On 1st October 2015 the Consumer Rights Act was brought in to help clarify legal issues around consumer rights and to help give customers the protection they need. In this article we will look at what those rights are and what you should be aware of when it comes to consumer issues.
Statutory rights
You may well have seen this in various forms and adverts. Essentially what this means is that if you return goods in the timeframe agreed then you should be able to get your money back.
Bargain prices
One to be aware of is if you see a signed photo that would normally cost £500 but the label says £50 a company does not legally have to sell it to you at that price (people think this but it’s not true).
However, if it is an advertised promotion and it turns out to be misleading then there may be a case (A leading supermarket recently received complaints by another supermarket because it claimed to “save money” on a shop but was actually comparing its own brand products against more expensive established brands which they considered misleading).
Digital content
Increasingly people are purchasing more items online and often these are not physical objects – they could be downloaded music, films or video games. This is one reason why these rules were updated so that people purchasing digital content had the same legal protection as people buying physical goods.
This means that as with a physical product you have a 14 day cooling off period when you get money back if you change your mind and you are entitled to repairs or replacements if the digital content is faulty.
Items
If you buy a faulty item in a shop you can get an immediate refund in 30 days, you should get a full refund in most cases up to 6 months if the item can’t be repaired or replaced and you could be entitled to some money back if the item doesn’t last a reasonable length of time (depending on what you buy this could be up to 6 years).
If you ordered the item at home the same rules apply as buying a shop.
Services
If someone provides a service and doesn’t complete the job (for example installing a bathroom) then you can ask them to fix the damage they caused or if they can’t repair to ask for some money back. Any price they give for services must be reasonable and if you haven’t agreed a time the work should be completed within a reasonable timeframe.
If you order services from home and change your mind you can cancel within 14 days and the rules are the same as services ordered at a store (damages repaired, prices should be reasonable and work should be done within a reasonable timeframe).
Get help
We believe in offering specialist representation while at the same time having someone to contact when you need them. If you feel that a company has mistreated you or did not adhere to their promises contact us today and we will be happy to discuss your case in more detail.