Keep your Christmas Celebrations Kosher

The email marketing system is a hotch-potch of possibilities and limitations. Each part deserves as much attention as you can afford and to concentrate on one aspect is to neglect the other. However, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has chosen this time of year to be concerned about legal restrictions.

The OFT has chided more than 50 retailers after it found that they were not complying with the Distance Selling Regulations (DSR) and other legislation. See http://www.oft.gov.uk/ .

There were a number of breaches which were common to all 50. These were:

1/ Unreasonable restrictions on the ability to cancel.

This would include the requirement that one needs to return the item in its original packaging. Such a limitation, it was felt, would restrict a customer’s ability to inspect the item. Those of us who have struggled to open a plastic container without the aide of a Stanley knife would sympathise.

2/ Failing to comply with minimum details requirement.

There are certain legal requirements for your website. These include the trading name of the company, and that of the service provider if different. An email address must be given, a contact form being insufficient on its own.

A geographic address must be provided which can be the registered office, although the latter is a requirement if it is a registered company. In that case the company's registration number is required as is the place of registration: e.g.  . . . is a company registered in England and Wales, company number ****.

A V.A.T. number should be stated whether or not the site is used for e-commerce. And there is more.

3/ Failing to refund the full purchase price.

Some companies did not reimburse the cost of delivery to the purchasing address when an order was cancelled. One can appreciate the impact of this when considering the imaginative postage and packaging costs charged. 

4/ Unexpected charges.

This is something of an old bugbear. The travel industry is an unending source of imaginative credit chard charges, booking and luggage fees being added at a later stage. We have all been frustrated by the fact that the amount at the base of the Total cost column bears little or no relationship to the offer in the marketing email.

It is never too late to discover if your procedures comply with the DSRs. The OFT is generally reluctant to use the full penalties it has at its disposal and is generally considerate of the fact that email marketing systems can be rather complex. A provable attempt to check for any non-compliance could well be enough to convince them court action would not be the most appropriate course of action.

Remember too that this does not only apply to email marketing. Mail order, phone, text selling, etc, are all covered.

Regardless of the low likelihood of being prosecuted, a customer unhappy enough to make a complaint, or one who just ends the transaction despite being interested enough to click through to the landing page, is a customer who is unlikely to buy.

   Aaron Bond

About the Guest Author:

Aaron Bond is a network marketing researcher with a keen interest in email marketing systems. His articles aim to provide valuable tips for online business entrepreneurs; helping to create strategies and take action to increase leads and cash flow. We suggest visiting Wizemail Email Marketing Company for more information.