Terms and Conditions. PDF OK?

February 11, 2008 9:00 AM

Terms and conditions for purchase on website - PDF ok?

I am in the process of setting up an extended warranty purchase online. There are certain terms and conditions currently in a PDF, with text and a couple of charts outlining warranty conditions.

Would it be fine to link to the PDF and have a checkbox indicating the users accept the linked terms and conditions? Or do these conditions absolutely have to be in another format (HTML, text?).

I know I can have both (it would be a hassle to convert properly), but my question is would it be fine to ONLY have the PDF?

posted by Blue Buddha to computers & internet (9 comments total)

It would make it more awkward for people to read if they didn't have the necessary software. I'd be less inclined to read the T&C if I had to open up another programme.
posted by Solomon at 9:03 AM on February 11, 2008

You could do it like Turbotax does (when it comes to printing the return). It first warns you that a pdf is coming in the next screen. Then display said pdf in frame with accept/reject buttons below.

Another option to skip the memory pig (pdf) would be to serve the same TOS as a FlashPaper (there's a 30 day trial at Adobe if you just need to do this one time). You'll still display the TOS in a frame with the buttons below but everyone has flash and it wont take forever to load.
posted by special-k at 9:05 AM on February 11, 2008

PS: an example here (full screen version here)

Scroll down a bit. You can see how your TOS would look in that screen (can be bigger), surrounded by HTML.
posted by special-k at 9:09 AM on February 11, 2008

I know I can have both (it would be a hassle to convert properly), but my question is would it be fine to ONLY have the PDF?

No. It's going to crash or hang people's browsers, because the Adobe browser plug-in just does that x% of the time, and then they won't want to deal with your store.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 10:02 AM on February 11, 2008

There's no reason to use a pdf other than for your convenience, which means it's a bad idea in this instance. You should put your customer's needs and ease first. Do the conversion.
posted by OmieWise at 10:15 AM on February 11, 2008

PDF is nice for things that your customers are going to print. Otherwise stick to text/html.
posted by sero_venientibus_ossa at 11:45 AM on February 11, 2008

There is no legal requirement for the terms to be in HTML in order to be binding.

But I agree with the other commenters that PDF is annoying.
posted by GIRLesq at 12:25 PM on February 11, 2008

There's no reason to use a PDF for this, unless you want to have exact control over the document after it's been downloaded (print format, etc).
posted by me & my monkey at 2:19 PM on February 11, 2008

nthing the case for conversion - disability consultants I've spoken to in the past have indicated that PDFs can be a real pain for people using screen readers, so you could also be alienating potential customers...
posted by unless I'm very much mistaken at 5:34 AM on February 12, 2008