Consumer Rights
Most of us have, at some time in our adult lives have experienced poor quality, suffered economic loss, been injured or generally felt aggrieved by the attitude of powerful retailers. You may choose to do nothing and learn from the experience, or you may decide to take action against the offending party by investigating your consumer rights and remedies.
Understanding your consumer rights is complex and at times confusing, but What Consumer is here to help, by showing you whether you have a valid complaint under UK law and what remedies you can rely on to put the situation right. There are several sections to this site:
- Consumer Rights explains how various acts of UK legislation and European Regulations affect you. Among many others, you can find information on Sale of Goods, Supply of Services, Consumer Credit, Data Protection, Misdescription and Travel.
- Consumer Guides contains more information on specific scenarios such as buying mobile phones, new homes, second hand cars, clothing and footwear. It also deals with thorny issues such as returning damaged or faulty goods, cooling off periods, dealing with dodgy tradesmen, buying online or making a small claim.
- Consumer News keeps you updated on aspects of consumer news and how legislative changes affect you.
- Consumer Forum: It goes without saying that you, the consumer, are a central feature of our site. As such we’d love you to share your views and experiences and offer advice on the forums to your fellow consumers.
Important points to understand
- In order to invoke your consumer rights under UK law you must be acting as a consumer – seems an obvious point, but you must be trying to acquire goods for personal use rather than business use.
- The first thing to be aware of is the difference between civil law and criminal law with regard to what has occurred. You may have been the subject of a civil wrong and only able to take action (sue) on your own initiative in order to have the matter put right to your satisfaction. This usually involves being awarded damages to compensate you for your losses. On the other hand, your complaint may be due to the organisation or supplier having committed a criminal offence, which is altogether much more serious and usually taken out of your hands by the enforcement authorities in the form of prosecution. Unlike civil action, criminal offences do not usually result in any benefit to you beyond the knowledge that whoever it was is now being punished. The majority of consumer law is civil law.
- Just because you are dealing with a large powerful retailer, it does not necessarily mean that they will always act in a lawful or an honourable way. This may be because the individual you are dealing with or the business as a whole is not aware of your consumer rights. In any event, arm yourself with a basic understanding of your consumer rights in order to get what you want and hold your own against unscrupulous or misinformed traders.
- A useful starting point in anyone’s general understanding of consumer rights is an understanding of the basic principles of contract law. Put simply this relates to whether a legally binding contract exists – because without one you are unlikely to succeed in any claim.
- Consumer legislation does not contain definitive descriptions or specific standards in terms of what you should expect. Instead it relies on concepts of ‘satisfactory’, ‘reasonable’ and ‘significant’ which can make it rather subjective. However, judgements will always be based on principles of reasonableness and proportionality in regard to whether you have a case and what you can expect in damages as a result.
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Moreen, I’m afraid the theatre will probably have in its small print somewhere that they reserve the right to make changes such as the one you have highlighted.
My mother would like to join a well known dieting club and pay monthly by cheque for her membership. This company tell her that she has to pay a month in advance online in order to qualify. Can this company insist on this?
Thank you.
Andrina Pearson
Andrina, yes, this is the way a lot of memberships operate. However, check the terms and conditions to be aware of cancellation policies and whether there will be penalties to pay.
Just bought a tumber dryer as month old but lost or can’t find the receipt. Phoned Adsa about fault. But they say can’t do anything without receipt. what are rights ?
John, you need something to prove a contract of sale existed between you and Asda, but it doesn’t need to be a till receipt, it could just as easily be a credit or debit card statement.
I was recently faced with a possible bill of £1500 on a three-year old car, one month out of warranty, for the replacement of a brake control unit on a Volvo v50. Do I have any rights under the sale of Goods Act? What are the chances of a successful action against the garage to get the repairs done free?
Del-boy, S.48 of Sale of Goods includes regulations which are European-wide. So yes, you have the right to get shipping costs back under UK and European law if the goods are faulty.
Clementj, please refer to the following sections on this site for your answer:
http://whatconsumer.co.uk/how-do-you-measure-quality/
http://whatconsumer.co.uk/buying-a-car/
I recently purchased some new bearings for a gearbox from my local volkswagon dealership, the parts were ordered in and i collected them. I compared them to the old ones and realised they were wrong. I contacted volkswagon and they say they will not exchange or refund them, is there any thing i can do?
Mike, unfortunately VW are under no legal obligation to refund or exchange, although it seems a little harsh that they won’t even allow you to exchange. It’s poor customer service and few traders will operate like this. If you ordered them over the phone you’ve got a cooling off period of 7 days, but not if you ordered them in the garage.
My daughter bought settees from THE RANGE ( Swansea branch) they were sold as leather..but in fact were pvc type material…within 18 months the pvc is peeling off leaving ugly white patchese and a number of cracks…has any one else had the same problem…we have been informed no other complaints have been made to them..
Rosie, if the suite has been advertised as leather but it is not, the retailer is breaking the law under Sale of Goods (not as described). Don’t be put off by the ‘no other complaints’ line, retailers use this all the time to try and put you off. if you have any documentation proving it was sold as leather and can also prove it is not, you can claim breach of your statutory rights and request a refund.
I just brought a new sony tv from a online website advertsing this as FULL HD and 1080p. But they have sent me the model but this is not 1080p and FULL HD as shown on there website,its 768 pixels. I happened to print the page off , where do i stand??
Wayne, the product was not as described, therefore you have the right to reject the item and claim a full refund (plus costs). Alternatively you could simply cancel if you are still within your 7 day cooling off period.