Legal Verification of Web Pages?

JavaDuke asks: "I live in Australia and recently purchased a product via the phone based on information that I read over the Internet. Part of that information was a guarantee, '...can be returned as part of our unconditional money back guarantee.' I tried to return the product but was told that I was (just) outside of their '90 day money back guarantee', which was never stated on their guarantee page (which I checked just prior to calling them). The page was changed within 2 hours of my conversation with them to read '...can be returned as part of our 90 day money back guarantee.' Luckily, Google still has the old version cached, but the real problem I'm having is how in the world do I get these pages verified in such a way that they will then stand up in court?"

"Electronic Frontiers Australia is along similar lines, sort of, and do sympathize with my position. Australian Consumer's Association (Choice) aren't too helpful either. The closest thing I've found is a Justice of the Peace, but they only can verify if one (physical) document is an exact (physical) copy of another. Is there anywhere that provides a service that will legally say that a document appeared on a particular site on a particular day and was last modified on such and such a date? Or am I disadvantaged just because I've used the latest technology to read (incorrect) documentation on a product? Is there a need for a service that can independently verify the state of a document as it appears today for future use?"

Comments

Notary Public...

[ameoba]

Well, IANAL & I'm a USian, but assuming that the item is relatively small (under $2000 or so?) having a Notary Public/Justice of the Peace mark both the website copy & the cached copy, as well as the modification dates on both, and a copy of your receipt/invoice would probably be more than enough evidence to get things taken care of in small claims court. Actually, the offer of taking them to court to resolve the issue will probably be more than enough to get your way.

As part of the larger picture, contacting a Consumer Rights agency or the Better Business Bureau might be able to adress the business practices of the company as a whole.

As a note, I seem to remember something about unopened, post-marked envelopes being a cheap substitute for a notary stamp, but I could be wrong.