Distance selling regs

[dazed&confused]

Do the distance selling regs for the UK apply to Business to Business transactions in exactly the same way as Business to Consumer or not? I'm struggling to find a clear answer from the HMSO website.

Any ideas folks?

Cheers

[TraceyHand]

in a word, NO.
The Distance Selling Regs ONLY apply to Business to consumer transactions (unfortunately!)
I'm not sure if there is a B2B version??

[dazed&confused]

Ok...

In which case then, would it be a great way to win friends and influence people if we pretended it did?

[TraceyHand]

I assume you mean "we" as in you the seller?
I guess so! I know I've bought items from businesses before and they have been fine about it. I have to admit though that I don't know what set of rules or regs applies in the absence of the DSRs in these cases.
Fair Trading? Sale of goods? Not really sure, tbh, maybe someone else knows?

[dazed&confused]

Hi, yeah, sorry, 'royal we' there...

'we' as in me as the webmaster and my managing director and order processing people...

I guess if 'we' (see above!) afforded a business customer with the same basic courtesy and protection as we would have to afford a joe public consumer it might be quite a good way of leting people see we are serious about customer service... even as a B2B provider.

I'm going to ring the DTI up and get a definitive answer - then i'm going to tell everyone here what the deal is!

[tdw]

I was thinking about this issue too. I remember a couple of years ago my brother ordered a laptop from Dell for the business, he then wanted to cancel it but they said that as its a business purchase the regulations are not the same as B2C. Some companies have a straight no cancellation and no refund policy if its not broken on delivery on B2B purchases.