Returns and guarantee period

[newshopbloke]

Hi,

I havent sold online for about a year and will soon be up and running again. I have just read the dti's distance selling act and im still unsure of a few things stated below:

Cooling off / cancellation for any reason = within 7 days from receipt of goods.

Supplier is not legally bound to arrange collection and only has to refund postage if item is faulty or damaged on arrival (which requires refusal of signature), unwanted items do not require postage refund unless supplier wishes to do so.

All refunds to be dealt with and finalized within 30 days of refund request date.

Guarantee period - most of my stock will be paper and card and although I am a manufacturer I cannot feasibly offer a 1 year guarantee on these items so can I legally offer a 30 day guarantee in the same way as some other sites I have browsed ?

The whole thing appears to be a grey area to me after trying to decipher the clauses on the dti site.

Any comments would be great,

Cheers

[I-CC]

A 1 year guarantee I think is your sticking point, for which the general theme is your site should somewhere say "This does not affect your statatory rights ... etc etc etc", which basically means that the product being sold should be servicable for a reasonable amount of time, which if that is not met, then the supplier should replace it (FOC) or provide a refund (in extreme cases and if your T & C's are not well written)..

What is a reasonable amount of time... Well, it is all down to the product isnt it... Bag of apples, not gonna get a 1 yr guarantee even though the dti says it should, because it is a wide ranging guarantee...

Paper based products - hmmm - what would be acceptable for fading of the paper, 1 month - 6 months... who can say, and wonder if anyone has come back to an online stationery supplier and said I bought this pack of paper 6 months ago and it has been sat on my desk next to the window all that time without being used, but now has a yellow tinge down one side (from the sun not smoking too much LOL)...

You are right, it is a very grey area, and driven for the consumer, not the trader