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There is a piece of legislation that is becoming wider known each day due to sites like moneysavingexpert.com and lovemoney.com that potentially allows a customer to return an item that has fallen outside of its guarantee.

What’s the law?

The legal protection from the Sale of Goods Act 1979 states that goods must be:

• Satisfactory Quality
• As Described
• Fit for Purpose
• Last Reasonable Length of Time

Did it break in the first few weeks? Did it do what it said it would do? Was it strong enough for the conditions it will be used in?

The first three points are quite clear and a customer would be able to make a decision on their purchase within the first few weeks. However the last point – Last Reasonable Length of Time – can be open to opinion.

If a customer purchased a cheap MP3 player for their holiday, they might not expect to get years of usage out of it however if the customer were to purchase the latest Apple product, they would be slightly annoyed if it only lasted a year or so. If the product is still in its guarantee then they will have no problem asking for the item in question to be repaired or replaced, however, can they do anything outside of this?

What rights does the customer have?

In 2003, consumers benefited from a change to The Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumer Regulations law. Basically, if goods are faulty the customer can now return the item back to the store where it was purchased within six months and it is up to the shop to prove that it wasn’t faulty when first sold. Beyond this point it is up to the customer to prove that the item was faulty from the off.

According to the Limitations Act, a customer has up to six years after they bought a good to complain however as mentioned above once the six months have passed or the warranty has expired the onus is on the customer to prove the fault was there in the first place.

Who is responsible – you or the manufacturer?

You might have used this line before “Sorry, but you will need to speak to the manufacturer about fixing the fault” nice try but it is actually the job of the retailer to sort out any complaint regarding a product. Regardless of the fault, the seller has a legal duty to rectify a problem as the customers contact is with them.

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