Online Ordering Tips

The safest way to order online is only order goods or services from retailers and services you know and trust. Keep the trader's address, phone number, web address, email address and any relevant advertising literature etc together with a note of when and where it appeared. Details of delivery times and charges for postage and packing should also be closely checked out.

The seller, or supplier, must give you the following information in a clear, understandable way:

- Their name and (if you have to pay in advance) their address.
- The main characteristics of the goods or services.
- The price, including VAT and any other taxes.
- The cost of delivery (if there is one).
- How long the offer or the price will remain valid.
- How you can pay.
- The delivery arrangements (normally within 30 days unless you agree otherwise).
- That you have a right to cancel the order.
- The minimum period you are tied into a contract for an ongoing service (some mobile phone contracts, for example, often insist on a one-year minimum agreement).
- If they are using premium rate telephone, fax or internet charges.
- That they will supply you with a substitute if what you have ordered isn't available. If they do this, you should be told that they would meet the cost of returning the goods, if you decide that you do not want them.

After you place an order...
When you place an order, the supplier is required to give you certain information in writing (eg, by letter, fax, e-mail). At the latest, this must arrive when the goods are delivered or when the service is being carried out.

If you have been given all the necessary information in writing before you placed the order - for example, via a catalogue or magazine advertisement - you will not receive anything further. The information in writing should include most of the details outlined above plus:

- When and how you can cancel your order.
- A geographical address where you can write to complain if there is a problem.
- Details of any guarantees and after-sales services.
- How to cancel a continuing contract which has no fixed finishing date - or which lasts for longer than a year.
- If the seller wants you to return the goods on cancellation.

You must also be told whether it is you or the trader who pays for the return of the goods.

When the order arrives...
If you don't like the goods or have changed your mind, you can cancel the order. This is usually within a seven-day 'cooling-off' period.