Site Policy

Understanding the Site Links  and Advertisements. 

Unlike many web sites Colorado Springs Online Business Directory is actually 3 sites in one. 

http://ColoradoOnlineBusinessDirectory.com/ = Is a directory list of local Businesses which are registered with the Better Business Bureau.  Address, Telephone and BBB certificate reports can be viewed by the public.  With a single click of the "Map it" button directions to the Business takes only seconds. If the Business has a web site the web site may also be published.  Additionally if the Business wishes they may display monthly discounts or specials.

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http://preferredBuys.com/ =  Is a new concept store which is now being researched.  The store will sell Products at truly amazing low prices.  The store will only list one product each week to help drive customers to learn about http://ColoradoOnlineBusinessDirectory.com/ .  These products will often be below wholesale prices. After week one the product will be pushed to a second product page.  At the end of Week 4 the product will be removed.  This will allow a maximum of 4 products to be displayed at any given time.  An example of the products is the Delonghi MAGNIFICA Beverage Machine.  The retail price is $1199.00 .   We found sale prices as low as $850.  PreferredBuys price would of been around $650.00 Which at the time of this write up was far below any other price found on the web.

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http://preferredonlinesites.com/  = Is a Online Store menu which is attached to all of our pages.   Since online stores are often not part of the BBB the site works a little different.  Each store has been checked for 3 conditions which must be met before the site can be listed.

1)   The site was researched with the BBB to the best of our ability.  If a negative report was found the store was removed. 

2)   The Web site was viewed to ensure a logical design with quick response time.

3)   Each online store "purchasing / Billing"  has been evaluated to ensure they use SSL or another type of encrypted billing.  There are literally 1000's of online stores who do not. 

Finally once added an additional restriction was placed.  There are often sites which rank a online store.  The problem is programs can easily be written to provide positive feed back which is not deserved.  To ensure scripts or programs can not be used to boost a store rating.  Preferred Online Sites rates in reverse.  If we receive 3 negative responses with in a month there are no questions asked, the store is immediately removed. 

Most of our Merchant listing actually span a full line showing 3 cells which are clickable.  

The Far Left cell normally provides an Advertisement or a Search engine.  The information contained in the cell is provided via the Merchant as a courtesy to our site. PreferredOnlineSites.com has no relation to the Merchant nor any control over the validity of there Advertisement or results of there search engine.

The Middle cell normally contains a detail description of the Merchant.  The description often uses the words "US", "WE", "OUR" , etc.   In all cases this description has been copied directly from the store or from the letter providing permission for PreferredOnlineSites.com to post the Store Link or the stores advertisement on our web site.  The words do not apply or intend to apply a relation to these stores.  The sole purpose of the Text information is to provide you our customer with the ability to determine if the store meets you're current shopping requirements. By using there existing publicly published descriptions we were able to add them to our site with out creating a drawn out legal process to obtain authorization of wording to provide a Store description to our customers.  

The Right cell normally provides either Special or Promotions or if supported direct links to special pages which may or may not be available to non PreferredOnlineSite.com customers.  These links often go to; Current Specials, Top demanded products, the stores discount center or to a page which either will list or provide a search engine for current special promotions. The wording of these text links are not intended to apply a relation to these stores.  The sole purpose of the HTML Text link is to provide you our customer access to hard to find cost saving specials, promotions and discounted merchandise.

Home Page Specials

Our home page will often provide or display either daily, weekly or possible monthly specials.  These specials are provided to PreferredOnlineSites.com as a courtesy from our Merchants.  The information contained in the cell is provided via the Merchant as a courtesy to our site. PreferredOnlineSites.com has no relation to the Merchant nor any control over the validity of there Advertisement or results of there search engine.   If a pattern of expired or non stock products occur.  With Feedback  from our customers making us aware of the issue the store will either be removed from our "Home Page Specials"  or possible from PreferredOnlineSites.com in general. 

Links or Advertisement Approval

Prior to adding any links or Advertisements of any Site or store,  each store is confirmed to have encrypted ordering/ billing, a reachable Customer Service department with a good reputation and either a good standing with the BBB or no out standing issues on file with the BBB.   This information is normally obtained by the sites or stores which we have certification of these requirements published on there web site. If the information was unobtainable from there web site a Email verification was then required related to the Secured billing and Customer Service.  Each site Name and online recorded address were then validated directly with the Better Business Burro.  If we are unable to validate the store could meet our requirements, the stores are not listed.  Once approved the stores are not recheck for these conditions but instead there ability to remain listed on this site falls into the hands of the consumer.   

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Site  Disclaimer 

The information provided via the links is not guaranteed to be accurate, nor does the management take responsibility for it. The information comes from other sources and therefore may be wholly unreliable, and the management does not guarantee its suitability for any purpose.

PreferredOnlineSites management specifically disclaims any implied warranties or merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose and shall in no event be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special , incidental , consequential , or other damages .

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If Preferred Buys goes live management accepts all responsibility for pricing or advertisement prices which are displayed on and only on pages which show the PreferredBuys URL (http://www.PreferredBuys.com) .  If there has been an error on this page please feel free to contact us for either an adjustment or a refund.  Based on the error the Preferred Buys management will have the final say on the final resolution.  The Customer at any time can override that solution by returning the product undamaged  with all packing materials intact for a full refund.  If the customer has damage, lost or destroyed the packing or package content material then Management again will have final say.

Example 1:  A listed price for a new TV shows 249.99 when the charge price was 299.99 . Management may provide any of the following 3 options.   1) Preferred Buys will take the lost,  2) full refund and free return shipping of the product,  3) A mutually agree upon cost. 

Understanding our requirements:

http://ColoradoOnlineBusinessDirectory.com/ = Is a directory list of local Businesses which are registered with the Better Business Bureau.  Address, Telephone and BBB certificate reports can be viewed by the public.  With a single click of the "Map it" button directions to the Business takes only seconds. If the Business has a web site the web site may also be published.  Additionally if the Business wishes they may display monthly discounts or specials.

http://preferredonlinesites.com/ = In good standing at the BBB = BBB registration is a selective service, therefore not all online stores are listed as members at the BBB.  The wonderful benefit of using the BBB (http://www.bbb.com) is even if a store is not a member, when ever a complaint is filed the BBB tries to contact the store and resolve the complaint issue.  In many cases the stores either do not respond or reject working with the BBB.  If this happens the BBB then states the store has an unsatisfactory rating.  If this occurs the stores will not be listed on Preferred Online Sites Web page.  The only stores listed are those the BBB has documented to have a Satisfactory rating or stores that are not mentioned or listed on the BBB at all.   In the case of a store not in the BBB database.  Preferred Online Sites assumes the store has not had any complaints against them, therefore we allow these stores to be posted.  Always keep in mind if we receive to many unresolved complaints the store is removed.    At the time this information was added to this site policy statement (10/2/2005 (( Update 9/20/2006 still not a single complaint!)) we have not received a single complaint on any of our listed stores.

Encrypted Billing or Secured Billing = We ensure the stores either provide there own encryption or a 3rd party encryption related to all transactions during any ordering / billing.  It is absolutely critical that all store have some type of encryption on there billing pages.  If not your credit card can very easily be stolen.  Identity theft is happening through out the world.  It has become so bad in the last few years that there are complete organizations working together to steal your information.   Whether you use our site or deal directly with other online stores if you can't confirm they support encryption when ordering you should seriously consider other options.

Reachable customer service =  When this site was first turned up Reachable Customer service implied a CS department which could be reached 9 - 5 by a publish number.  After literally filtering  out 100's of stores to find stores which meet our criteria we have now extended this statement to include stores reachable via Email,  as long as they provide timely responses.  Additionally, to ensure the stores meet a Premium level customer service we have increased our filtering related to "good standing at the BBB".  When certifying the stores are in good standing, even if the BBB rates them as being in "good standing" if we see to many complaints related to there customer service the store is considered rejected.

A logical and well organized web site.  =  For each store we have listed the associated site has been viewed and evaluated.  If the site is not easily to navigate or if they have slow response via a standard high speed Internet Access connection the site is rejected.

Special Discounts / Promotions =  Based on the volume of clicks we send to these sites special discounts are intermittently provided to us.  When at all possible, the discounts can be found via the store "Discount / Promotion " link which is normally the far right column under the menu listings.  At other times discounted or Promotion items can either be found under the folder the stores are listed on and also on our main home page.

If the stores don't meat our criteria and yours the stores will be removed. =  This is where we are very different compared to any website we're aware of, related to ratings of there stores.   Instead of allowing a generic vote which may be made by either a human or any type of voting applications to generate responses in a certain direction.   We look not at the positive but at the negatives.  At any time if any of our stores receive 3 complaints in a month or reach 1% complaint vs. Clicks "amount of time someone clicks on any store ad shown at Preferred online sites" at any time there links are immediately removed.

Why can't we publish the list of stores which do not meet our criteria or which have been removed from our site due to not meeting the sites criteria =  Basically we take our store rating mainly from customers like yourself.  Unfortunately from our understanding your comments are actually viewed on a legal bases as "hearsay".  This means if we announced a store was unethical due to the following customers complaints, we could potentially be sued.  We would then have to subpoena our customers to prove why we published something which could affect the stores reputations.  Secondly if we pulled a record from the BBB and the store had a very poor rating and we stated this on our web site.  Based on affecting the stores reputation if the source of the information proved incorrect we could again be held liable for tarnishing their reputations.   After weighing all the possible affects we felt it was smarter just to remove the stores and forgo publishing any negative feedback.

 Exceptions to our standard policies?

There are 3 areas on Preferredonlinesites.com which host exceptions to our policy.  Exception to our policy means our standard checks have not been performed which includes all the standard checks listed on our Site Policy page.

1) Work from home business = Based on numerous request we have added a "work from home category". Due to the nature of these types of business our standard checks have not been performed.

2) Free fun links off our home page. = These links are strictly provided for your enjoyment.  PreferredOnlineSites does not recommend nor support any affiliated links which may be found on these web sites. 

3) Sponsor Link Page = This page has many URL's or web address of Sites and Stores who support PreferredOnlineSites.com .  This support could be as significant as donations or as little as hosting our URL  / address on there web site.  If these stores have been "approved"  you will find them listed on either our home page or menu system. 

4)  Listed TownHome and Condo Rentals fall under the PreferredOnlineSite policy = In most cases the TownHome / Condo listings are from private owners and not a business. They often contract to a Online business to accept payment but these Online business normally have no authority over the unit itself.  The business is basically a Marketing company who simply collects the payment for a fee.  Since these rentals are normally privately owned and are not a business they will not be listed on the BBB.   As with our standards if any complaints are reported the listing will be immediately removed. 

Aggregate Browsing Information 

The Site uses a third-party service provider to serve relevant ads on our behalf across the Internet and sometimes on the Site. This service provider collects and uses certain anonymous information about your visits to this and other web sites.  This anonymous information is collected through the use of pixel tags, which is an industry standard technology used by most major web sites. No personally identifiable information is collected or used in this process.

What Are "Cookies" and How Are They Used

To enhance your experience with the Site, we must use "cookies." Cookies are text files we place on your computer to store your preferences. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your email address or any other personally identifiable information. Normally once you choose to furnish the Site with personally identifiable information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie. At Preferred Online Site.com we never request any personal information and therefore no additional information is ever added to the standard cookie.

We use cookies to understand site usage and to improve the content and offerings on the Site. For example, we may use cookies to personalize your experience at our web pages (e.g. to recognize you by name when you return to the Site), save your password in password-protected areas, and enable you to use shopping carts on the Site. We also may use cookies to display to you products, programs, or services that you may find of particular interest. We may also use small pieces of code called "web beacons" (also known as "clear gifs") to collect anonymous and aggregate advertising metrics, such as counting page views, promotion views, or advertising responses. These "web beacons" may be used to deliver cookies that conform to our cookie policy.

 

How can Preferredonlinesites.com, ColoradoOnlineBusinessDirectory.com or PreferredBuys.com be contacted?

Normally the best method of contact is by using the Feedback form for all correspondence.  If your message is two long the following are other ways we can be reached.

Email: CS@Preferredonlinesites.com

          CustomerService@Preferredonlinesites.com

For critical issue please feel free to email the owner at:

          President@Preferredonlinesites.com

or feel free to write us at:

Preferred Online Sites

685 Arapahoe Drive

Monument, Co. 80132

Attention: Customer Service

719-494-3198