How to Write Standard Website Terms and Conditions of Sale
The task of writing the terms and conditions of sale (the 'Legal Bit') for your website shopping cart can be a headache. We all come across those incredibly boring bits of small print daily which we don't read - it is just not inviting! We at TOPS have a crusade to make them both readable and inviting! Here we offer you a simple way to do this, by first summarising the legal requirements, and then taking a worked example of how this might look in practice. Please note that although this example was originally produced to take part in the Which? Webtrader scheme (sadly no longer in existence) and has been passed by a Scottish Solictor, you are always advised to seek your own legal advice before posting your website 'Terms and Conditions of Sale'. What follows are guidelines, not a legal document!
In addition to dealing with issues of credit card fraud, APACS have specified the minimum website content requirements for Internet merchants, as guidelines when you put together your shopping cart and add your terms and conditions of sale. The following are mandatory in accordance with card scheme rules:
- complete description of goods, e.g. if selling electrical goods the merchant must state the voltage requirement as this varies between countries
- customer service contact information, including e-mail address or telephone number
- return, refund and cancellation policy
- delivery policy
- country of merchant domicile
- transaction currency or currencies
- export restrictions
These additional requirements are recommended when you write your terms and conditions of sale:
- privacy statements
- identifiers that easily match the website to the "doing business as" name - in otherwords you should not conceal your real identity from customers.
- commitment to process orders promptly and sending an e-mail confirmation and order summary within one business day of the initial order
- up-to-date stock information
- commitment to respond to all customer service e-mails and phone calls within
two business days
- statements to describe transaction security type
- statements encouraging cardholders to retain a copy of the transaction and the
relevant reference numbers
Here is a sample of website standard terms and conditions of sale. You will notice that in the first paragraph below, we have tried to be as friendly as possible. This encourages the customer to continue reading the website terms and conditions of sale.
Policy: It has always been Dundonnell Smoked Salmon's policy to treat our customers in exactly in the way we like to be treated ourselves. Our toes curl at the sight of small print, but it appears that not only to add to our creditability but to comply with new legislation (EC Distance Selling Directive) we are required to offer you our own 'large print' version. You should note that your statutory rights under the current consumer protection laws are not affected (more probably enhanced).
In the following paragraph we follow the APACS recommendation to meet privacy requirements when writing website standard terms and conditions of sale. We also recommend you view our page on Data Protection Act Registration. Notice that we give the customer reassurance.
Data & Privacy: The information collected from you at the time you place an order (on you or those you gift to) will be stored in our database and is used purely to carry out your instructions and action your payment. There are no circumstances under which, this information might be passed to a third party.
In writing your website terms and conditions of sale, you then need to explain the process of how the goods will be despatched - clearly in some cases the order will be met off the shelf; on other occasions it may have to be made especially - although you no doubt will have explained this within your website - remember this is the legal side of it all. Do not make extravagant promises; let your customer understand the process.
Supply: We undertake to supply you with the goods described in these Web Pages or in our brochure by any date you might reasonably request knowing that our salmon has to be processed and posted. If you have an urgent order it is always advisable to discuss your requirement on the telephone 01349 866500. Some of our products are nearly always available for immediate despatch, those with a shorter keeping life may not. Unless we have specifically agreed otherwise, delivery will be as soon as possible and not longer than 30 days.
In these spam-laden times - the last thing any customer wants is to feel that having made a purchase from you, you are forever pursuing them to make more purchases. This is illegal without their permission, so assure them!
Contact: We will only contact you in connection with your instructions and keep you well informed should we have any difficulties providing you with the specific goods ordered, to be delivered by your date specified. We will not email you at all without your permission.
No matter how efficient we as retailers are, we all in the end rely on the carrier to get the goods to your customer as quickly as possible - often it is this carrier who becomes the 'face' associated with your company! Although you may go to great lengths to ensure that you have chosen the most cost effective delivery service, when it comes to country areas this reponsibility is often franchised to a local service who may not always deliver to your customer on a daily basis, and I personally would always allow an extra day to cover this eventuality. You need to make the customer aware that it is not you personally delivering the goods and that the responsibility does pass to another organisation over whom you have limited control. So you need to make this clear when writing your own "Terms and Conditions of Sale" without sidestepping the responsiblity.
Delivery: Obviously you the customer recognise that we do rely on Royal Mail's postal service or ANC Carriers (or other suitable carrier for overseas deliveries) to perform the 'contract'. We monitor the performance of our carriers continuously. Whereas we have so rarely had a complaint about the quality of our goods, there have been a very small number of occasions (less than 0.01%) when due to circumstances entirely beyond our control our goods have not arrived by the requested time. As soon as we have learned of this we have always offered immediate despatch of a replacement parcel - providing the selected goods are available for despatch. At the end of the day salmon has to be marinated, smoked, sliced and packaged beforehand. See also our Notes on Ordering.
This area of your website "Terms and Conditions of Sale" is quite straightforward. In some cases where your goods are perishable you probably will not request that goods be returned! However if you are not prepared to offer a very positive guarantee then perhaps you should not be selling that product!
Guarantee: In the light of the forgoing you will appreciate we feel confident that we can unequivocally guarantee your total satisfaction with our product and service. Again you should note that your statutory rights under the current consumer protection laws are not affected (more probably enhanced).
Perhaps of all your "Terms and Conditions of Sale" this the one section that might be read most often. It is the point often where you actually can make a customer for life - it is the way you handle errors that make or break this relationship. Never argue - apologise very sincerely and send a replacement / refund promptly. There might be the odd occasion when you are being had - but they would have to be very brass-necked to do it more than once!
Refunds: In the event of loss, late delivery or dissatisfaction with the product supplied and a replacement is not acceptable, the goods need not be returned (unless required by Royal Mail for their investigations) but a full refund will be sent. If initial payment was by Credit Card, then the refund will be made back to your Credit Card Company. If however payment was by cheque, then the refund will be posted to you by cheque promptly. Our major concern is to maintain our happy relationship with you our customer. If the goods ordered were a gift to a third party, the parcel is sent not only with your message but a note (and SAE) asking them (your giftee) to contact us immediately if they feel the goods are not in perfect condition or they believe the postal / courier services may have failed to deliver promptly. We suggest that we will attend to this without any fear of embarrassment to you. We feel this is what you the donor would want us to do on your behalf.
As you are well aware, you are not normally supposed to take money from a customer until you are actually despatching the goods unless you have had to purchase materials on behalf of the customer to create the product they are ordering - e.g. a stonemason buying a special block of stone. However, to reassure the customer, it is worthwhile adding this when you write your "Terms and Conditions of Sale".
Payment: Although our customers offer payment at the time of placing their order, it is our policy not to action Credit Cards or cash cheques until the week in which the goods are to be despatched. Many of our customers submit their Christmas Orders in October and their payment therefore, may not be processed for almost eight weeks. Payment online is through our own bank the Royal Bank of Scotland which is totally secure (BS7799 - Code of Practice for Information Security Management).
Although with a private purchase the VAT element is something the customer has to pay but cannot reclaim, there are extra costs that the customer might need to meet particularly with overseas shipments that should be highlighted in your website "Terms and Conditions of Sale"
VAT: Currently Smoked Scottish salmon is exempt from VAT within the UK. There are some countries where there will be some excise duty due - on the whole most countries do not pursue this on small quantities. When shipping via DHL they will apply whatever duties are applicable and if we know about this beforehand we will inform you - Australia is certainly a country where duties make it impracticable to send smoked Scottish salmon. Any duties payable will be paid by us to DHL. If these have not been taken into consideration at the time of placing your order we will contact you.
This is the one that I found hardest since it was not a situation that we had ever experienced. However clearly any complaint does need to be handled very promptly - otherwise your customer just gets more angry but you need to explain that there might be times when you are unable to deal with a complaint as rapidly as you might wish.
Complaints: Well we don't have a procedure - because it has never got to that situation in 20 years! Clearly we take any complaint very seriously and would expect to contact you almost by return - but at Christmas time this might lead to a delay of 24 hours. It is an all hands on deck (parcel packing) scenario at this time of year.
As smoked salmon has a chilled (stored below 5ºC) shelf life of 3 weeks maximum (frozen several months) then we would expect to hear from you within that 3 week period if you felt that your smoked salmon was not in good condition when it was received.
In this section of your "Terms and Conditions of Sale" you need to refer to the country's law under which you operate - Scotland differs from England as does Wales.
Law and Jurisdiction: Any contract for your purchase from Dundonnell Smoked Salmon is governed by and has to be interpreted under the Law of Scotland, and you agree that such contract will be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Scottish courts.
This was 'personal note' as in this case it somehow went against the grain to have to write down what was in effect a gentleman's agreement - to behave absolutely fairly. It is not an essential part of your website's terms and conditions of sale, but it does make the whole thing appear more friendly and informal, less off-putting.
Final Note: We suppose because we have always enjoyed an open and trusting relationship with our existing customers, it grieves us to have to write down what has just been mutually understood between us over so many years. In so doing it has somehow denigrated that good old British sense of fair play......
Any concern that you might have regarding security, privacy or complaint in connection with making a purchase online may always be taken up with my office. [this could normally be an email link or phone number].
To print a whole copy of these terms and conditions, you can access them from the Dundonnell Smoked Salmon website.
In order to find out how simply and efficiently our TOPS software can help you handle all the aspects of running your business, please see our presentation.
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