Mandatory agreement to T&C's before buying

[duncanda]

Hi, I hope someone can give me the benefit of their experience. I'm about to launch a retail website and I'm not sure whether to mandate that customers have to agree to my T&C's i.e. tick a box agreeing to them, before they can proceed to order or not make it mandatory. Does making it mandatory, apart from giving some protection, turn people away or not.

Thanks

David

[diamondgrl]

WAnything that delays a purchase is going to turn off customers. And this idea in particular will turn customers off.

Then again, if your T & Cs are unfriendly (i.e. no refund, reselling of customer information to spammers, etc.) then I would also think you have an obligation to make your customers aware of them. What did you have in mind?

[duncanda]

Hi Diamondgrl

I take your point about any obstacle to overcome will put some people off. The T&C's aren't onerous, in fact they spell out the customers rights to cancel, return goods policy, time for delivery, method of delivery, our contact details, etc. etc. They just ensure that everyone has an understanding of the T&C's.

[diamondgrl]

In that case, don't make them check the box. You will lose sales. My 2 cents.

[dwilson]

I agree w/ diamondgrl. Considering that most people who do check the box haven't actually read the legalese, I don't see the point in having the box.

[duncanda]

Many thanks Diamongrl and Dwilson.