Sourcing Terms and Conditions for a UK ecommerce site

[pete_m]

I'm setting up a new ecommerce site selling widgets within the UK - average order value around £20-25. I've produced a number of sites for others, and I thought I'd try and make myself rich for a change ;-)

The returns policy and privacy policy were easy. My major problem is getting hold of a decent set of Terms and Conditions. I've had quotes from solicitors for anything between £500 and £1500 - both a bit beyond my budget at the moment!
I've also seen the sites selling fairly generic ecommerce T&Cs for around £25, although I'm not sure how useful they are.
The third option would be to cobble together a set from existing sites, but this isn't ideal for a number of reasons (breach of copyright being just one!)

Any advice would be much appreciated. Has anyone used the boilerplate £25 sets? How many people have created their own from scratch?

[dmorison]

Hi Pete,

Terms and Conditions are something that it can be better to have none of, than to have something you are not sure about.

Within the UK there is tight legislation regarding sale of goods that you cannot waive no matter how you word the terms and conditions; and legislation protects you also.

Before considering what you need; consider whether you actually need anything at all.

[Michael Anthony]

I would start with someone else's and then amend it where it doesn't suit your needs. I ran a £10 million travel business with a set of T's and C's that were produced in this way, never had a problem.

Let's face it, most T's & C's are going to look very similar anyway, and I assure you that whatever you use, there are no real copyright issues here that anyone's going to notice. This said, given the U.S. bias of ww, and their penchant for litigation, prepare for the above comments to be shot down in flames :)

[pete_m]

Thanks for those replies - I think I'll have a go at writing my own using elements from existing sites.

... tight legislation ... you cannot waive no matter how you word the terms and conditions ...

dmorison - You've made a good point there. I've seen a couple of competitors' sites that have "unreturnable" widgets - no Distance Selling Regulations 7-day cooling-off period, nothing.

I know why they've written this - their wholesaler (who is also ours) sells some supply-to-order widgets as unreturnable, so the retailer can't send them back. The retailer is unlikely to find another customer for this widget for a very long time, so it sits in a corner gathering dust. Tough on the retailer, but what can you do?