Ts and Cs with personality

There are lots of brands out there that think long and hard about their words. But more often than not, those pesky terms and conditions let them down.

For example, just pick your favourite brand. Go to their website and have a look at their writing. No doubt it’ll be clear, concise and conversational. Now go to the page with all the legal stuff on. I guarantee that it’ll be doing everything we tell businesses not to do. Legalese. Passive sentences. And lots and lots of words.

So, imagine my delight when I came across The Peanut Vendor. It’s a little vintage furniture shop in London that does their Ts and Cs with style.

They say things like ‘We respect your privacy rights. Right on. Any records on our customers are securely stored and are strictly private and confidential. Your e-mails and payment details are locked safely in our secure database and never get passed on to any third party organisations.’

And ‘If the item arrives damaged then it must be photographed on delivery and e-mailed to us within 48 hours. You must hold on to all original wrapping for the process to be completed successfully but we will fully refund you and then kick some serious courier ass.’

They sign off with ‘Thank god that’s over!’

What’s interesting is that they’re making all the legal points they need to make (so in terms of backside covering, they’re sorted). But they’re doing it while sticking to their tone of voice.

It just goes to show that you don’t need to stop having a personality just because you’re talking Ts and Cs.