Trading fairly guidelines

Some general guidelines for traders on meeting the Better Business Partnership commitment to fair and honest trading:

• Your business will be committed to providing a quality service to its customers.
• You agree to comply with the spirit and the letter of both the civil and criminal law relating to your business
• You will not seek to take advantage of vulnerable consumers and where it is necessary and reasonably practicable, you will offer additional assistance to ensure that all aspects of the transaction are fully understood.
• If necessary, e.g. in the event of any complaint, you should fully co-operate with any appropriate intermediary consulted by a consumer including Alternative Dispute Resolution providers
• You must not engage in any high pressure selling practices
• You will maintain communications with consumers and the scheme administrators.
• All advertisements produced in connection with your business will comply with all relevant codes of advertising.
• Where appropriate, you will provide, in advance of the contract, clear and accurate information on key terms and conditions.  Consumer contracts must comply with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and any relevant guidance issued by the Competition & Markets Authority, Chartered Trading Standards Institute or any other relevant body.       
• Full written information concerning the contract should be provided to customers on request. (This does not affect any legal obligation upon you to provide written contractual information)
• Manufacturers' guarantees and other forms of warranty are in addition to customer's statutory rights and you will not seek to exclude or remove these existing rights in any way. Where guarantees and/or warranties are included as standard in the transaction, clear and accurate details will be provided to the customer.
• Where additional guarantees and warranties are offered to consumers it will be made clear that these are optional and in addition to the consumer's statutory rights. Clear and accurate details will be provided including a clear indication of who is responsible for the guarantee or warranty.
• There must be no high-pressure selling of additional guarantees or warranties
• Completion/delivery dates should be agreed in advance. Where delays prove unavoidable the customer should be given as much advance notice as possible. Such dates should be communicated in writing. Where agreed delivery dates cannot be met, then suitable alternatives or appropriate remedies should be offered to customers.
• You will give clear and accurate information on any cancellation rights that your customers may have in relation to a contract, whether these are statutory or additional rights.
• Easily accessible and user-friendly after-sales procedures should be in place to ensure consumer requirements are dealt with effectively. Any charges in relation to these after-sales procedures must be clearly communicated to users.