Shopping

You saved for months to buy that £400 designer coat, only to find it’s now rapidly coming apart at the seams. Do you still have the right to take it back to the shop – even though you’ve worn it every day for a month? While many consumers might avoid the over-the-counter confrontation and just get it repaired, in fact you do have the right to demand that the shop foots the mender’s bill. Wrenching satisfaction from unsatisfactory goods can seem like a daunting task, but in most cases there are clear laws and guidelines that shops have to follow to ensure a fair deal.

Before 1893, shopping in London was a cutthroat affair. Thanks to the spirit of free enterprise, there were few regulations governing the sale of goods and the general rule was caveat emptor (‘let the buyer beware’) which left the onus on the consumer for making sure that what they were getting was what they expected. But in 1893, help came along in the form of the Sales of Goods Act (amended in 1979), the first piece of UK legislation to look out for consumers, who were no longer at the mercy of unscrupulous vendors. Feature continues

General tips
If you’ve got a beef with a shop over a product that you feel is substandard…
Move quickly Not registering your complaint promptly can affect your rights. Let the shop know as soon as possible what the problem is.
Keep a log of correspondence Make sure you take the name and position of the people you speak to at every stage of your complaint, even if you’re speaking to them in person.
Follow up in writing Ensure your complaint goes to someone in authority; find out the name of the branch manager and address your letter to them.

Automatic seven-day online warranty
Over half of us have now shopped online – in the short history of internet retail, the most popular purchases so far have been travel, books, tickets and music. But the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found that plenty of sites are not as user-friendly as their fetching interfaces and homepages make out. Fourteen per cent of UK sites don’t comply with the regulation that they must have a physical address, while 40 per cent don’t tell you in advance about the additional charges that suddenly appear when you reach the checkout: always check for this information.

The OFT points out that if you shop online you have a seven-day cooling-off period in which you can return and get a full refund (including the original cost of delivery to you) on any goods you decide you don’t want, regardless of the website’s own stated policy.

To increase your security online, you can download software such as AccountLogon (www.accountlogon.com), which provides you with a single username and password for all your online accounts and encrypts any information relating to your web use. This gives you greater protection than you have when simply entering your credit or debit card details directly on a site’s purchase form.

Protection on items bought from auction sites
With companies such as eBay, buyers are not purchasing from the auction site itself, so as a rule auction sites do not have to accept responsibility if things go wrong with the goods. Legally, these sites are acting as a ‘noticeboard’, similar to those you find in a newsagent’s window. According to Consumer Direct, the consumer branch of the OFT, you have fewer rights when you buy privately.

Goods still have to be ‘as described’, but a seller who is not acting as a business is not covered by the rules on satisfactory quality and ‘fitness for purpose’. So, if you win an auction for a brand new toaster and it breaks three weeks later, there’s not much you can do about it – unless you can prove that the person who sold it to you is in business as a trader. The definition of this is quite loose: a ‘trader’ is seen as someone who regularly derives an income from selling similar items. So you might be able to argue that someone selling 100 toasters is a trader, but someone selling five unwanted wedding gifts is not. Consumer Direct is able to help with definitions – visit its website at www.consumerdirect.gov.uk.

When to use your credit card
Interest rates notwithstanding, you’re actually better off paying for goods with a credit card than by debit or cash, particularly for goods bought online, says consumer body Which?. The law ensures you get fraud protection with all credit cards – as long as you haven’t done anything that the credit card company thinks makes you liable, such as replying with all your credit card details to a phishing attack (a fraudulent email or replica website attempting to obtain your password and other private financial information). You’re also protected by law if you buy goods anywhere worth more than £100 but less than £30,000 which turn out to be faulty. While debit cards aren’t legally bound to offer the same protection, Visa does extend this, out of goodwill, for all its debit cards.

Returning items given to you as gifts
If you discover a fault or problem with a product that you’ve been given as a gift, you don’t have any legal rights to get the retailer to replace or repair it. It’s only the person who bought it who has entered into a contract with the trader – so they have to be the one to take it back. Some retailers, such as John Lewis and M&S, are more lenient and will let recipients return gifts.

Aftercare and guarantees on goods
You may feel it’s sod’s law if your DVD player breaks the second it’s out of warranty, but actually you might still have the right to demand a replacement, according to Which?. A shop or retailer’s guarantee is in addition to, not instead of, your statutory rights. Goods have to be of ‘satisfactory quality’ and ‘fit for purpose’ – the definition of which includes durability. While the reasonable lifespan differs from product to product, legally you have up to six years after purchase in which to pursue a case against a supplier if you feel you have a claim. Usually, if something goes wrong within six months of purchase, the onus is on the retailer to prove that it was in full working order (ie with no hidden defects) at the time of the sale. If they are unable to prove this, you are entitled to compensation, which can be either a full refund or the cost of the repair. Incredibly, you don’t even have to take the goods back to the shop – it’s actually up to the shop to collect them. For large items, it’s perfectly acceptable to write to the shop explaining you’re rejecting the goods and want your money back. Obviously you have to stop using it at that point – it’s no good saying the washing-machine’s unsatisfactory only for them to arrive to collect it while you’ve got it on a full rinse cycle.

Aftercare and guarantees on clothing and accessories
The same rule applies for clothes and accessories – they have to be of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose, says Which?. The definition of ‘satisfactory’ takes into account the product’s price and age, so you can expect a pair of Miu Miu heels to last longer than a pair from Primark. It also means that if something falls apart within a few weeks of purchase – not just the first few days – you have every right to take it back to the shop and demand a refund or the price of a repair.

Shops can refuse to refund or change particular items such as lingerie and earrings if they don’t fit or you’ve changed your mind; but if the goods are actually faulty, they are legally obliged to exchange them or give you a refund.

Returning items without a receipt
If you are complaining about a product that is faulty or has broken, you don’t have to keep a receipt as proof of purchase – a credit-card slip or bank statement will do. According to Consumer Direct, it is up to the trader to refund you in the manner they choose; most retailers will repay the money using the payment method the goods were originally bought with, ie cash or card.

Buying incorrectly priced goods
Sadly, says Which?, it’s a misconception that if a shop or website prices something incorrectly you have the right to buy it at the incorrect lower price. However, if a retailer does in fact sell you something at the wrong price, it cannot demand the difference at a later date.

Returning discounted or flawed items
You don’t have an automatic right to take something back bought at a discount because you don’t like it, says the Citizens Advice Bureau, but you still have the right to a refund if goods are faulty. If you bought something that was marked down because of a flaw, and the flaw was pointed out to you at the time of purchase, you cannot use this as a reason to demand a refund. It’s worth asking if a shop will make an allowance to return something outside of their specific sales policy, as some will make a special arrangement with you. If you are returning goods because they are faulty and the shop has subsequently reduced the price of the item, you are still entitled to a refund at the price you originally paid for it.

Citizens Advice Bureau www.adviceguide.org.uk
Consumer Direct 0845 404 0506/www.consumerdirect.gov.uk
Which? www.which.co.uk