OFT offers guidelines for online auctions
PrintBe careful - it's a jungle out there
Posted in Music and Media, 6th April 2004 13:11 GMT
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As of today, the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) website has a handy guide to the dos-and-don'ts of Internet auctions.
The OFT has identified some common complaints about such auctions, namely:
- Late or non-delivery of items to buyers or non-payment to sellers
- Goods of lesser value or substantially different from the description sent to the buyer
- Failure to disclose relevant information about a product or terms of sale
Accordingly, it is warning buyers to:
- Make sure they understand how feedback facilities work. Feedback, when available, provides users with information about recent transactions by other users
- Check an item's description
- Ask questions of the seller
- Read the terms and conditions including those relating to any dispute resolution procedures offered by the site
- Do not be tempted to trade off-site if approached and offered a similar item to one that they have bid on unsuccessfully
More of this good, solid advice can be found here. ®
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