I consider Alter Ego Comics to be a legitimate business. Anyone can setup a website and sell stuff, but not everyone can open a physical location, staff it, have a customer service phone number, pay the rent, utilities, taxes, etc. Those are the signs of a legitimate business.
Another sign of running a business that's on the "up and up," is not accepting orders for a product until it's been officially solicited by the manufacturer. For example, we just received the official solicitation information for the Hot Toys Dark Knight 1:6 Scale Batman (Sonar) MMS DX action figure. It's being distributed in the United States by DC Direct. Many websites have been accepting orders for this item for months, but they had no confirmation of the price, the release date, nor how they were going to get it from outside of the United States. We chose to wait for confirmation, (as we always do), from DC Direct before listing it.
As with any business, you should always research who you're buying from to make sure that they're "legitimate." It's our responsibility as business owners to provide our customers with accurate information and the best customer service. If you have any questions, please give us a call at 419-224-6700, Monday-Friday, from 10am-5:30pm, eastern time. We'd be happy to talk to you.
2 comments:
I don't understand. You're claiming that stores that have no bricks and mortar behind them are not legitimate? It says right on your site (http://www.alteregocomics.com/store/customer/help.php?section=FAQ) that you started the website in 2003 and opened the online store in 2005. In those intervening two years, did you sell anything? If so, aren't you being a bit, unnecessarily, hypocritical?
Brad - An online only business can absolutely be called "legitimate," and, yes, when Alter Ego Comics was online only, we did lots of business. (Perhaps 'legitimate' was a poor choice of words.)
My intention was to call attention to online only AND brick and mortar businesses that have no contact phone number, will only accept email orders and sell things way below retail. As a consumer, (and a retailer), those are warning signs to me to avoid those guys.
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