Buyer’s Index,
a search engine for
online shoppers, teamed up with two consumer protection organizations to
give buyers an instant view of who’s been naughty and who’s been nice.
“This is a big step toward popularizing electronic commerce,” said Christopher
MacPhail, creator of the Buyer’s Index search engine. “Buyers want to know
which merchants they can trust, but they don’t want to dig for the
information. Now, shoppers can see whether a merchant is in good standing with
BizRate and The Public Eye while they use the Buyer’s Index search engine to
find products.”
BizRate is a collector of customer
service
data for Web merchants. It systematically polls customers after they have
bought from its 60 gold certified merchants and also performs reviews of more
than 400 silver certified merchants.
The Public Eye is a collector of online
merchant reliability data. It tracks a constant stream of feedback from
shoppers who file customer satisfaction reports of their experiences with
3,500 Public Eye Platinum certified merchants. Public Eye also uses undercover
shoppers to confirm the reliability of some 500 Gold certified merchants.
Newton, MA-based Buyer’s Index lists information on 10,000 merchant companies
and helps buyers find specific products by finding key word matches.
All three companies offer consumers free access to their Web sites and offer
free registration for qualifying merchants.
Buyer’s Index now displays BizRate and Public Eye symbols within its merchant
listings. Buyers simply click on the symbol to see that merchant’s reliability
report at the BizRate or Public Eye Web site.
“As a shopper, it’s not enough to know that a site is secure,” said Errol
Smith, managing partner at Public Eye. “Anybody with a hundred bucks to
spare can operate a ‘secure’ merchant site. The main thing is, does the
merchant know what modern customer service is? Is it going to be like doing
business
with L.L. Bean or Lands’ End?”