Thursday 15 April 2010

KitschenSink tip for Craftrepreneurs: Distance Selling Regulations

A friend of mine just bought something handmade online (I wish I could go into more detail, but, unfortunately I can't...) and wanted to return it because it ended up not looking as good as she'd have liked on her, even though in the photos it looked lovely and the piece itself was lovely.

She mentioned it was a good job she didn't buy it off the girl's Etsy page as she didn't accept returns there. Instead she had bought it from one of her stockists. Hang on a minute... she doesn't accept returns???

Erm.  What about the Distance Selling Regulations? I'm actually not sure if these don't have to apply when you're selling on a foreign (Etsy) site, but being clued up on the DSRs would be a good thing for any online seller (plus, this seller was from the UK selling to the UK)...

Surely knowing an item's true colour, texture, quality, etc, etc, is an unfair expectation on a buyer who is looking at just your (touched up) photos for reference. It's pretty poor customer service too!

xoxo

1 comment:

Matt @ Mattched IT said...

Absolutely true - and as a crafter - beware the DSRs too - ignore them at your peril.

We've been working (on and off) at a series of articles highlighting all the different legislation which can apply to trading online - and sooner or later I will get around to publishing them!