Quote: Originally Posted by
marigoldsue /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Just an FYI. This is from the FTC's website on mail, phone and internet sales.
http://www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus02-business-guide-mail-and-telephone-order-merchandise-rule
What You Must Do If You Learn You Cannot Ship on Time When you learn that you cannot ship on time, you must decide whether you will ever be able to ship the order. If you decide that you cannot, you must promptly cancel the order and make a full refund.
If you decide you can ship the order later, you must seek the customer’s consent to the delay. You may use whatever means you wish to do this -- such as the telephone, fax, mail, or email -- as long as you notify the customer of the delay reasonably quickly. The customer must have sufficient advance notification to make a meaningful decision to consent to the delay or cancel the order.
Some businesses adopt internal deadlines that are earlier than those set by the Rule to ensure that their delay notices give all customers a meaningful opportunity to consent to the delay. If businesses fail to ship or give delay notifications by their internal deadlines, they automatically cancel the orders and make refunds.
In any event,
no notification to the customer can take longer than the time you originally promised or, if no time was promised, 30 days. If you cannot ship the order or provide the notice within this time, you must cancel the order and make a prompt refund.
What a First Delay Option Notice Must Say In seeking your customer’s consent to delay, the first delay notice you provide to the customer (the "delay option" notice) must include:
- a definite revised shipment date or, if unknown, a statement that you are unable to provide a revised shipment date;
- a statement that, if the customer chooses not to wait, the customer can cancel the order and obtain a full and prompt refund; and
- some means for the customer to choose to cancel at your expense (e.g., by providing a postage prepaid reply card or toll-free telephone number).
- the following information when you cannot provide a revised shipping date:
the reason for the delay, and
- a statement that, if the customer agrees to the indefinite delay, the customer may cancel the order any time until you ship the merchandise.
If your first delay option notice provides a definite revised shipping date of 30 days or less,
you must inform customers that their non-response will be treated as a consent to the delay.
Thus, your delay option notice might look something like this:
We will be unable to ship the merchandise listed above until [date 30 days or less later than original promised time]. If you don’t want to wait, you may cancel your order and receive a prompt refund by calling our toll-free customer service number, (800) 555-1234. If we do not hear from you before we ship the merchandise to you, we will assume that you have agreed to this shipment delay.
(Many merchants add clarifying language such as "Remember, if you
want the merchandise,
don’t call.")
If your first delay option notice provides a definite revised shipping date of more than 30 days or states that you do not know when you will be able to ship, you must tell your customers that if they do not respond, the order will be cancelled automatically within the originally promised time plus 30 days.
For example, suppose you have a reasonable basis for being able to ship in 30 days and you have chosen to make no shipment representation in your advertising. Within the 30 day period after you receive the customer’s properly completed order you learn that you cannot ship in time and, although you believe you will be able to ship at some point, you don’t know when. Your delay option notice to the customer might look something like this:
Because [explanation of backorder problem], we are unable to ship the merchandise listed above. We don’t know when we will be able to ship it.
If you don’t want to wait, you may cancel your order and receive a prompt refund by calling our toll-free customer service number, (800) 555-1234. If we do not hear from you and we have not shipped by [date 30 days later than original promised shipment time -- in this example, 60 days after receipt of the properly completed order], your order will be cancelled automatically and your money will be refunded.
If you do not want your order automatically cancelled on [date 30 days later than original promised shipment time], you may request that we keep your order and fill it later. If you do request that we keep your order and fill it later, you still have the right to cancel the order at any time before we ship it to you. You may use our toll-free number, (800) 555-1234, either to request that we fill your order later or to cancel it.
Remember: You are required to explain the nature of the backorder problem only if you provide an indefinite revised shipment date. This explanation should be detailed enough to permit the customer to judge what the possible length of the delay might be.
You also have the option of seeking your customer’s affirmative agreement to the delay. In any event, you must indicate what will happen if the customer does not respond.
What Later Notices Must Say If you cannot ship the merchandise by the definite revised shipment date included in your most recent delay option notice, before that date you must seek the consent of your customers to any further delay. You must do this by providing customers a "renewed" delay option notice. A renewed delay option notice is similar in many ways to the first delay option notice.
One important difference: the customer’s silence may not be treated as a consent to delay.
A renewed delay option notice must include:
- a new definite revised shipment date or, if unknown, a statement that you are unable to provide any date;
- a statement that, if the customer chooses not to wait, the customer can cancel the order immediately and obtain a full and prompt refund;
- a statement that, unless you receive notice that the customer agrees to wait beyond the most recent definite revised shipment date and you have not shipped by then, the customer’s order automatically will be cancelled and a prompt refund will be provided; and
- some means for the customer to inform you at your expense (e.g., by providing a postage prepaid reply card or toll-free telephone number) whether the customer agrees to the delay or is canceling the order.
- the following information when you cannot provide a new definite revised shipping date:
- the reason for the delay, and
- a statement that, if the customer agrees to the indefinite delay, the customer may cancel the order any time until you ship.
If you have provided an appropriate and timely delay option notice and the customer agrees to an
indefinite revised shipment date, no additional delay notices are required.
When You May Cancel an Order Instead of seeking the customer’s consent to delay, you can always cancel the order and send a refund. In that case, you must notify the customer and send the refund within the time you would have sent any delay notice required by the Rule.
When You Must Cancel an Order You must cancel an order and provide a prompt refund when:
- the customer exercises any option to cancel before you ship the merchandise;
- the customer does not respond to your first notice of a definite revised shipment date of 30 days or less and you have not shipped the merchandise or received the customer’s consent to a further delay by the definite revised shipment date;
- the customer does not respond to your notice of a definite revised shipment date of more than 30 days (or your notice that you are unable to provide a definite revised shipment date) and you have not shipped the merchandise within 30 days of the original shipment date;
- the customer consents to a definite delay and you have not shipped or obtained the customer’s consent to any additional delay by the shipment time the customer consented to;
- you have not shipped or provided the required delay or renewed option notices on time; or
- you determine that you will never be able to ship the merchandise.
DISCLAIMER: I did not order this box and have no vested interest in this conversation. I just recalled that I had recently read this information somewhere and thought it might be appropriate to share here considering what I was reading in this thread. Personally if I had been effected, I would be choosing to wait for the box and not complaining, because I understand that sometimes things like this happen. And I find it hard to believe that any business would intentionally TRY to do something like this that would anger so many customers. [Plus I like the bracelets
]
Thanks! I will be including this in my paperwork with my bank and my next email to PS.
