShopSmart magazine, a shopping-for-charity site, http://www.alonovo.com, lost the opportunity to be recommended.
These are the reasons why:
1. No phone number, just an e-mail address. The phone number of their PR firm that handles them has been disconnected.
2. Alonovo's FAQ, refreshingly candid, says: "Q) This seems pretty
primitive. There isn't enough corporate data yet, and the shopping
experience could be improved. Do you have any plans to make this a better
experience?"
3. The home page says, "We will share a minimum of 50% of what we get
on your purchase ..." but the FAQs and elsewhere say, "We donate a
minimum of 20% of revenue to a non-profit of your choice (40% with active
partners) ..." There may be a distinction between revenue and 'what we get'
but we didn't get an immediate answer to that question in an e-mail.
Sometimes online we all want to believe that we're dealing with an above-the-board Web site, and alonovo could very well be a fine shopping-for-charity site. But it's hard to recommend it in these circumstances. One possible alternative is BuyForCharity.com (http://www.buyforcharity.com) of Austin, Texas.
It's got a load of the top-brand online stores, the merchants pay a 35 percent commission to the charities on purchases, there's a mega-load of charities, and it has a clean BBB record (I checked -- http://www.centraltx.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=90012382).