We have an online business card building business, and it often requires that a customer view an online "proof" of the card and accept it.
I'm of the impression that since 2000 simply clicking an "I approve this item" box in a form is good enough, but our CEO believes that we actually need a faxed signature or else our credit company has no choice but reverse any charge to a customer due to "unhappy with the product" claims.

Is there any good info on this issue? A Google has given me some pages with opinions, but nothing from any sources I can hang my hat on.

Thanks for any feedback!
Liam

You may want to make a system with a unique username and password for each of your customers. When the person logs into the system before seeing the design they need to approve you may put the terms and conditions of using the system and ask a couple of personal questions to make sure the right person is approving the design. After they aggree with the terms and answer the questions they will be able to see the proof and approve it, approve it with changes or ask for another alternative.

I believe that can be enough proof that the person has approved the design, I would however ask for legal advice to make sure you won't have problems later.

You may want to make a system with a unique username and password for each of your customers. When the person logs into the system before seeing the design they need to approve you may put the terms and conditions of using the system and ask a couple of personal questions to make sure the right person is approving the design. After they aggree with the terms and answer the questions they will be able to see the proof and approve it, approve it with changes or ask for another alternative.

I believe that can be enough proof that the person has approved the design, I would however ask for legal advice to make sure you won't have problems later.

wbpro has some great advice on this one, I would expand upon it and confer with the OP on the regard of a signature being required. It's typically just deemd a credit card or charge authorization form, basically client fills in their information and you have to indicate some information to the extent that they approve of the charge and so forth. It's basically just becoming commonplace recently (within the last 5-10 years or so it has become more prevelent with the increase in fraud risks these days), note that it is just an observation I have noticed and is not based on fact there (fraud risk/authorization forms).

It's something that will help you alleviate some risks in regard to fraudulent chargebacks, I would stress you be cautious in online business of accepting credit cards anyhow authorization form signed or not (there is alot of fraud going around in many forms in this era anymore).

Mechphisto, best luck to you in your ventures. Welcome to wht by the way (noticed your post count).

Thanks for the replies and feedback! =)