European Union - Distance Selling Regulations
The European Union Directive 97/7/EC set down rules on the protection of consumers where there is no face to face contact between the supplier and consumer.
So what? you have got to comply with the law anyway, right? - well, not everyone does, and the directive effectively sets standards for Visitor Care. We are taking the opportunity to show that we meet these.
The purpose of the Directive is to increase consumer confidence. Businesses that do not comply may even be hiding behind the obscurity of the internet to cheat their customers - at least this is the view of the enforcing authorities. On top of that they probably are not giving their customers sufficient care and attention.
- You can read the full regulations here
- Or, you can read the UK DTI (Department of Trade & Industry) A Guide for Business - to the consumer protection distance selling regulations which you can find Here.
Information Before the Purchase
The seller must provide clear & comprehensive information to enable the consumer to decide whether to buy. This "Prior Information" must include:-
Sellers Name (& address if payment is required in advance)
FineSpeeches.com 89 Hay Green Lane Bournville Birmingham B30 1UP EnglandA description of the service
Wedding Speeches written by a professional public speaker and speech writer, and collections of jokes, quotes and toasts about weddings and marriage; many appropriately adapted for inclusion in a wedding speech. More details?
The price including all taxes
Prices are displayed in 5 currencies:-
UK Pounds Sterling
US Dollars
Canadian Dollars
Australian Dollars
Euros
You can also pay in any of these currencies. Exchange rates are re-calculated each night. Please note if you choose to pay in a currency different to your own "local" currency, then your credit/debit card provider may charge you exchange rate costs.
Delivery costs, if any
Delivery is made by the customer downloading from a link which is displayed after payment has been processed. As a backup we also send an email with a file attachment. Consequently the customer pays no costs for "physical" delivery.
Although the customer pays nothing for delivery costs FineSpeeches.com has incurred costs as soon as a customer makes any payment, these costs are effectively our delivery costs.
Arrangements for payment
We do make provision for customers who wish to pay by cheque, but we recommend payment by debit/credit card.
Card payments are processed by a specialist third party organisation, WorldPay, which ensures the safety and security for both customer and supplier.
Full details are available on our about buying page.
Arrangements and date for delivery
In the case of cheque payments, delivery is by post once the cheque has cleared.
Debit/credit card payments are processed, and a download page, displayed within minutes (usually seconds). The download itself should take between 2-5 minutes depending on the speed of the customers internet connection. The backup email will usually have arrived within 20 - 30 minutes.
Prices and Offer Prices - period of validity
Prices may be changed at any time at the discretion of the management.
If we do an "offer" price, or any other offer, we will say how long that offer is valid for.
All Pricing information will be visible on the buying pages, if there is no mention of an offer then, currently, there are no special offers available
The Right to Cancel
The regulations do not apply to ("provides exemptions for") certain types of goods and services. Our supply of wedding speeches is covered by Regulation 8(3) which means that once you have started using the speeches Regulation 10, the right to cancel, is superceeded by the "Refund Policy" described in these Terms and Conditions. This is the best way to apply the principles of the Distance Selling Regulations, in respect of digital downloadable products.
The full explanation below is provided purely for those people who simply must know!
The regulations give a consumer a cooling off period. "The aim of the cooling off period is to give consumers an opportunity to examine the goods or services being offered, as they would have had when buying in a shop". This 'Right to cancel' lasts for 7 working days. The effect of giving notice of cancellation is that the contract is treated as if it had never been made. On cancellation the consumer must restore the goods to the supplier and in the mean time take reasonable care of them.
As soon as the law gives these rights to a consumer, it takes some away. The rules do not apply to some kinds of business such as financial services, and land sales business; Some businesses are exempt from the cancellation rules, such as transport and catering, newspapers and magazines, perishable goods and CD/DVD/(some)tapes&software.
Digital download products are not specifically mentioned: which is (in my opinion) a bit of a slip up in a law dealing with internet sales!. The difficulty is that a customer might "restore the goods to the supplier" and yet still have received full benefit from the purchase. Consider a newspaper shop; it sells a paper to a passerby who reads it and 15 minutes later wants to exercise a right to cancel, he gives the paper back and gets his money back. The law recognises that in this case the principle of "the contract is treated as if it had never been made" is meaningless. Unfortunately digital products are not specifically mentioned in this way.
The solution, established after consulting with the Trading Standards Office and the Office of Fair Trading is to establish with the customer terms and conditions which replace the right to cancel with our refund policy. This is permissible in the case of services which begin before the end of the cooling off period.
Information After the purchase
When a purchase has been made the supplier MUST send to the consumer confirmation of ..... all the items listed above!
You will find all the necessary information contained within either:-
- The Speeches Pack installation, or
- The email about your processed payment from Worldpay, the paying agent, or
- The email from FineSpeeches.com confirming your purchase and attaching a copy of your speeches pack.